From the archives: Last of the Italian stallions

It's been 15 years since an Italian raced for the Scuderia in a round of the Formula 1 world championship. On that occasion, at Imola in 1994, Nicola Larini finished second standing in for the injured Jean Alesi. No one cared that much however, for sadder events had unfolded through that weekend.

So as we prepare for Luca Badoer to become the 24th Italian to race for the Scuderia in Formula 1, we thought we'd dig through our archives and share with you the race report from the last time one won in a Ferrari.

Incredibly it's as long ago as 1985, when Michele Alboreto triumphed over Alain Prost in the German Grand at the Nurburgring. Enjoy...

1985 German Grand Prix report: Alboreto smokes it

It was a bit like Silverstone. Senna and Rosberg fought over the early laps. Johansson was shoved out of it at the first corner. The men leading the fight for the world championship, Alboreto and Prost, took the first two places. This time it was Michele's turn.

In England, though, Prost won by more than a lap, with Alboreto second on reliability alone. In Germany, Ferrari were competitive again. Alain spun in his efforts to keep up.

Jacques Laffite took another fine third place for Ligier - and Pirelli, Elio de Angelis retired again. Brabham were not on the pace. Renault and Alfa were not in the game at all.

One thing was very different, though. One pole position for the first time ever, was a Toleman-Hart. Teo Fabi retired in the race, but the car impressed everyone.

Qualifying

To Germany, then, for round nine, at the Newport Pagnellring. The pole, according to the Longines men, was over 131mph, and I'll have to take their word for it. For two days I stood behind a high debris fence, watching coloured dots in the distance thread their way through constant radius curves. Still, no doubt that man will write in again and tell me the bratwurst was wholesome and the toilets clean and who could ask for more than that of a grand prix circuit?

Northern Europe appears to be having as bad a summer as I can remember, and the weather at the - steel yourself, say it - Nurburgring was much the same as at Silverstone: cool and showery, with odd glimpses of blue sky and warmth. Despite dismal local forecasts, though, Friday was at least free of disrupting rain, and the timed hour in the afternoon settled the grid.

In the morning session there was something of a surprise, for Teo Fabi's lone Toleman-Hart topped the list, followed by Lauda's McLaren, the Lotuses of Senna and de Angelis and the Ferraris of Alboreto and Johansson. But times were pretty slow, Teo's lap three seconds from Piquet's recent testing time. It didn't really mean a lot. Did it?

Very soon after one o'clock Fabi was out for his first qualifying run. One nineteen point one. Not bad. But then Senna took to the track: 1:18.792. Quicker, yes, but not by much. The Toleman was certainly in with a shout.

Elio de Angelis and Stefan Johansson take in some karting © LAT

For a time we waited for someone to beat Ayrton's lap - and we waited a long time. Two possible contenders, Prost and Rosberg, were for different reasons pounding around on Goodyear Cs, leaving themselves a single set of qualifiers, so for now were no threat to the Lotus. Nelson had engine pickup problems and Elio de Angelis a down-on-power engine. Alboreto was unhappy with the balance of his Ferrari. Senna's name stayed on top for half an hour and more.

And then Fabi came out once more. A single warm-up lap, then go for it. Through the left-right swerve behind the paddock the Toleman was plainly quicker than anything we had yet seen, recalling to mind Mario Andretti's celebrated phrase "like it was painted to the road..." On the short straight down to the last corner, too, the white car looked swift, and the time was a stunning 1:17.429 - stunning because the accepted hotshoes were struggling to get into the eighteen at this point.

In the end, it was the Ferrari of Stefan Johansson which came closest, although the term is a relative one. On his second run the Swede did 1:18.616, and that remained good for the front row. Teo was clear by more than a second! "I hope," he said, forcing that unwilling grin, "that it rains tomorrow..."

It did. Within half an hour of the end of final qualifying the sun was hot, the track quite dry. But when it mattered - between one and two - there was almost constant heavy drizzle. Toleman's first pole position was secure.

