British GP 1986
British GP, 1986
Jacques Laffite was due to equal
Graham Hill
's record of 176 Grand Prix starts and the popular Frenchman was hoping for a good performance at Brands Hatch as the Ligier-
Renault
had been very competitive.
Williams
celebrated the return of team boss Frank
Williams
to the F1 paddock for the first time since he was paralyzed in a road accident in March. There was considerable action on the engine front with
Ligier
announcing a three-year deal for 1987-88-89 with
Alfa Romeo
and Team
Lotus
negotiating for Honda engines.
The entry was unchanged from the French GP and in qualifying the two Williams-Hondas were dominant with
Nelson Piquet
ahead of
Nigel Mansell
. Ayrton Senna was third in his
Lotus
-
Renault
ahead of
Gerhard Berger
(Benetton-BMW), the McLaren-TAGs of
Keke Rosberg
and
Alain Prost
,
Teo Fabi
's Benetton,
Rene Arnoux
's Ligier, Derek Warwick's
Brabham
and
Johnny Dumfries
in the second
Lotus
. Laffite had a bad qualifying and was 19th.
At the start Mansell's
Williams
failed as he went into Paddock Hill Bend. He was fortunate however because moments later the race was stopped following a multiple crash behind him. This was caused by
Thierry Boutsen
losing control of his
Arrows
in the midfield. This bounced off the wall into the backmarkers and
Stefan Johansson
jinked right to avoid it. Unfortunately Laffite was alongside him and the
Ligier
had to swerve and went head-on into the barrier. Back on the track Boutsen was hit by
Piercarlo Ghinzani
(
Osella
) and by
Christian Danner
(
Arrows
) and the accident also involved the two Minardis, the two
Zakspeed
s and
Allen Berg
's
Osella
.
Laffite was cut from the wreckage of his car and then flown to hospital but his Formula 1 career was over.
It took nearly an hour and a half before the race was restarted and Mansell (in the spare car) followed Piquet into the first corner with Berger getting ahead of the second
Williams
in the course of the first lap. Mansell soon retook the
Benetton
and went after Piquet. Senna was fourth under pressure from Rosberg but the Finn went out soon afterwards with a gearbox failure and so Prost was fifth ahead of Alboreto.
Prost pitted early for new tires (his original set having been out of balance) and he dropped back while Berger went out on lap 23 with electrical trouble. On the same lap Piquet missed a gear and Mansell went ahead, to the delight of the British fans. Soon afterwards the third-placed Senna went into the pits to retire with a gearbox problem. The Williams-Hondas battled for the rest of the afternoon but Mansell stayed ahead to win. Arnoux had run third early on but a bad choice of tires meant he had to stop twice and so Prost took the position with Arnoux fourth ahead of the two
Tyrrell
s of
Martin Brundle
and Philippe Streiff, the Frenchman overtaking Warwick on the last lap as the Englishman had to conserve fuel.