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Race
 Practice
had been blessed with hot, sunny weather and it held for the race on
Sunday. Mansell once again made the best start, getting down the short
straight to the first chicane ahead of Senna, who was closely followed
by Rosberg, Alboreto, Prost, Berger, Surer and Tambay. Alan Jones stalled
on the grid and required a push-start, much to the disappointment of
his home crowd. There was excitement at the front on the first lap as
Senna squeezed Mansell, who was forced over into a run-off and dropped
to 7th. The Lotus lost enough momentum in the contact to allow Rosberg
in front. Mansell would then crawl around to the pits with a broken
crownwheel and pinion.
 After
a couple of laps the field began to break up a little - Rosberg, with
Senna stuck under his rear wing, moved away from Prost and Alboreto,
themselves pulling away from Berger and Surer, who were inching clear
of Tambay, de Angelis, Piquet, Cheever, Boutsen and the rest. It took
only a dozen laps for several drivers to decide on a change of tyres
- first Berger, then Prost, Tambay, Alboreto, Johansson and Boutsen.
Soon after, Piquet dropped out with an electrical fire, while de Angelis
was black-flagged for moving back through the field after getting left
behind on the parade lap. While this was the correct decision, it was
difficult to see why it look 17 laps for the stewards to reach a decision
and inform the driver, and it made for a sad end to de Angelis' six-year
tenure with Lotus.
 All
of which elevated Lauda to 6th and Jones to 7th. The Australian's superb
drive sadly ended on lap 21 with electrical trouble, but spurred on
by his home crowd he had been into a race properly for the first time,
and it all boded well for 1986. He was soon joined by Tambay (broken
transmission) and Prost (blown engine). This left Surer 3rd, with Lauda,
Alboreto, Streiff, Boutsen, Warwick, Capelli and Laffite the rest of
the top 10. At the front, Senna was catching Rosberg after the Finn
had extended his lead to nine seconds at one point, the pair of them
half a minute clear of the surviving Brabham. Senna's pursuit was uncharacteristically
ragged, and he was lucky to get away with a big bounce over the large
kerb at Malthouse. The Lotus was also troubled by waste paper in one
of his sidepods.
 With
Rosberg preserving his tyres, Senna soon closed up again. By the tail
end of lap 42 he was right under the back of the Williams, which proved
impetuous when Rosberg slowed to enter the pits and Senna promptly wiped
his right-front wing out on the back of the leader. Rosberg was unscathed,
briefly delayed while the Williams crew checked for damage, while Senna
carried on. The Lotus was now understeering so badly that when Senna
came towards the pit entrance he instead found himself skittering over
the opposite sand trap, missed the turn, removed the remaining front
wing. He had to carry on for another lap before coming in to have a
new nosecone and fresh tyres pitted, his sidepods emptied and his temper
cooled. While all this was happening, another valiant drive by Surer
in the second Brabham came to an end when he dropped out of 3rd place
with a broken engine.
 Rosberg
had been on the point of catching Senna when the Brazilian pitted, with
Lauda taking over 2nd place behind the Williams. Good work by Lotus
(26 seconds for nose, tyres and rubbish removal) got Senna out ahead
of 4th-placed Alboreto, with the lapped Warwick and Laffite next. Senna
was still fired up, and rapidly gained on Lauda. By lap 50 he was back
in 2nd after blasting past on the Brabham straight, and began chasing
down Rosberg. The pursuit was cut short when Rosberg pitted again, but
his 28 second lead was wiped out when a wheel nut jammed, dropping him
to 3rd.
 Lauda,
meanwhile, had been preserving his rubber, and soon fought back at Senna,
pulling off a slingshot pass on the Brabham Straight to take the lead
on lap 55. It looked like he was going to bow out with a win, but two
laps later his fading brakes caught him out at the end of the straight,
and the McLaren slid sideways, breaking its' nose and left-front suspension
on the wall. This put Senna back in the lead once again, seven seconds
clear of a charging Rosberg. Warwick had retired the final Renault from
6th, which left just 11 cars still circulating - Senna, Rosberg, Alboreto,
Laffite, Streiff, Capelli, Berger, Johansson, Rothengatter, Martini
and the much-delayed Brundle.
 Rosberg
had caught Senna by lap 62, but before there was time for battle to
be rejoined Senna moved over and coasted to the pits, his engine having
failed. With Alboreto also out with a broken gear change, Rosberg's
nearest challengers were the Ligiers of Laffite and Streiff, who were
so far behind that the Finn made a third tyre stop so he wouldn't have
to worry about wear over the last 20 laps.
 The
Ligiers were running nose-to-tail, and Laffite was waving at his junior
team-mate to slow down and take it easy rather than risk ten guaranteed
points for the team. His advice went unheeded as Streiff made an ill-advised
lunge at the end of the Brabham Straight on the penultimate lap, smashing
his front-left suspension on his team leader's rear wheel. Both made
it round to the finish, though Laffite was furious. It meant the excitement
was kept going right until the end of a hugely successful race, at least.
 Rosberg
completed the final laps without incident, signing off after four years
at Williams with a well-deserved win - while it was a shame that his
duel with Senna went unresolved, the Finn was due a win for his displays
in the second half of the season. Capelli, an astonishing and exhausted
4th in the Tyrrell, had been lapped and couldn't take advantage of the
Ligier collision, but was overjoyed, if slightly bemused, to have scored
his first points (and the first for Tyrrell-Renault).
 Discounting
Brundle, only four other cars were running - Johansson was 5th after
a difficult afternoon, while Berger was another walking wounded, having
speared into a tyre barrier trying to fend off the Ferrari five laps
from the end, but managed to restart and score points for the second
race in succession. Behind him came Rothengatter and Martini, both several
laps down but having done a good job of making their fragile cars last
the distance when many more illustrious names had failed, and might
have scored points if Streiff and Berger hadn't got away with their
misadventures.
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