Grand Prix Gold: San Marino 1985

Submitted by Henry Hope-Frost on May 6, 20105 Comments

How many world championship grands prix can you recall that were won by a driver who didn’t lead a single lap? One such event took place 25 years ago this week at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in the Italian Republic of San Marino.

The third round of the 1985 Formula 1 World Championship, at Imola, featured great racing – for 56 of the 60 laps at least – and plenty of farce – for the final four laps at least.

Ayrton Senna controlled the race from the outset, the brilliant Brazilian continuing the sort of form that had allowed him to take his maiden victory in appalling conditions at Estoril just two weeks before. His John Player Special Lotus, still fitted with the older EF4 Renault powerplant – team-mate Elio de Angelis had the newer EF15 unit – fended off the second Lotus, the Ferrari of Michele Alboreto and the McLaren-TAG Porsche of Alain Prost in a typical mid-80s Sunday afternoon thrash.

However, with just four laps of the fabulous Imola circuit to negotiate, Senna’s car began to cough and splutter as its Renault engine sipped its last few drops of fuel. Behind him, the star of the race, Stefan Johansson – in just his second outing for the Scuderia – had fought his way up to second from 15^th on the grid. The Swede was in inspired form and looked set to win until he too ran out of gas. Into the lead went Alain Prost, the Frenchman just crawling across the line – his McLaren also dry – to take his second win of the season. Behind him, the older and more fuel-efficient motor in De Angelis’s Lotus had allowed the Italian to keep going where Senna had failed. Third, most unexpectedly, was the Arrows-BMW of Belgian Thierry Boutsen.

The farce continued into post-race scrutineering, when Prost’s winning McLaren was disqualified from victory. Its empty tank meant the car failed the minimum weight-limit test. Told you it was a farce! Victory, then, went to De Angelis – the second and final win for the popular Roman – with Boutsen promoted to second and Patrick Tambay’s Renault, having been nowhere all afternoon, getting onto the podium.

What a pity the 1985 San Marino Grand Prix hadn’t run to just 56 laps…

San Marino Grand Prix-Imola-5 May 1985; 60 laps x 3.132 miles

(World Championship race no. 407)

Pole Position: Ayrton Senna (BR)-Lotus 97T-Renault – 1m27.327s

1st: Elio de Angelis (I)-Lotus-Renault – 60 laps

2nd: Thierry Boutsen (B)-Arrows-BMW A8 – 59 laps

3rd: Patrick Tambay (F)-Renault RE60 – 59 laps

4th: Niki Lauda (A)-McLaren-TAG Porsche MP4/2B – 59 laps

5th: Nigel Mansell (GB)-Williams-Honda FW10 – 58 laps

6th: Stefan Johansson (S)-Ferrari 156/85 – 57 laps

Fastest Lap: Michele Alboreto (I)-Ferrari 156/85 – 1m30.961s

Henry Hope-Frost

Fast Dave

Great story. Interesting to. See johansson get so near yet so far. Did he ever crack it for a win?
Fast Dave

Great story. Interesting to see johansson get so near yet so far. Did he ever crack it for a win?
Henry Hope-Frost

Cheers Dave! Stefan never quite managed it, despite driving a competitive Ferrari in 1985 and a competitive McLaren in 1987. He was on the podium 12 times (4 seconds and 8 thirds) in his career. One of those thirds came in the dreadful Onyx at Estoril in 1989. A top bloke who went on to do well in sportscars – he won Le Mans in 1997 and still drives in the American Le Mans Series aged, er, 53…
Henry
http://www.halfofmylife.com Phil Hall

That was almost as bizarre as the Monaco GP in 1982 when everyone ran out of fuel and it started to look like no-one would finish at all.

Poor Elio. As lovely a man as ever strapped on a helmet. Too many wonderful men met their death during that era.
http://twitter.com/dcrants DC Rants

Old topic but Prost was disqualified because of his car being underweight. If I’m reading your commentary correctly, you imply the car was underweight due to his running out of fuel. The minimum weight requirement was for just the car minus the fuel (according to Murray Walker’s post-race commentary), so his running out of fuel didn’t play into his disqualification.