1986 Italian Grand Prix

  1986 Italian Grand Prix

Race details
Race 13 of 16 in the 1986 Formula One season
Date	September 7, 1986
Official name	L Gran Premio d'Italia
Location	Autodromo Nazionale Monza, Monza
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	5.800 km (3.60 mi)
Distance	51 laps, 295.800 km (183.600 mi)
Weather	Dry
Pole position
Driver	Teo Fabi	Benetton-BMW
Time	1:24.078
Fastest lap
Driver	Teo Fabi	Benetton-BMW
Time	1:28.099 on lap 35
Podium
First	Nelson Piquet	Williams-Honda
Second	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Honda
Third	Stefan Johansson	Ferrari

The 1986 Italian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Monza on September 7, 1986.

Qualifying

During the 2nd Qualifying session at Monza, Gerhard Berger's Benetton B186-BMW was speed trapped fastest of all cars at 352.22 km/h (219 mph), while team mate Teo Fabi was second having been clocked at 349.85 km/h (217 mph) on the long front straight. Interestingly, Berger's speed wasn't recorded on his fastest lap. The top 5 cars through the speed trap, the two Benettons, the two Brabhams (Derek Warwick and Riccardo Patrese), and the Arrows of Thierry Boutsen, were all powered by BMW. The fastest non-BMW powered car was the Williams-Honda of Nigel Mansell who was 10 km/h (6 mph) slower than Berger (as was Boutsen). In comparison, the Lola-Ford's of Patrick Tambay and Alan Jones were barely hitting 200 mph (322 km/h), slower than the Zakspeed of Jonathan Palmer and the Minardi-Motori Moderni of Alessandro Nannini.

Despite Patrese qualifying 4th in Austria and Warwick's car being the fastest through the speed trap at the Österreichring, the speed of the Brabhams surprised some in the paddock as the lowline design of Gordon Murray's Brabham BT55 had been seen as somewhat of a failure after dismal results. However, as Murray continually pointed out, the problems with the BT55 were engine and gearbox related and not because of the car's design (the normally upright 4 cyl engine was tilted 18° from horizontal which created oil surge and made worse the already poor throttle response of the BMW). The top speed achieved by Warwick (347 km/h (216 mph)) again showed that the concept worked as it created downforce but did not increase drag and hinder top speed and once again on a high speed circuit, the Brabhams were relatively high up on the grid with Warwick 7th and Patrese 10th.

Fabi scored his second pole position in succession when he lapped the 5.8 km circuit in 1:24.078 giving Benetton their first back-to-back pole positions. In a surprising 2nd on the grid at the noted power circuit was the McLaren-TAG Porsche of World Champion Alain Prost, despite being almost 20 km/h (12 mph) slower than the Benettons on Monza's long straights. Prost's lap of 1:25.014 showed that even at a power circuit such as Monza, a well set up car was still a crucial factor. Third was World Championship leader Nigel Mansell in his Williams-Honda with Berger's Benetton in 4th place. Brazilian pair Ayrton Senna (Lotus-Renault) and Nelson Piquet (Williams-Honda) rounded out the top six qualifiers. Michele Alboreto, after missing the first day of qualifying because of an injured arm (either through falling in his hotel bathroom or falling off his motorbike, whichever story you believed) was the fastest of the Ferraris in 9th place, 1.417 seconds slower than Fabi.

With one new car taking the entry to 27 for only this and the next race in Portugal, FISA allowed all cars to start, and the beneficiary was Alex Caffi who started 27th in the Osella-Alfa Romeo. The new car was the French AGS of Ivan Capelli. He qualified the Motori Moderni powered car 25th ahead of both Osellas. For Caffi, who for this race only was taking the place of Canada's Allen Berg, it would be his Formula One début while Capelli was returning to F1 after 3 races with Tyrrell at the end of 1985.

