1985 San Marino Grand Prix

The 1985 San Marino Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Imola on 5 May 1985. It was the third race of the 1985 Formula One World Championship. The 60-lap race was won by local driver Elio de Angelis, driving a Lotus-Renault, after McLaren driver Alain Prost had been disqualified for being underweight. It was de Angelis' second and last win. Thierry Boutsen was second in an Arrows-BMW, with Patrick Tambay third in a factory Renault.

1985 San Marino Grand Prix
Race 3 of 16 in the 1985 Formula One World Championship
Race details
Date 5 May 1985
Location Autodromo Dino Ferrari
Imola, Emilia-Romagna, Italy
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 5.040 km (3.132 miles)
Distance 60 laps, 302.400 km (187.902 miles)
Pole position
Driver Lotus-Renault
Time 1:27.327
Fastest lap
Driver Italy Michele Alboreto Ferrari
Time 1:30.961 on lap 29
Podium
First Lotus-Renault
Second Arrows-BMW
Third Renault
Lap leaders

Qualifying

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Qualifying report

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Before the previous race in Portugal it was revealed that René Arnoux had been fired by Ferrari, with no explanation ever given for his sudden departure by either the team or Arnoux. In his place was Swedish driver Stefan Johansson. Arnoux was in the pits at Imola, but was seen with the Brabham team, starting a false rumor he would soon join the team alongside Nelson Piquet. As it turned out, Arnoux would not drive in F1 again until joining Ligier in 1986.

Ayrton Senna took pole position in his Lotus-Renault with a time of 1:27.327, with Keke Rosberg alongside him on the front row in the Williams-Honda. For Senna it would be the first of seven consecutive pole positions at Imola, a run which ended in 1992.

Filling the second row were Elio de Angelis in the second Lotus and Michele Alboreto in the Ferrari. Belgian Thierry Boutsen was a surprise 5th fastest in the Arrows-BMW, ahead of the McLaren-TAG of Alain Prost. In his second race for Ferrari, Johansson qualified 15th.

Qualifying classification

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Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap
1 12   Ayrton Senna Lotus-Renault 1:27.589 1:27.327
2 6   Keke Rosberg Williams-Honda 1:28.347 1:27.354 +0.027
3 11   Elio de Angelis Lotus-Renault 1:30.325 1:27.852 +0.525
4 27   Michele Alboreto Ferrari 1:27.871 1:30.637 +0.544
5 18   Thierry Boutsen Arrows-BMW 1:28.829 1:27.918 +0.591
6 2   Alain Prost McLaren-TAG 1:28.604 1:28.099 +0.772
7 5   Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda 1:29.756 1:28.202 +0.875
8 1   Niki Lauda McLaren-TAG 1:29.413 1:28.399 +1.072
9 7   Nelson Piquet Brabham-BMW 1:29.427 1:28.489 +1.162
10 17   Gerhard Berger Arrows-BMW 1:28.697 1:29.654 +1.370
11 15   Patrick Tambay Renault 1:30.201 1:29.102 +1.775
12 23   Eddie Cheever Alfa Romeo 1:30.605 1:29.259 +1.932
13 25   Andrea de Cesaris Ligier-Renault 1:30.339 1:29.406 +2.079
14 16   Derek Warwick Renault 1:30.440 1:29.466 +2.139
15 28   Stefan Johansson Ferrari 1:30.240 1:29.806 +2.479
16 26   Jacques Laffite Ligier-Renault 1:31.625 1:30.982 +3.655
17 30   Jonathan Palmer Zakspeed 2:30.990 1:31.028 +3.701
18 22   Riccardo Patrese Alfa Romeo 1:31.388 1:31.108 +3.781
19 29   Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Motori Moderni 1:32.770 1:48.391 +5.443
20 8   François Hesnault Brabham-BMW 1:33.142 1:33.160 +5.815
21 10   Philippe Alliot RAM-Hart 1:34.201 2:05.141 +6.874
22 24   Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Alfa Romeo 1:34.974 1:34.209 +6.882
23 9   Manfred Winkelhock RAM-Hart 1:34.936 1:34.579 +7.252
24 4   Stefan Bellof Tyrrell-Ford 1:35.774 1:35.653 +8.326
25 3   Martin Brundle Tyrrell-Ford 1:36.397 1:36.661 +9.070
26 21   Mauro Baldi Spirit-Hart 1:36.922 1:38.235 +9.595

Race

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Race report

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Limited fuel allowances played a big part in the race, as a succession of drivers ran out of fuel in the last few laps. Prost took the chequered flag before stopping on the slowing-down lap and hitching a ride with Patrick Tambay on the side pod to return to the pits. Later, Prost's car was found to be two kilograms underweight in post-race scrutineering, resulting in his disqualification. Summing up the general feeling that FISA's fuel limit rules had seen Formula One races reduced to mere economy runs, Williams driver Nigel Mansell noted that "it wasn't really racing".

