The 1987 British Grand Prix (formally the XL Shell Oils British Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held on 12 July 1987 at the Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone. It was the seventh race of the 1987 Formula One World Championship. It was the 42nd British Grand Prix and the 23rd to be held at Silverstone. The race was held over 65 laps of the circuit for race distance of .

The race was won by local driver Nigel Mansell, driving a Williams-Honda. In one of his most memorable Formula One performances, Mansell hunted down Brazilian team-mate Nelson Piquet, who had started from pole position, with three laps remaining. It was Mansell's third win of the season, and his second consecutive British Grand Prix victory. Ayrton Senna finished third in his Lotus-Honda, one lap behind.

The win moved Mansell into second place in the Drivers' Championship, level on points with Piquet and one point behind Senna.

Qualifying report As usual, Honda-powered cars dominated the qualifying sessions, with Nelson Piquet taking pole position and Ayrton Senna third in his Lotus despite being a full second slower than Mansell. Alain Prost was fourth in his McLaren, while the Benettons of Thierry Boutsen and Teo Fabi were fifth and sixth, and the Ferraris of Michele Alboreto and Gerhard Berger seventh and eighth. Completing the top ten were Andrea de Cesaris in the Brabham and Stefan Johansson in the second McLaren.

During qualifying, Piercarlo Ghinzani's Ligier ran out of fuel in front of the pits. His mechanics jumped the pit wall, refuelled him on the track and then push-started him, a clear violation of the rules leading to Ghinzani's exclusion from the remainder of the event. Before the incident, the Italian had set a time which would have put him 19th on the grid.

Qualifying classification Pos No Driver ConstructorQ1 Q2 Gap 1 6 Nelson Piquet Williams-Honda1:07.596 1:07.110 — 2 5 Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda1:07.725 1:07.180 +0.070 3 12 Ayrton Senna Lotus-Honda1:09.255 1:08.181 +1.071 4 1 Alain Prost McLaren-TAG1:08.577 1:09.492 +1.467 5 20 Thierry Boutsen Benetton-Ford1:09.724 1:08.972 +1.862 6 19 Teo Fabi Benetton-Ford1:10.264 1:09.246 +2.136 7 27 Michele Alboreto Ferrari1:10.441 1:09.274 +2.164 8 28 Gerhard Berger Ferrari1:10.328 1:09.408 +2.298 9 8 Andrea de Cesaris Brabham-BMW1:10.787 1:09.475 +2.365 10 2 Stefan Johansson McLaren-TAG1:10.242 1:09.541 +2.431 11 7 Riccardo Patrese Brabham-BMW1:10.012 1:10.020 +2.902 12 11 Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Honda1:10.619 1:10.998 +3.509 13 17 Derek Warwick Arrows-Megatron1:10.654 1:10.781 +3.544 14 18 Eddie Cheever Arrows-Megatron1:11.053 1:11.310 +3.943 15 24 Alessandro Nannini Minardi-Motori Moderni1:13.737 1:12.293 +5.183 16 25 René Arnoux Ligier-Megatron1:12.503 1:12.402 +5.292 17 9 Martin Brundle Zakspeed1:12.852 1:12.632 +5.522 18 10 Christian Danner Zakspeed1:15.833 1:13.337 +6.227 19 23 Adrián CamposMinardi-Motori Moderni1:15.719 1:13.793 +6.683 20 21 Alex Caffi Osella-Alfa Romeo1:18.495 1:15.558 +8.448 21 30 Philippe AlliotLola-Ford1:16.770 1:15.868 +8.758 22 4 Philippe Streiff Tyrrell-Ford1:17.208 1:16.524 +9.414 23 3 Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford1:16.644 1:17.105 +9.534 24 16 Ivan Capelli March-Ford1:17.122 1:16.692 +9.582 25 14 Pascal Fabre AGS-Ford1:19.163 1:18.237 +11.127 26 Piercarlo Ghinzani Ligier-Megatron1:13.381 no time +6.271

Race report At the start, Prost was the quickest and took the lead, only to be passed by Piquet at Maggotts; Mansell soon followed his teammate. The race then developed into a battle between the two Williams drivers, with Piquet leading.

