1985 South African Grand Prix

South Africa  1985 South African Grand Prix
Race details
Race 15 of 16 in the 1985 Formula One season
Date 19 October 1985
Location Kyalami
Gauteng, South Africa
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 4.104 km (2.55 mi)
Distance 75 laps, 308.8 km (191.248 mi)
Weather Dry
Pole position
Driver Williams-Honda
Time 1:02.366
Fastest lap
Driver Finland Keke Rosberg Williams-Honda
Time 1:08.149 on lap 74
Podium
First Williams-Honda
Second Williams-Honda
Third McLaren-TAG

The 1985 South African Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 19 October 1985 at the Kyalami Circuit in South Africa. It was the fifteenth and penultimate round of the 1985 FIA Formula One World Championship.

The race was marked with some teams boycotting the event due to apartheid -- the segregation of blacks and whites -- and was the last South African Formula One race until apartheid ended in 1992. The race was won by Nigel Mansell in a Williams, who also took pole position.

The event was boycotted by several Formula One teams, namely Ligier and Renault due to mounting international pressures against tolerating the country's system of apartheid. French teams Ligier and Renault's boycotts were in lockstep with the French government's boycott and sanctioning of South Africa,[1] apparently doing so under pressure.[2] Most of the Formula One drivers, including Alain Prost, Niki Lauda and Nigel Mansell were personally very much against racing in South Africa, but the drivers held the mentality that because they were contracted to drive at every Grand Prix, they would race at Kyalami. [3]

Some governments tried to force their drivers from entering the race. Brazil's sanctions on South Africa nearly prevented Nelson Piquet or Ayrton Senna from racing.[4]

Finland and Sweden held similar reservations regarding Finn Keke Rosberg and Swede Stefan Johansson competing.[4] Sweden's National Automobile Federation had announced Johansson could not race in South Africa before the event,[4] but he did race.

Ayrton Senna changed his mind on personally boycotting the race, saying he would race if his Lotus team went.[5] It did and he did, retiring outside the points.

It was the final South African Grand Prix until apartheid ended, with FIA president Jean-Marie Balestre announcing days after the race that a grand prix would not return to the nation because of apartheid.[2] Even without the political pressures, this might well have been the final Formula One race held at Kyalami in its then form. The FIA had long since deemed that circuits where lap times were under 60 seconds were considered too small for Grand Prix racing and with car speeds increasing all the time it was reasonable to conclude that lap times from 1986 would be under 60 seconds (the same fate had also fallen on the French track Dijon-Prenois and would after 1990 claim the French Paul Ricard "club circuit". Kyalami had actually seen a drop in pole position time of over 10 seconds since the 1981 race and Mansell's 1985 pole position time of 1:02.366 was 2.505 seconds faster than Nelson Piquet's 1984 pole time of 1:04.871.

The South African Grand Prix would only return in 1992, after the apartheid ended, in a new configuration of the Kyalami circuit. Nigel Mansell, driving a V10 Williams-Renault, would also win the race when it returned to the Grand Prix calendar in 1992. [6]

Classification

Qualifying

Pole position went to Nigel Mansell, averaging 236.898 km/h (147.201 mph).

Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap
1 5 United Kingdom Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda 1:03.188 1:02.366
2 7 Brazil Nelson Piquet Brabham-BMW 1:03.844 1:02.490 +0.124
3 6 Finland Keke Rosberg Williams-Honda 1:03.073 1:02.504 +0.138
4 12 Brazil Ayrton Senna Lotus-Renault 1:04.517 1:02.825 +0.459
5 8 Switzerland Marc Surer Brabham-BMW 1:05.411 1:04.088 +1.722
6 11 Italy Elio de Angelis Lotus-Renault 1:04.611 1:04.129 +1.763
7 19 Italy Teo Fabi Toleman-Hart 1:06.083 1:04.215 +1.849
8 1 Austria Niki Lauda McLaren-TAG 1:05.357 1:04.283 +1.917
9 2 France Alain Prost McLaren-TAG 1:05.757 1:04.376 +2.010
10 18 Belgium Thierry Boutsen Arrows-BMW 1:05.079 1:04.518 +2.152
11 17 Austria Gerhard Berger Arrows-BMW 1:06.546 1:04.780 +2.414
12 22 Italy Riccardo Patrese Alfa Romeo 1:06.386 1:04.948 +2.582
13 20 Italy Piercarlo Ghinzani Toleman-Hart 1:07.800 1:05.114 +2.748
14 23 United States Eddie Cheever Alfa Romeo 1:07.159 1:05.260 +2.894
15 27 Italy Michele Alboreto Ferrari 1:05.268 1:05.757 +2.902
16 28 Sweden Stefan Johansson Ferrari 1:05.406 1:05.388 +3.022
17 3 United Kingdom Martin Brundle Tyrrell-Renault 1:06.709 1:05.649 +3.283
18 4 France Philippe Streiff Tyrrell-Renault 1:07.935 1:06.205 +3.839
19 29 Italy Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Motori Moderni 1:10.025 1:08.658 +6.292
20 24 Netherlands Huub Rothengatter Osella-Alfa Romeo 1:09.904 1:09.873 +7.507
DNS 33 Australia Alan Jones Lola-Hart 1:07.144 1:05.731 +3.365

