1986 Australian Grand Prix

Previous race

At Mexico City, Gerhard Berger won his first Formula One race, also giving Benetton their first win and marking the final victory for the BMW turbocharged engine. Mansell’s title hopes nearly came apart before the race began: he was still selecting first gear when the start lights went out, watched more than two-thirds of the field stream past, and recovered from 18th on the first lap to fifth at the flag.

Championship standings

Mansell leads with 70 points. Prost is second on 64 and Piquet third on 63. The Williams-Honda has been the superior package throughout the season — Mansell and Piquet have won nine of the fifteen races between them — but the teammates’ habit of taking points from each other has kept Prost’s consistent McLaren in contention all year.

Championship permutations

It is the first time since 1983 that three drivers have remained in championship contention at the final round. Mansell enters in the strongest position: he needs only a third-place finish to win his first Drivers’ Championship and become Britain’s first world champion since James Hunt in 1976. Prost and Piquet must both win to keep their title hopes alive — Prost to defend his title, Piquet to claim a third championship and become Brazil’s most successful Formula One driver, drawing level with Emerson Fittipaldi’s two titles.

Milestones

This is the final Grand Prix for 1980 World Champion Alan Jones and for 1982 World Champion Keke Rosberg. It also marks the final race for Patrick Tambay, Johnny Dumfries, and Team Haas. The Australian Grand Prix is the last race for Renault as a Formula One engine supplier — the French manufacturer is withdrawing due to company restructuring.

Practice

Friday’s qualifying session was halted midway by a sudden heavy downpour that caught out both Tambay and Stefan Johansson in separate incidents. Both slid off the road behind the pits and into an unprotected concrete wall at Victoria Park Racecourse infield, with both the Lola-Ford and the Ferrari badly damaged on impact. Neither driver was seriously injured, and the wall was protected with two rows of tyres by Saturday morning.

In Saturday morning practice, Prost set the fastest time with a 1:19.121 — four seconds inside the lap record. Martin Brundle’s Tyrrell-Renault recorded 205 mph (330 km/h) through the Brabham Straight, the fastest speed measured on the Adelaide circuit. Tambay’s Lola and Dumfries’ Lotus are both carrying onboard cameras for television use.