1987 French Grand Prix

Championship standings

Ayrton Senna leads the Drivers’ Championship by two points over Alain Prost after Senna’s back-to-back wins at Monaco and Detroit.

Previous race

In Detroit, Senna managed his tyres well enough to run the entire race without a stop on the bumpy street circuit, where the Lotus’s active suspension gave it a marked advantage. Mansell led from pole until a tyre stop on lap 34, at which point a stuck wheel nut cost him ten seconds; he then began to suffer severe cramp in his right leg and faded to fifth, a lap down. Piquet passed him with ten laps remaining.