The 1985 Italian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Monza on 8 September 1985. It was the twelfth round of the 1985 FIA Formula One World Championship. It was the 55th Italian Grand Prix and the 50th to be held at Monza. The race was held over 51 laps of the 5.8-kilometre circuit for a total race distance of 295.8 kilometres.
The race was won by Frenchman Alain Prost driving a McLaren MP4/2B. It was Prost's fifth and final victory of the 1985 season as he powered towards the first of his four Formula One world championships. Prost won by almost 52 seconds over the Brazilian duo Nelson Piquet (Brabham BT54) and Ayrton Senna (Lotus 97T).
It was the debut race for the American owned Haas Lola team with their new car, the Lola THL1 running the Hart 415T turbocharged engine, driven by Australia's World Champion Alan Jones. Jones, who had retired following the season, was making a full-time return to Formula One after two races, the US Grand Prix West, and the non championship Race of Champions with Arrows in early .
Missing from the grid was popular West German driver Stefan Bellof who was killed a week earlier in a World Sportscar Championship race at the Spa Circuit in Belgium. With his funeral set for the day after the Italian Grand Prix the Tyrrell team only ran the one car for Martin Brundle feeling it would be disrespectful to Bellof to bring a driver in to replace him for the race. Members of the Tyrrell team, including team boss Ken Tyrrell, attended Bellof's funeral the next day.
Also missing were the West German Zakspeed team because their driver Jonathan Palmer had broken his leg when he also crashed his Porsche 956 at the 1000 km of Spa the weekend before, though Palmer's accident came in practice. With only a week until the Italian Grand Prix and no spare driver the team was forced to miss the race, but would return at the next round, the rescheduled Belgian Grand Prix with the 1985 Formula 3000 champion Christian Danner (also of West Germany) replacing Palmer.
Senna's pole position is often cited as one of his greatest moments.
Classification
Qualifying Pole position went to Ayrton Senna; his 5th pole of the year. His average speed was 152.487 mph (245.405 km/h). Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap 1 12 Ayrton Senna Lotus-Renault 1:27.009 1:25.084 — 2 6 Keke Rosberg Williams-Honda 1:26.161 1:25.230 +0.146 3 5 Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda 1:26.960 1:25.486 +0.402 4 7 Nelson Piquet Brabham-BMW 1:25.679 1:25.584 +0.500 5 2 Alain Prost McLaren-TAG 1:27.576 1:25.790 +0.706 6 11 Elio de Angelis Lotus-Renault 1:27.098 1:26.044 +0.960 7 27 Michele Alboreto Ferrari 1:27.552 1:26.468 +1.384 8 15 Patrick Tambay Renault 1:28.578 1:27.020 +1.936 9 8 Marc Surer Brabham-BMW 1:27.799 1:27.153 +2.069 10 28 Stefan Johansson Ferrari 1:29.001 1:27.473 +2.389 11 17 Gerhard Berger Arrows-BMW 1:27.746 1:27.723 +2.639 12 16 Derek Warwick Renault 1:28.119 1:28.112 +3.028 13 22 Riccardo Patrese Alfa Romeo 1:29.068 1:28.340 +3.256 14 18 Thierry Boutsen Arrows-BMW 1:28.369 1:28.760 +3.285 15 19 Teo Fabi Toleman-Hart 1:29.050 1:28.386 +3.302 16 1 Niki Lauda McLaren-TAG 1:28.472 1:28.949 +3.388 17 23 Eddie Cheever Alfa Romeo 1:29.298 1:28.629 +3.545 18 3 Martin Brundle Tyrrell-Renault 1:33.503 1:28.793 +3.709 19 25 Philippe Streiff Ligier-Renault 1:31.727 1:29.839 +4.755 20 26 Jacques Laffite Ligier-Renault 1:30.186 1:30.376 +5.102 21 20 Piercarlo Ghinzani Toleman-Hart 1:30.271 1:31.449 +5.187 22 24 Huub Rothengatter Osella-Alfa Romeo 1:33.529 1:37.664 +8.445 23 29 Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Motori Moderni 1:35.770 1:33.961 +8.877 24 10 Kenny Acheson RAM-Hart 1:34.919 1:38.325 +9.835 25 33 Alan Jones Lola-Hart 1:34.943 1:45.823 +9.859 26 9 Philippe Alliot RAM-Hart 1:36.221 1:37.664 +11.137
Race Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 2 Alain Prost McLaren-TAG 51 1:17:59.451 5 9 2 7 Nelson Piquet Brabham-BMW 51 + 51.635 4 6 3 12 Ayrton Senna Lotus-Renault 51 + 1:00.390 1 4 4 8 Marc Surer Brabham-BMW 51 + 1:00.609 9 3 5 28 Stefan Johansson Ferrari 50 + 1 Lap 10 2 6 11 Elio de Angelis Lotus-Renault 50 + 1 Lap 6 1 7 15 Patrick Tambay Renault 50 + 1 Lap 8 8 3 Martin Brundle Tyrrell-Renault 50 + 1 Lap 18 9 18 Thierry Boutsen Arrows-BMW 50 + 1 Lap 14 10 25 Philippe Streiff Ligier-Renault 49 + 2 Laps 19 11 5 Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda 47 Engine 3 12 19 Teo Fabi Toleman-Hart 47 + 4 Laps 15 13 27 Michele Alboreto Ferrari 45 Engine 7 6 Keke Rosberg Williams-Honda 44 Engine 2 26 Jacques Laffite Ligier-Renault 40 Engine 20 1 Niki Lauda McLaren-TAG 33 Transmission 16 22 Riccardo Patrese Alfa Romeo 31 Exhaust 13 24 Huub Rothengatter Osella-Alfa Romeo 26 Engine 22 9 Philippe Alliot RAM-Hart 19 Turbo 26 17 Gerhard Berger Arrows-BMW 13 Engine 11 16 Derek Warwick Renault 9 Transmission 12 33 Alan Jones Lola-Hart 6 Engine 25 23 Eddie Cheever Alfa Romeo 3 Engine 17 10 Kenny Acheson RAM-Hart 2 Clutch 24 29 Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Motori Moderni 0 Fuel Pump 23 20 Piercarlo Ghinzani Toleman-Hart 0 Non Starter
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Alain Prost 65 2 Michele Alboreto 53 3 Elio de Angelis 31 4 Ayrton Senna 23 5 Stefan Johansson 21Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 McLaren-TAG 79 2 Ferrari 77 3 Lotus-Renault 54 4 Williams-Honda 25 5 Brabham-BMW 24Source:
Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
References
External links Grand Prix Archives Video