|
Race
 The
race was cool but clear, and fuel consumption was the main topic of
conversation - only Imola really matched Montreal in this respect, and
that race had seen two leaders drop out in the closing stages, and the
first man across the line disqualified. For now, though, the Lotus cars
were once again off the grid beautifully, de Angelis successfully beating
Senna to the first corner. Warwick leapt up to fourth between Alboreto
and Johansson, with Prost and Rosberg next. Piquet, who had won here
in 1984 after a wretched start to the season, had no such salvation
this time, his Brabham's transmission breaking as he crossed the line.
 The
Lotus cars pulled away convincingly early on, while Warwick's evil-handling
Renault span down to 12th, releasing Johansson and Prost to chase Alboreto,
with Tambay now up to 6th. On lap 6, the Lotus 1-2 ended as Senna dived
into the pits, losing boost pressure. A broken compressor was the cause,
and the Brazilian lost five laps fixing the problem. Joining him in
the pitlane was de Cesaris, who had a spin and ended up pointing the
wrong way, then tried to spin around the right way only to collect Winkelhock.
The furious RAM driver was out on the spot, while the Ligier needed
a new nosecone.
 Alboreto
meanwhile was starting to match de Angelis' speed and began closing
on the Lotus, while Tambay had passed Prost and Rosberg disappeared
into the pits after a spin, promoting Cheever to the top six. By lap
12, Alboreto was really pushing de Angelis, getting alongside twice
on the outside but not quite being able to nail the move, but then blasted
past at the opening complex of corners the following lap in assured
fashion. Mansell meanwhile had made up nine places since the start,
and then got by Cheever's Alfa Romeo, while the hapless Martini was
given a sharp lesson in manners by the usually gentlemanly Tambay after
failing to get out of the way and being shoved into a spin as a result.
The Frenchman's team-mate, however, was out after spinning the wayward
Renault into a barrier.
 Up
front, de Angelis had lost Alboreto in traffic and - with his engine
losing response in middle gears - was now being caught by Johansson.
Some concern was caused when Alliot smashed the remaining RAM into a
barrier on the long straight after losing control on the fast kink,
causing a white flag to be waved at the other cars for four laps while
the machine was recovered, but thankfully everyone else was able to
avoid the debris it left on the track. That was no consolation for Lauda,
though, who again retired - this time with his TAG engine overheating
when in a gaining 8th place.
 Tambay
then began to slide back when third gear went missing, while Johansson
finally got past de Angelis and set off after his team leader, despite
his Ferrari V6 having an intermittent misfire. He would catch Alboreto
and shadow him for a few corners, but the Italian cranked up the boost
and kept his team-mate off. Rosberg was up to 5th despite his stop for
tyres, having passed Mansell and leaving him to deal with the determined
Cheever and then blasting past Tambay. Mansell also got past the struggling
Renault, free of the attentions of the Alfa Romeo when the Italian car's
electronics went haywire and the American was reduced to cruising around.
 Despite
de Angelis' best efforts, he lost out to Prost and Rosberg before the
end. Prost latched onto Johansson three laps from the end, but the Ferrari
cars had things well in hand and were able to coolly secure a 1-2 finish
(their first win since the 1984 Belgian Grand Prix, and first 1-2 since
the 1983 Dutch Grand Prix), putting Alboreto into the championship lead
and Johansson onto the rostrum for the first time. Rosberg scored his
first points of the season with an excellent unlapped run to 4th, while
de Angelis was able to stay ahead of Mansell. Tambay came home a demoralised
7th - he had lost out to Laffite, but the Ligier driver was docked a
minute for jumping the start. All in all there were actually 17 finishers,
though these included the likes of Senna (who returned to set fastest
lap), Surer (struggling on Pirelli tyres) and Cheever (touring around
by the end, but at least seeing a chequered flag for the first time
in 1985).
|
