The 1987 German Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at the Hockenheimring on 26 July 1987. It was the eighth round of the 1987 Formula One season. It was the 49th German Grand Prix and the eleventh to be held at the Hockenheimring. It was held over 44 laps of the seven kilometre circuit for a race distance of 298.760 km (185.812 mi).

Pre-race In the week leading up to the German Grand Prix a number of teams tested at the Hockenheim circuit. During testing Ayrton Senna had a very lucky escape when he had a rear tyre failure at over on the long straight leading to the Bremsschikane. The rear corner of his Lotus 99T was destroyed and parts were reported to be hard to find as most ended up flying off into the forest. As a result of the crash Goodyear took the precaution of immediately flying in new compound tyres from their plant in Akron in the United States in time for the Grand Prix weekend.

The tyre failure was determined to be the result of Senna picking up a puncture late on his previous lap. However the Lotus' active suspension system compensated for that and kept the car at its correct ride height, masking the problem from Senna. This caused many to question the system as the general belief was that with a passively suspended car Senna would have known he had a puncture and would not have continued to drive at high speed.

Race

The race was won by eventual 1987 World Champion, Nelson Piquet driving a Williams FW11B. It was his first win of the season and his third win in the German Grand Prix having previously won for Brabham in 1981, and Williams in the previous year. Piquet won by over a minute and a half from Swedish driver Stefan Johansson driving a McLaren MP4/3, who coasted over the finish line on three wheels due to a tyre puncture suffered just past the pits on his last lap. The Swede's second place was the 50th podium finish for the Porsche-designed TAG turbo engine. Piquet inherited the win after engine failure claimed his team-mate, Briton Nigel Mansell, and reigning champion, Frenchman Alain Prost (McLaren MP4/3). Ayrton Senna finished third in his Lotus 99T.

Just seven cars were classified at the end of the race, as the long straights took their toll on engine reliability. Naturally aspirated cars finished as high as fourth place with Frenchman Philippe Streiff leading home a team one-two in the Jim Clark/Colin Chapman Trophy standings for Tyrrell as Jonathan Palmer finished in fifth place. In sixth was French driver Philippe Alliot driving a Lola LC87 for the new Larrousse team. It was Alliot's second top six finish in Formula One and Larrousse's first world championship point, although the Constructor's Championship point would be credited to the chassis designers, Lola Cars.

Piquet's win vaulted him into the championship lead for the first time in 1987, putting him four points ahead of Senna and nine ahead of Mansell.

Classification Qualifying Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap 1 5 Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda 1:42.616 2:00.832 — 2 12 Ayrton Senna Lotus-Honda 1:42.873 1:01:19.245 +0.257 3 1 Alain Prost McLaren-TAG 1:43.202 no time +0.586 4 6 Nelson Piquet Williams-Honda 1:43.705 no time +1.089 5 27 Michele Alboreto Ferrari 1:43.921 2:05.139 +1.305 6 20 Thierry Boutsen Benetton-Ford 1:45.066 2:02.981 +2.450 7 8 Andrea de Cesaris Brabham-BMW 1:45.411 no time +2.795 8 2 Stefan Johansson McLaren-TAG 1:45.428 no time +2.812 9 19 Teo Fabi Benetton-Ford 1:45.497 2:06.857 +2.881 10 28 Gerhard Berger Ferrari 1:45.902 2:03.172 +3.286 11 7 Riccardo Patrese Brabham-BMW 1:46.096 no time +3.480 12 25 René Arnoux Ligier-Megatron 1:46.323 no time +3.707 13 17 Derek Warwick Arrows-Megatron 1:46.525 no time +3.909 14 11 Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Honda 1:46.760 no time +4.144 15 18 Eddie Cheever Arrows-Megatron 1:47.780 2:04.003 +5.164 16 24 Alessandro Nannini Minardi-Motori Moderni 1:47.887 no time +5.271 17 26 Piercarlo Ghinzani Ligier-Megatron 1:49.236 2:09.440 +6.620 18 23 Adrián Campos Minardi-Motori Moderni 1:49.668 no time +7.052 19 9 Martin Brundle Zakspeed 1:51.062 2:12.913 +8.446 20 10 Christian Danner Zakspeed 1:51.448 2:11.115 +8.832 21 30 Philippe Alliot Lola-Ford 1:52.760 2:11.588 +10.144 22 4 Philippe Streiff Tyrrell-Ford 1:53.528 2:10.404 +10.912 23 3 Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 1:54.491 2:06.769 +11.875 24 16 Ivan Capelli March-Ford 1:54.616 2:09.992 +12.000 25 14 Pascal Fabre AGS-Ford 1:54.997 no time +12.381 26 21 Alex Caffi Osella-Alfa Romeo 6:04.561 2:07.753 +25.137Source:

Race Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 6 Nelson Piquet Williams-Honda 44 1:21:25.091 4 9 2 2 Stefan Johansson McLaren-TAG 44 + 1:39.591 8 6 3 12 Ayrton Senna Lotus-Honda 43 + 1 Lap 2 4 4 (1) 4 Philippe Streiff Tyrrell-Ford 43 + 1 Lap 22 3 5 (2) 3 Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 43 + 1 Lap 23 2 6 (3) 30 Philippe Alliot Lola-Ford 42 + 2 Laps 21 1 7 1 Alain Prost McLaren-TAG 39 Electrical 3   9 Martin Brundle Zakspeed 34 + 10 Laps 19   26 Piercarlo Ghinzani Ligier-Megatron 32 Engine 17   23 Adrián Campos Minardi-Motori Moderni 28 Engine 18   20 Thierry Boutsen Benetton-Ford 26 Engine 6   5 Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda 25 Engine 1   24 Alessandro Nannini Minardi-Motori Moderni 25 Engine 16   17 Derek Warwick Arrows-Megatron 23 Turbo 13   10 Christian Danner Zakspeed 21 Halfshaft 20   28 Gerhard Berger Ferrari 19 Turbo 10   19 Teo Fabi Benetton-Ford 18 Engine 9   21 Alex Caffi Osella-Alfa Romeo 17 Engine 26   8 Andrea de Cesaris Brabham-BMW 12 Engine 7   27 Michele Alboreto Ferrari 10 Turbo 5   14 Pascal Fabre AGS-Ford 10 Engine 25   18 Eddie Cheever Arrows-Megatron 9 Throttle 15   11 Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Honda 9 Turbo 14   16 Ivan Capelli March-Ford 7 Engine 24   25 René Arnoux Ligier-Megatron 6 Ignition 12   7 Riccardo Patrese Brabham-BMW 5 Ignition 11  

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

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings PosDriverPoints 1 Nelson Piquet 39 2 Ayrton Senna 35 3 Nigel Mansell 30 4 Alain Prost 26 5 Stefan Johansson 19Source:

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Williams-Honda69 2 McLaren-TAG45 3 Lotus-Honda41 4 Ferrari17 5 Tyrrell-Ford8Source:

Jim Clark Trophy standings PosDriverPoints 1 Jonathan Palmer 48 2 Philippe Streiff 39 3 Pascal Fabre 34 4 Philippe Alliot 19 5 Ivan Capelli 6

Colin Chapman Trophy standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Tyrrell-Ford87 2 AGS-Ford32 3 Lola-Ford19 4 March-Ford6

Note: Only the top five positions are included for all four sets of standings.

References