Race

Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 5 United Kingdom Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda 75 1:28:22.866 1 9
2 6 Finland Keke Rosberg Williams-Honda 75 + 7.572 3 6
3 2 France Alain Prost McLaren-TAG 74 + 1 Lap 9 4
4 28 Sweden Stefan Johansson Ferrari 74 + 1 Lap 16 3
5 17 Austria Gerhard Berger Arrows-BMW 74 + 1 Lap 11 2
6 18 Belgium Thierry Boutsen Arrows-BMW 74 + 1 Lap 10 1
7 3 United Kingdom Martin Brundle Tyrrell-Renault 73 + 2 Laps 17  
Ret 11 Italy Elio de Angelis Lotus-Renault 52 Engine 6  
Ret 29 Italy Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Motori Moderni 45 Radiator 20  
Ret 1 Austria Niki Lauda McLaren-TAG 37 Turbo 8  
Ret 4 France Philippe Streiff Tyrrell-Renault 16 Accident 19  
Ret 12 Brazil Ayrton Senna Lotus-Renault 8 Engine 4  
Ret 27 Italy Michele Alboreto Ferrari 8 Turbo 15  
Ret 7 Brazil Nelson Piquet Brabham-BMW 6 Engine 2  
Ret 20 Italy Piercarlo Ghinzani Toleman-Hart 4 Engine 13  
Ret 19 Italy Teo Fabi Toleman-Hart 3 Engine 7  
Ret 8 Switzerland Marc Surer Brabham-BMW 3 Engine 5  
Ret 24 Netherlands Huub Rothengatter Osella-Alfa Romeo 1 Electrical 21  
Ret 22 Italy Riccardo Patrese Alfa Romeo 0 Collision 12  
Ret 23 United States Eddie Cheever Alfa Romeo 0 Collision 14  
DNS 33 Australia Alan Jones Lola-Hart Unwell 18  
Source:[7]

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings
Pos Driver Points
1 France Alain Prost 73 (76)
2 Italy Michele Alboreto 53
3 Brazil Ayrton Senna 38
4 Italy Elio de Angelis 33
5 United Kingdom Nigel Mansell 31

Constructors' Championship standings
Pos Constructor Points
1 United Kingdom McLaren-TAG 90
2 Italy Ferrari 80
3 United Kingdom Lotus-Renault 71
4 United Kingdom Williams-Honda 62
5 United Kingdom Brabham-BMW 26

References

  1. Walker, Rob (February 1986). "Tiger, Tiger". Road & Track. New York, United States: Hachette Filipacchi Médias. 37 (6): 122.
  2. 1 2 Paskman, Ken (1985-10-24). "Auto Racing". Orlando Sentinel. Orlando, Florida, United States: Tribune Company (3 Star Edition): B.2.
  3. "1985 South African Grand Prix flashback". 5 February 2008. Retrieved 19 December 2014.
  4. 1 2 3 Martin, Gordon (1985-09-17). "The Apartheid Controversy Reaches Formula 1 Racing". San Francisco Chronicle. San Francisco, California, United States: Hearst Communications (Final Edition): 63.
  5. "Injury shelves Lauda". The Gazette. Montreal, Quebec, Canada: CanWest Global Communications (Final Edition): C.12. 1985-09-27.
  6. "GRAND PRIX RESULTS: SOUTH AFRICAN GP, 1992". Retrieved 19 December 2014.
  7. "1985 South African Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 18 February 2014. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
Previous race:
1985 European Grand Prix
FIA Formula One World Championship
1985 season
Next race:
1985 Australian Grand Prix
Previous race:
1984 South African Grand Prix
South African Grand Prix Next race:
1992 South African Grand Prix
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