The 1986 Brazilian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Jacarepaguá in Rio de Janeiro on 23 March 1986. It was the opening race of the 1986 Formula One World Championship. It was the 15th Brazilian Grand Prix and the seventh to be held at Jacarepaguá. The race was held over 61 laps of the circuit for a race distance of .
The race was won by local driver Nelson Piquet, driving a Williams-Honda, after he started from second position. Compatriot Ayrton Senna took pole position in his Lotus-Renault, but Piquet overtook him on lap 3 and went on to win from him by 34 seconds. Frenchman Jacques Laffite finished third in a Ligier-Renault.
Summary The new season had seen many driver changes, the most significant was Piquet's arrival at Williams after seven years at Brabham, while Keke Rosberg left Williams to join McLaren and Elio de Angelis joined Brabham after several seasons at Lotus. Senna used his influence at Lotus to ensure they hired a driver that would not interfere with his campaign which left Derek Warwick out of a seat, although that would prove to be temporary. Williams was missing their team principal, Frank Williams who had had a car accident in pre-season testing that left him a quadriplegic.
Senna led from pole position but was soon under threat from the Williams pair. Nigel Mansell spun off the track on the opening lap after contact with Senna, but Piquet was in the lead by lap three. As pitstops began it started to look as though Alain Prost (McLaren MP4/2C) might pull a surprise by only pitting once and snatching the win away from the Brazilians but that came to an end along with Prost's TAG-Porsche engine just past half-distance.
There was no threat to the Brazilian pair after that with Piquet retaking the lead from Senna after the latter's final tyre stop. Behind Laffite was his Ligier teammate René Arnoux. Fifth place was taken by the Tyrrell 014-Renault of Martin Brundle for his first official points finish since his debut season two years previously (Brundle had scored several points in including 2 points on debut in Brazil and a 2nd placing at Detroit, but had lost all points when Tyrrell were disqualified for the season). Gerhard Berger finished sixth in his Benetton B186-BMW on the debut for the new team which had taken over the Toleman team during the off-season. Philippe Streiff in the second Tyrrell, Elio de Angelis (Brabham BT55), Johnny Dumfries (Lotus 98T) and Teo Fabi (Benetton B186) were the only other finishers in a day of high attrition where Mansell had been the only non-mechanical retirement.
Classification
Qualifying Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap 1 12 Ayrton Senna Lotus-Renault 1:26.893 1:25.501 2 6 Nelson Piquet Williams-Honda 1:26.266 1:26.755 +0.765 3 5 Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda 1:27.406 1:26.749 +1.248 4 25 René Arnoux Ligier-Renault 1:30.563 1:27.133 +1.632 5 26 Jacques Laffite Ligier-Renault 1:30.175 1:27.190 +1.689 6 27 Michele Alboreto Ferrari 1:30.156 1:27.485 +1.984 7 2 Keke Rosberg McLaren-TAG 1:28.763 1:27.705 +2.204 8 28 Stefan Johansson Ferrari 1:30.363 1:27.711 +2.210 9 1 Alain Prost McLaren-TAG 1:28.467 1:28.099 +2.598 10 7 Riccardo Patrese Brabham-BMW 1:29.294 +3.793 11 11 Johnny Dumfries Lotus-Renault 1:30.452 1:29.503 +4.002 12 19 Teo Fabi Benetton-BMW 1:31.138 1:29.748 +4.247 13 16 Patrick Tambay Lola-Hart 1:31.429 1:30.594 +5.093 14 8 Elio de Angelis Brabham-BMW 1:31.682 1:31.074 +5.573 15 18 Thierry Boutsen Arrows-BMW 1:32.911 1:31.244 +5.743 16 20 Gerhard Berger Benetton-BMW 1:31.653 1:31.313 +5.812 17 3 Martin Brundle Tyrrell-Renault 1:32.983 1:32.009 +6.508 18 4 Philippe Streiff Tyrrell-Renault 1:35.669 1:32.388 +6.887 19 15 Alan Jones Lola-Hart 1:33.664 1:33.236 +7.735 20 17 Marc Surer Arrows-BMW 1:33.781 1:34.144 +8.280 21 14 Jonathan Palmer Zakspeed 1:35.199 1:33.784 +8.283 22 23 Andrea de Cesaris Minardi-Motori Moderni 1:37.835 1:34.646 +9.145 23 21 Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Alfa Romeo 1:38.165 1:35.980 +10.479 24 22 Christian Danner Osella-Alfa Romeo 1:39.389 1:36.558 +11.057 25 24 Alessandro Nannini Minardi-Motori Moderni 1:40.739 1:37.466 +11.965
Race Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 6 Nelson Piquet Williams-Honda 61 1:39:32.583 2 9 2 12 Ayrton Senna Lotus-Renault 61 + 34.827 1 6 3 26 Jacques Laffite Ligier-Renault 61 + 59.759 5 4 4 25 René Arnoux Ligier-Renault 61 + 1:28.429 4 3 5 3 Martin Brundle Tyrrell-Renault 60 + 1 lap 17 2 6 20 Gerhard Berger Benetton-BMW 59 + 2 laps 16 1 7 4 Philippe Streiff Tyrrell-Renault 59 + 2 laps 18 8 8 Elio de Angelis Brabham-BMW 58 + 3 laps 14 9 11 Johnny Dumfries Lotus-Renault 58 + 3 laps 11 10 19 Teo Fabi Benetton-BMW 56 + 5 laps 12 18 Thierry Boutsen Arrows-BMW 37 Exhaust 15 27 Michele Alboreto Ferrari 35 Fuel system 6 1 Alain Prost McLaren-TAG 30 Engine 9 22 Christian Danner Osella-Alfa Romeo 29 Engine 24 28 Stefan Johansson Ferrari 26 Brakes 8 16 Patrick Tambay Lola-Hart 24 Battery 13 7 Riccardo Patrese Brabham-BMW 21 Water leak 10 14 Jonathan Palmer Zakspeed 20 Engine 21 17 Marc Surer Arrows-BMW 19 Engine 20 24 Alessandro Nannini Minardi-Motori Moderni 18 Clutch 25 23 Andrea de Cesaris Minardi-Motori Moderni 16 Turbo 22 21 Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Alfa Romeo 16 Engine 23 2 Keke Rosberg McLaren-TAG 6 Engine 7 15 Alan Jones Lola-Hart 5 Injection 19 5 Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda 0 Spun off 3
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings PosDriverPoints 1 Nelson Piquet 9 2 Ayrton Senna 6 3 Jacques Laffite 4 4 René Arnoux 3 5 Martin Brundle 2Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Williams-Honda9 2 Ligier-Renault7 3 Lotus-Renault6 4 Tyrrell-Renault2 5 Benetton-BMW1Source:
References