The 1987 Belgian Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on May 17, 1987 at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Francorchamps. It was the 3rd race of the 1987 Formula One season.

Race summary

Qualifying runs saw the two Williams taking the front row, with Nigel Mansell on the pole, nearly 1.5 seconds faster than Nelson Piquet. Ayrton Senna took the third place in his Lotus ahead of the two Ferraris of Gerhard Berger and Michele Alboreto.

The race required two starts. On the first start Mansell took the lead ahead of Senna, Piquet and Alboreto. On the back of the grid René Arnoux and Andrea de Cesaris tangled, whilst Thierry Boutsen hit Berger's spinning Ferrari. A more serious accident befell Philippe Streiff who crashed heavily at the Eau Rouge before the wreckage was hit by teammate Jonathan Palmer; both were unhurt but their Tyrrell were reduced to scrap.

On the second start, Senna led Mansell away, but during lap 1 the Briton tried to overtake the Brazilian. The two controversially tangled, leading to the retirement of the Lotus. Mansell rejoined the race at the back, until the damage sustained in the collision finally forced him to retire. On lap 17. Mansell subsequently visited the Lotus garage where harsh words were exchanged and punches were thrown.

Berger retired on lap 3 with a broken piston whilst on lap 10 second place Michele Alboreto's wheel bearing broke and Nelson Piquet retired with a broken turbo pipe, handing the lead to Alain Prost from Teo Fabi and Stefan Johansson. The pitsops changed little in the situation, and he maintained this to win easily by 25 seconds, despite concerns with his fuel consumption due to a faulty gauge.

This was Prost's 27th win, equalling Jackie Stewart's record with team-mate Johansson making it a McLaren 1-2. Andrea de Cesaris drove superbly to finish 3rd for Brabham despite having to push his car over the line with Eddie Cheever, Satoru Nakajima and Arnoux taking the remaining points.

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	1	Alain Prost	McLaren-TAG	43	1:27:03.217	6	9
2	2	Stefan Johansson	McLaren-TAG	43	+ 24.764	10	6
3	8	Andrea de Cesaris	Brabham-BMW	42	+ 1 Lap	13	4
4	18	Eddie Cheever	Arrows-Megatron	42	+ 1 Lap	11	3
5	11	Satoru Nakajima	Lotus-Honda	42	+ 1 Lap	15	2
6	25	René Arnoux	Ligier-Megatron	41	+ 2 Laps	16	1
7	26	Piercarlo Ghinzani	Ligier-Megatron	40	+ 3 Laps	17
8 (1)	30	Philippe Alliot	Larrousse-Ford	40	+ 3 Laps	22
9 (2)	4	Philippe Streiff	Tyrrell-Ford	39	+ 4 Laps	23
10 (3)	14	Pascal Fabre	AGS-Ford	38	+ 5 Laps	25
Ret	19	Teo Fabi	Benetton-Ford	34	Engine	9
Ret	9	Martin Brundle	Zakspeed	19	Overheating	18
Ret	20	Thierry Boutsen	Benetton-Ford	18	Wheel Bearing	7
Ret	5	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Honda	17	Accident	1
Ret	12	Ayrton Senna	Lotus-Honda	17	Accident	3
Ret	16	Ivan Capelli	March-Ford	14	Engine	21
Ret	6	Nelson Piquet	Williams-Honda	11	Exhaust	2
Ret	21	Alex Caffi	Osella-Alfa Romeo	11	Fuel Leak	26
Ret	27	Michele Alboreto	Ferrari	9	Transmission	5
Ret	10	Christian Danner	Zakspeed	9	Brakes	20
Ret	17	Derek Warwick	Arrows-Megatron	8	Radiator	12
Ret	7	Riccardo Patrese	Brabham-BMW	5	Clutch	8
Ret	28	Gerhard Berger	Ferrari	2	Engine	4
Ret	24	Alessandro Nannini	Minardi-Motori Moderni	1	Turbo	14
Ret	23	Adrián Campos	Minardi-Motori Moderni	0	Gearbox	19
Ret	3	Jonathan Palmer	Tyrrell-Ford	0	Accident	24

Notes

• 27th victory for Prost, record equalizer.
• This was the first race that a race officially had 26 cars on the grid until 1995 Monaco Grand Prix.

References

• Unless otherwise indicated, all race results are taken from