Stefan Johansson ran a good race in his second drive for Ferrari. After starting 15th he steadily made his way through the field and by late in the race had moved to second (benefiting from others running out of fuel) and was poised to benefit from Senna also running dry 3 laps from home. Johansson took the lead from the Lotus to a thunderous applause from the Italian fans, only to run out of fuel himself half a lap later coming out of the Acque Minerali chicane. A post race examination of his car revealed the Ferrari had an electrical malfunction that caused the engine to use more fuel than the readout was telling the team or Johansson. The Ferrari's readout had told Johansson that he still had enough fuel to finish the race.

Prost's disqualification promoted de Angelis to the win, his second in F1, with second place awarded to Boutsen — who ran out of fuel as he reached the start-finish straight on his final lap and pushed his Arrows across the finish line to secure his finishing position — and third to Frenchman Patrick Tambay, in what would turn out to be the last podium finish for both Tambay and the original factory Renault team. Mauro Baldi and Spirit Racing entered their last Grand Prix: the small British team were having financial troubles and the Toleman team offered to buy out their tyre contract: Spirit accepted and withdrew from the championship, allowing Toleman to race for the rest of the season.

Race classification

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Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 11   Elio de Angelis Lotus-Renault 60 1:34:35.955 3 9
2 18   Thierry Boutsen Arrows-BMW 59 Out of fuel 5 6
3 15   Patrick Tambay Renault 59 + 1 Lap 11 4
4 1   Niki Lauda McLaren-TAG 59 + 1 Lap 8 3
5 5   Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda 58 Out of fuel 7 2
6 28   Stefan Johansson Ferrari 57 Out of fuel 15 1
7 12   Ayrton Senna Lotus-Renault 57 Out of fuel 1  
8 7   Nelson Piquet Brabham-BMW 57 Out of fuel 9  
9 3   Martin Brundle Tyrrell-Ford 56 Out of fuel 25  
10 16   Derek Warwick Renault 56 + 4 Laps 14  
DSQ 2   Alain Prost McLaren-TAG 60 Underweight 6  
Ret 23   Eddie Cheever Alfa Romeo 50 Engine 12  
NC 24   Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Alfa Romeo 46 + 14 Laps 22  
Ret 27   Michele Alboreto Ferrari 29 Electrical 4  
Ret 9   Manfred Winkelhock RAM-Hart 27 Engine 23  
Ret 10   Philippe Alliot RAM-Hart 24 Engine 21  
Ret 6   Keke Rosberg Williams-Honda 23 Brakes 2  
Ret 26   Jacques Laffite Ligier-Renault 22 Turbo 16  
Ret 29   Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Motori Moderni 14 Turbo 19  
Ret 25   Andrea de Cesaris Ligier-Renault 11 Spun off 13  
Ret 21   Mauro Baldi Spirit-Hart 9 Electrical 26  
Ret 8   François Hesnault Brabham-BMW 5 Engine 20  
Ret 4   Stefan Bellof Tyrrell-Ford 5 Engine 24  
Ret 17   Gerhard Berger Arrows-BMW 4 Engine 10  
Ret 22   Riccardo Patrese Alfa Romeo 4 Engine 18  
DNS 30   Jonathan Palmer Zakspeed 0 Engine 17  
Source: [1] [2]

Championship standings after the race

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  • Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

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  1. ^ "1985 San Marino Grand Prix". formula1.com. Retrieved 15 November 2017.
  2. ^ "1985 San Marino Grand Prix - Highlights". f1tv.formula1.com. Retrieved 22 January 2023.
  3. ^ a b "San Marino 1985 - Championship". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 20 March 2019.


Previous race:
1985 Portuguese Grand Prix
FIA Formula One World Championship
1985 season
Next race:
1985 Monaco Grand Prix
Previous race:
1984 San Marino Grand Prix
San Marino Grand Prix Next race:
1986 San Marino Grand Prix