1986 Italian Grand Prix

Lore & Background

The 51-lap race was won by Brazilian driver Nelson Piquet, driving a Williams-Honda. Piquet's British teammate and Drivers' Championship rival, Nigel Mansell, finished second, with Swede Stefan Johansson third in a Ferrari. The other two championship challengers, Frenchman Alain Prost and Brazilian Ayrton Senna, both failed to finish, Senna suffering a transmission failure in his Lotus-Renault at the very start of the race and Prost being disqualified halfway through for illegally switching to his spare McLaren-TAG after the start of the formation lap.

Reader's Guide

The win moved Piquet into second place in the Drivers' Championship, five points behind Mansell and three ahead of Prost, with three races remaining. During the second qualifying session at Monza, the Benetton-BMW of Gerhard Berger was recorded as being the fastest car along the start-finish straight, with a top speed of 351.22 km/h. Despite this, Berger could only qualify fourth, while Fabi took his second consecutive pole position. The race saw the debut of local driver Alex Caffi, deputising for Allen Berg at Osella, as well as the debut of the French AGS team. With the number of entries increased to 27 at both this race and the next race in Portugal, FISA decided to allow all the cars to start.

Did You Know?

• Prost was disqualified for changing cars after the start of the formation lap, which was illegal, but his engine blew up a lap after he was flagged anyway.
• The fastest non-BMW powered car was the Williams-Honda of Nigel Mansell, with a top speed 10 km/h slower than that of Berger.
• Michele Alboreto's position in the top 10 was notable as he had missed the first day of qualifying after injuring his arm in a motorcycle crash.