The 1986 Italian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Monza on 7 September 1986. It was the thirteenth race of the 1986 Formula One World Championship.
The 51-lap race was won by Brazilian driver Nelson Piquet, driving a Williams-Honda. Piquet's British teammate and Drivers' Championship rival, Nigel Mansell, finished second, with Swede Stefan Johansson third in a Ferrari. The other two championship challengers, Frenchman Alain Prost and Brazilian Ayrton Senna, both failed to finish, Senna suffering a transmission failure in his Lotus-Renault at the very start of the race and Prost being disqualified halfway through for illegally switching to his spare McLaren-TAG after the start of the formation lap.
The win moved Piquet into second place in the Drivers' Championship, five points behind Mansell and three ahead of Prost, with three races remaining.
Qualifying report During the second qualifying session at Monza, the Benetton-BMW of Gerhard Berger was recorded as being the fastest car along the start-finish straight, with a top speed of . He was followed by four more BMW-powered cars: teammate Teo Fabi, the Brabhams of Derek Warwick and Riccardo Patrese, and the Arrows of Thierry Boutsen. The fastest non-BMW powered car was the Williams-Honda of Nigel Mansell, with a top speed slower than that of Berger.
Despite this, Berger could only qualify fourth, while Fabi took his second consecutive pole position. Alain Prost lined up alongside Fabi on the front row, despite being nearly half a second slower in his McLaren-TAG and recording a top speed over slower than Berger's. Drivers' Championship leader Mansell was third, ahead of Berger, while Brazilian pair Ayrton Senna (Lotus-Renault) and Nelson Piquet (Williams-Honda) made up the third row. The top 10 was completed by Warwick, Keke Rosberg in the second McLaren, Michele Alboreto in the Ferrari and Patrese; Alboreto's position was notable as he had missed the first day of qualifying after injuring his arm in a motorcycle crash.
The race saw the debut of local driver Alex Caffi, deputising for Allen Berg at Osella, as well as the debut of the French AGS team, whose Motori Moderni-powered JH21C was driven by another local driver, Ivan Capelli. With the number of entries increased to 27 at both this race and the next race in Portugal, FISA decided to allow all the cars to start. Caffi was the beneficiary of this decision, starting 27th behind Capelli and Osella teammate Piercarlo Ghinzani.1986 Italian Grand Prix - Turbos and Tantrums
Qualifying classification 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 no time 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 report Following problems at the start of the formation 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 eight 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 the victory. Piquet defeated Mansell in a straight fight, leading the Briton 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 formation lap, which was illegal, but his engine blew up a lap after he was flagged anyway. Johansson charged early in the race, passing Rosberg and Arnoux on lap five to go on to finish third. Berger survived to finish 5th one lap down, while Alan Jones scored the final point in the Haas team's anniversary race having made their F1 debut in Italy in .
Race classification 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 22 Alex Caffi Osella-Alfa Romeo 45 + 6 laps 27 19 Teo Fabi Benetton-BMW 44 Puncture 1 27 Michele Alboreto Ferrari 33 Engine 9 23 Andrea de Cesaris Minardi-Motori Moderni 33 Engine 21 31 Ivan Capelli AGS-Motori Moderni 31 Puncture 25 25 René Arnoux Ligier-Renault 30 Gearbox 11 14 Jonathan Palmer Zakspeed 27 Engine 22 1 Alain Prost McLaren-TAG 27 Illegal car change 2 26 Philippe Alliot Ligier-Renault 22 Engine 14 11 Johnny Dumfries Lotus-Renault 18 Gearbox 17 8 Derek Warwick Brabham-BMW 16 Spun off 7 24 Alessandro Nannini Minardi-Motori Moderni 15 Electrical 19 21 Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Alfa Romeo 12 Suspension 26 16 Patrick Tambay Lola-Ford 2 Accident 15 7 Riccardo Patrese Brabham-BMW 2 Accident 10 29 Huub Rothengatter Zakspeed 1 Engine 24 12 Ayrton Senna Lotus-Renault 0 Transmission 5
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 22Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Williams-Honda 117 2 McLaren-TAG 75 3 Lotus-Renault 50 4 Ferrari 30 5 Ligier-Renault 28Source:
References