1986 Australian Grand Prix

1986 Australian Grand Prix
1986 Australian Grand Prix
Race 16 of 16 in the 1986 Formula One World Championship
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Race details
Date	26 October 1986
Official name	LI Foster's Australian Grand Prix
Location	Adelaide Street Circuit; Adelaide, South Australia
Course	Temporary street circuit
Course length	3.779 km (2.348 miles)
Distance	82 laps, 309.878 km (192.549 miles)
Weather	Sunny
Pole position
Driver	Nigel Mansell;
Time	1:18.403
Fastest lap
Driver	Nelson Piquet
Time	1:20.787 on lap 82
Podium
First	Alain Prost;
Second	Nelson Piquet;
Third	Stefan Johansson;
	Lap leaders ;

The 1986 Australian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 26 October 1986 at the Adelaide Street Circuit, Adelaide, Australia. It was the sixteenth and final race of the 1986 Formula One World Championship. The race decided a three-way battle for the Drivers' Championship between Brit Nigel Mansell, driving a Williams-Honda; his Brazilian teammate Nelson Piquet; and Frenchman Alain Prost, driving a McLaren-TAG.

Mansell took pole position for the race, but a poor start off the grid enabled teammate Piquet, Ayrton Senna and Keke Rosberg to overtake him and demote him to fourth by the end of the first lap.

A few laps into the race, Finland's Keke Rosberg, in his final Grand Prix, took the lead from Piquet. However, the Finn retired with a puncture on lap 63, handing the lead back to Piquet and elevating Mansell into third place, which would have been sufficient to secure the championship. One lap later, Mansell's race ended as his left-rear tyre exploded on the main straight with 19 laps remaining. The title was then between Piquet and Prost with the latter needing to finish ahead of the former to successfully defend his title. Following the tyre failures of Rosberg and Mansell, the Williams team called Piquet in for a precautionary tyre change leaving him 15 seconds behind. He made a late charge to close the gap to 4.2 seconds but Prost took victory to win his second of four titles.

It was not until the 2007 Brazilian Grand Prix that there were again three possible drivers' title contenders entering the final race of the season.

This was the final Grand Prix for 1980 World Champion Alan Jones and for 1982 World Champion Keke Rosberg.

^ ^a ^b Cite error: The named reference Motorsport was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ ^a ^b "Australia 1986". StatsF1.com. Retrieved 15 December 2022.
^ Contemporary race broadcast recordings confirm the lap length of 3779 m (via best lap time/speed combinations shown during the race).

[Motorsport-1] Cite error: The named reference Motorsport was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[StatsF1-2] "Australia 1986". StatsF1.com. Retrieved 15 December 2022.

[3] Contemporary race broadcast recordings confirm the lap length of 3779 m (via best lap time/speed combinations shown during the race).

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