Race

Following problems at the start of the parade lap, pole position man Teo Fabi was forced to start from the back of the grid and Alain Prost, alongside him on the front row, had to start from the pit lane in the spare car. At the green light, Gerhard Berger took the lead, but on lap 8 lost positions to first Mansell, Piquet and an on-form Alboreto in the Ferrari. Ayrton Senna was out with a broken gearbox at the start. Alboreto looked to be in challenging the Williams duo for the lead having overtaken Rosberg, Arnoux and Berger before spinning at the exit of the first chicane. Like the British Grand Prix, the race became a close fight between the two Williams drivers, but this time Piquet hunted down his teammate British driver Nigel Mansell to take victory. Piquet defeated Mansell in a straight fight, leading the British home by 9.828 seconds. The Brazilian managed to pass Mansell at the Curva Grande to go on and claim his fourth win of the season. Behind, Fabi and Prost had charged from the rear and by lap 12 were running 8th and 9th. Prost was disqualified for changing cars after the start of the parade lap, but his engine blew a lap after he was flagged anyway. Johansson charged early in the race, passing Rosberg and Arnoux on lap 5 to go on to finish third.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Gap
1	19	Teo Fabi	Benetton-BMW	1:26.019	1:24.078	—
2	1	Alain Prost	McLaren-TAG	1:26.885	1:24.514	+0.436
3	5	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Honda	1:26.181	1:24.882	+0.804
4	20	Gerhard Berger	Benetton-BMW	1:25.580	1:24.885	+0.807
5	12	Ayrton Senna	Lotus-Renault	1:25.363	1:24.916	+0.838
6	6	Nelson Piquet	Williams-Honda	1:26.614	1:25.137	+1.059
7	8	Derek Warwick	Brabham-BMW	7:12.970	1:25.175	+1.097
8	2	Keke Rosberg	McLaren-TAG	1:26.742	1:25.378	+1.300
9	27	Michele Alboreto	Ferrari		1:25.549	+1.471
10	7	Riccardo Patrese	Brabham-BMW	1:27.438	1:26.111	+2.033
11	25	René Arnoux	Ligier-Renault	1:27.928	1:26.187	+2.109
12	28	Stefan Johansson	Ferrari	1:26.517	1:26.422	+2.344
13	18	Thierry Boutsen	Arrows-BMW	1:28.051	1:26.754	+2.676
14	26	Philippe Alliot	Ligier-Renault	1:27.287	1:27.269	+3.191
15	16	Patrick Tambay	Lola-Ford	1:29.744	1:27.808	+3.730
16	17	Christian Danner	Arrows-BMW	1:30.397	1:27.923	+3.845
17	11	Johnny Dumfries	Lotus-Renault	1:28.857	1:28.024	+3.946
18	15	Alan Jones	Lola-Ford	7:40.132	1:28.403	+3.965
19	24	Alessandro Nannini	Minardi-Motori Moderni	1:29.239	1:28.690	+4.612
20	3	Martin Brundle	Tyrrell-Renault	1:31.266	1:29.125	+5.047
21	23	Andrea de Cesaris	Minardi-Motori Moderni	1:31.375	1:29.561	+5.483
22	14	Jonathan Palmer	Zakspeed	1:32.064	1:29.659	+5.581
23	4	Philippe Streiff	Tyrrell-Renault	1:30.199	1:30.976	+6.121
24	29	Huub Rothengatter	Zakspeed	1:32.726	1:30.904	+6.826
25	31	Ivan Capelli	AGS-Motori Moderni	58:12.143	1:33.844	+9.766
26	21	Piercarlo Ghinzani	Osella-Alfa Romeo	1:36.128	1:36.334	+12.050
27	22	Alex Caffi	Osella-Alfa Romeo	1:36.900	1:38.493	+12.822

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	6	Nelson Piquet	Williams-Honda	51	1:17:42.889	6	9
2	5	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Honda	51	+ 9.828	3	6
3	28	Stefan Johansson	Ferrari	51	+ 22.915	12	4
4	2	Keke Rosberg	McLaren-TAG	51	+ 53.809	8	3
5	20	Gerhard Berger	Benetton-BMW	50	+ 1 Lap	4	2
6	15	Alan Jones	Lola-Ford	49	+ 2 Laps	18	1
7	18	Thierry Boutsen	Arrows-BMW	49	+ 2 Laps	13
8	17	Christian Danner	Arrows-BMW	49	+ 2 Laps	16
9	4	Philippe Streiff	Tyrrell-Renault	49	+ 2 Laps	23
10	3	Martin Brundle	Tyrrell-Renault	49	+ 2 Laps	20
NC	22	Alex Caffi	Osella-Alfa Romeo	45	Not Classified	27
Ret	19	Teo Fabi	Benetton-BMW	44	Puncture	1
Ret	27	Michele Alboreto	Ferrari	33	Engine	9
Ret	23	Andrea de Cesaris	Minardi-Motori Moderni	33	Engine	21
Ret	31	Ivan Capelli	AGS-Motori Moderni	31	Puncture	25
Ret	25	René Arnoux	Ligier-Renault	30	Gearbox	11
Ret	14	Jonathan Palmer	Zakspeed	27	Engine	22
DSQ	1	Alain Prost	McLaren-TAG	27	Disqualified	2
Ret	26	Philippe Alliot	Ligier-Renault	22	Engine	14
Ret	11	Johnny Dumfries	Lotus-Renault	18	Gearbox	17
Ret	8	Derek Warwick	Brabham-BMW	16	Spun Off	7
Ret	24	Alessandro Nannini	Minardi-Motori Moderni	15	Electrical	19
Ret	21	Piercarlo Ghinzani	Osella-Alfa Romeo	12	Suspension	26
Ret	16	Patrick Tambay	Lola-Ford	2	Accident	15
Ret	7	Riccardo Patrese	Brabham-BMW	2	Accident	10
Ret	29	Huub Rothengatter	Zakspeed	1	Engine	24
Ret	12	Ayrton Senna	Lotus-Renault	0	Transmission	5
Source:

Lap Leaders

Gerhard Berger 8 (1-6, 25-26), Nigel Mansell 29 (7-24, 27-37), Nelson Piquet 14 (38-51)

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Nigel Mansell	61
2	Nelson Piquet	56
3	Alain Prost	53
4	Ayrton Senna	48
5	Keke Rosberg	22

Constructors' Championship standings

Pos	Constructor	Points
1	Williams-Honda	117
2	McLaren-TAG	75
3	Lotus-Renault	50
4	Ferrari	30
5	Ligier-Renault	28

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

Previous race: 1986 Austrian Grand Prix	FIA Formula One World Championship 1986 season	Next race: 1986 Portuguese Grand Prix
Previous race: 1985 Italian Grand Prix	Italian Grand Prix	Next race: 1987 Italian Grand Prix

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