On lap 35, Mansell was around two seconds behind his teammate. Both Williams drivers were scheduled to complete the race without a tyre change, but Mansell and the team elected to make a stop to change tyres. Mansell rejoined the race some 29 seconds behind Piquet, with 28 laps remaining. On fresh rubber, Mansell began an epic charge, breaking the lap record eight times to the delight of the over 100,000 strong British crowd.

By lap 62 Mansell was right on Piquet's tail, and on lap 63 the Englishman overtook his teammate. Shortly after crossing the finish line, Mansell's car slowed down and was engulfed by the crowd. Initially it was thought that he had run out of fuel, but he had actually blown up the engine, out of the stress of running the last 6 laps on "Q" mode (which gives the engine +100 hp), and risking running out of fuel at any moment (his fuel display was reading "minus 2.5 laps"). In fact that incident was the last straw for the patience of the Honda management, since it had – again – threatened their easily attainable 1-2 result. Honda would switch their supply of engines from Williams to McLaren for 1988, while Piquet would sign for Lotus – also running Hondas – in the following weeks. Senna finished third, one lap down, with a further lap back to teammate Satoru Nakajima in fourth. Derek Warwick was fifth in the Arrows-Megatron, with Fabi completing the top six.

Race classification Numbers in brackets refer to positions of normally aspirated entrants competing for the Jim Clark Trophy.

Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 5 Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda 65 1:19:11.780 2 9 2 6 Nelson Piquet Williams-Honda 65 + 1.918 1 6 3 12 Ayrton Senna Lotus-Honda 64 + 1 lap 3 4 4 11 Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Honda 63 + 2 laps 12 3 5 17 Derek Warwick Arrows-Megatron 63 + 2 laps 13 2 6 19 Teo Fabi Benetton-Ford 63 + 2 laps 6 1 7 20 Thierry Boutsen Benetton-Ford 62 + 3 laps 5   8 (1) 3 Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 60 + 5 laps 23   9 (2) 14 Pascal Fabre AGS-Ford 59 + 6 laps 25   4 Philippe Streiff Tyrrell-Ford 57 Engine 22   9 Martin Brundle Zakspeed 54 + 11 laps 17   1 Alain Prost McLaren-TAG 53 Engine 4   27 Michele Alboreto Ferrari 52 Suspension 7   18 Eddie Cheever Arrows-Megatron 45 Engine 14   23 Adrián Campos Minardi-Motori Moderni 34 Fuel system 19   21 Alex Caffi Osella-Alfa Romeo 32 Engine 20   10 Christian Danner Zakspeed 32 Gearbox 18   7 Riccardo Patrese Brabham-BMW 28 Turbo 11   2 Stefan Johansson McLaren-TAG 18 Engine 10   24 Alessandro Nannini Minardi-Motori Moderni 10 Engine 15   8 Andrea de Cesaris Brabham-BMW 8 Turbo 9   28 Gerhard Berger Ferrari 7 Accident 8   30 Philippe Alliot Lola-Ford 7 Gearbox 21   25 René Arnoux Ligier-Megatron 3 Electrical 16   16 Ivan Capelli March-Ford 3 Accident 24  EX 26 Piercarlo Ghinzani Ligier-Megatron 0 Excluded 19   * Piercarlo Ghinzani was excluded from the race due to refuelling his car on the track during qualifying.

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings PosDriverPoints 1 Ayrton Senna 31 2 Nigel Mansell 30 3 Nelson Piquet 30 4 Alain Prost 26 5 Stefan Johansson 13Source:

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Williams-Honda60 2 McLaren-TAG39 3 Lotus-Honda37 4 Ferrari17 5 Arrows-Megatron6Source:

Jim Clark Trophy standings PosDriverPoints 1 Jonathan Palmer 42 2 Pascal Fabre 34 3 Philippe Streiff 30 4 Philippe Alliot 15 5 Ivan Capelli 6

Colin Chapman Trophy standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Tyrrell-Ford72 2 AGS-Ford32 3 Lola-Ford15 4 March-Ford6

References