Fabi, at first, was not truly in a position to enjoy it. Unlike several drivers, he had opted for a run in this wet session, but not completed so much as a lap. He had come out of the final right-hander and on to the pit straight, then squeezed on the power a little too much. The tail flicked out, and then the TG185 was into a spin, which finished when the nose smacked very hard into the pit guradrail. In the impact Teo got a bang on the head, and initially remembered nothing of the accident.

Feeling groggy, he sat down in the Toleman pit, but by the end of the session was feeling fine again - quite well enough to receive the pole man's traditional scooter prize.

While photographers crowded around the little man perched on the saddle, a shy face framed by the boobs and beams of the Penthouse girls around him. As at Indianapolis two years ago he was on the pole and couldn't quite believe it.

The signs of a serious return to form by Toleman were there at Silverstone two weeks ago, despite a wretched series of gearbox problems (since traced to a single too-fine oil filter). Brian Hart gets quite agitated at suggestions that some of his engines are more equal than others, that Toleman get the pick of the bunch. Good progress has recently been made with the engine management system, and he approves of the engine installation in the TG185.

He would be a cruel man who denied Brian a degree of quiet satisfaction at the outcome of qualifying. On Thursday evening Manfred Winkelhock and Gustav Bruner were less than complimentary about Hart engines on German TV. The following day one was good - in a Toleman - for pole position. The RAM-Harts were 21st and 22nd, five seconds away.

Teo Fabi, Toleman TG185 Hart © LAT

Not even Brian would claim parity on horsepower with the major manufacturers, but Fabi's car went through the startline speed trap at 153.005mph. Johansson's second-place Ferrari managed 153.145...

If Saturday had been dry, who knows what might have happened? Fabi himself was privately convinced he could go quicker: "Today I used a standard race engine," he said after the first session. "Tomorrow I have a qualifying engine in the car - and I can go faster too..."

But Saturday wasn't dry, and inevitably there were those who claimed that Teo would have dropped to fifth or sixth. Maybe they were right. As it was, Fabi, the Toleman-Hart and Pirelli were on the pole, and the great sadness was that Rory Byrne, sick at home, missed seeing it. "I really believe," Teo said, "that the Toleman chassis in the best in Formula 1 at the moment."

The second man was a surprise, too. For the first time since he joined Ferrari Stefan Johansson had a completely trouble-free qualifying session. "Much better than at Ricard or Silverstone," he reckoned. "The balance of the car is really not bad at all here - a little bit of understeer, but not too bad. And we're better on power, too, than the last two races."

Johansson's problems were confined to generator failures, one in each morning session, and his spirits were high. "What was that about - did Fabi spin?" he asked after the final wet session.

"Yes," I replied. "He hit the wall."

"Yeah?" said Stefan, grin widening. "Is the tub damaged?"

"Yes - a bit."

"Really? Can they repair it for tomorrow?"

"Doesn't matter," I answered. "It was the spare..."

"Oh..."

The thought of Johansson starting from up front was exhilarating, but may have been less so to Alboreto, who was never as happy with his Ferrari, despite being fastest of all through the speed trap. On Friday he complained that the balance was poor, but the following morning, after his car had been put on identical settings to Stefan's, reported that it felt better. Eighth fastest on Friday, he felt sure to improve in the final session - but, of course, the rain took care of that. Eighth it had to be.

In the picture as ever, Prost and the McLaren TAG were third, despite but a single pure qualifying run. During most of Friday morning Alain was marooned in the pits while the mechanics went over his car's braking system: "Five, six laps maximum, I was losing the pedal. Down to the floor..."

The problem was traced and righted, but he had managed only a dozen laps in the morning, so opted for one set of Cs for the timed hour. On those he did seven laps, adjustments, another four, more adjustments, another three, stop. On with the qualifiers, 1:18.725.

"We are ok now, I think," he commented. "If it's dry, I can win this race." And if it's wet? "Anyone can win: The first corner will be a lottery..."

While Alain was having his Friday morning brake troubles, Niki Lauda was setting second best time to Fabi. Unfortunately, though, the world champion did not significantly improve in the afternoon and finished up with only 12th place on the grid. "One run I made a mistake, screwed up myself," he commented, straight as ever, "and the other was spoiled by Bellof holding me up." Yet again Niki faced a deal of unnecessary work on Sunday.

Keke Rosberg surveys work done on the Williams FW10 Honda © LAT

Williams was one of few teams not to test here recently, preferring to concentrate on the Osterreichring.

"Obviously we lost some time today because of that," said Keke Rosberg. "I declare not to run two sets of qualies for the timed session because I wanted more laps than that." After 11 laps on a set of Cs, Keke put on qualifiers at the end, and a single flying lap was good for fourth place: "I'm quite happy with that in the circumstances."

Team-mate Nigel Mansell was 10th. "I'm feeling better and better every day, but at present everything takes a lot more effort than usual. I'm very aware of that because I haven't been able to train." This was Friday morning, and Nigel said he was going to take it easy that first day, "no heroics."

Brake problems (a broken master cylinder) kept him in the pits for most of the timed session, but by Saturday afternoon he was feeling quite good about the race: "I was fastest by quite a bit today when the rain was at its worst, and that's done me good. We've learned a lot. And I think we've got a good race set-up now, wet or dry."

At the Nurburgring there were faint signs, nothing more, of frustration from Ayrton Senna. While Elio de Angelis has usually finished in the points this season, Ayrton has scored only once. With Silverstone still inevitably fresh in his mind, he was anything but amused when his Lotus-Renault managed only one flying lap in Friday's dry session.

True, it stood as quickest for quite a while, but any hope of improving disappeared when his engine suddenly refused to run properly. Afterwards, the mechanics discovered part of a rubber washer in the mechanical fuel pump. It had come - somehow - from the pipe connecting fuel pump and tank. Still, that one lap remained good for fifth, and Senna remained a very serious factor - car permitting. The forecasters confidently predicted a wet race, and only in the slow conditions of sodden Estoril has Ayrton's car run trouble-free this year.

De Angelis, seventh, was more overtly angry on Friday afternoon. Quite happy with his engine in the morning, he found it well down on power when it mattered, and afterwards discovered that the Renault engineers - for reasons known only to themselves - had made adjustments to the V6's management system between sessions. They also omitted to inform the driver. Elio was livid, and with good reason. "The balance of my car was perfect today," he foamed, "and it was completely wasted because there was no power."

On Saturday morning, the Italian had to pull off in front of the pits with a broken gearbox, but was somewhat mollified by setting fastest time in the afternoon - not that it meant anything of course, because of the conditions.

Gordon Murray was a very disappointed man on Friday: "I really thought we'd be in the 16s today, no problem. Nelson did a 17.3 when we tested here..." Had that been a hot 'Pirelli' day? "No, anything but. It was colder than today, if anything.

"No, what's happened is that BMW have made changes to the set-up of the qualifying engines, and the pick-up is very bad." Piquet confirmed that, describing the car as "nearly undriveable". But he was pleased with the Pirellis, he said, and the race car on race tyres was working well. Sixth fastest was not a true indication of race day potential. Nelson ran only briefly in the rain on Saturday afternoon, but Marc Surer, 11th on Friday, ran several laps and was among the quickest.

Riccardo Patrese declined to run at all in the wet, to the astonishment of team-mate Eddie Cheever: "I can't understand it. Doesn't he realise those are the only conditions in which we can be competitive?"

Eddie Cheever, Alfa Romeo T84T © LAT

Patrese did a fine job on Friday, setting ninth fastest time with the Alfa Romeo - he, like Cheever, having now reverted to an old 184 in preference to the latest cars. Eddie, by contrast, was down in 18th. "My car was hopeless today, all wrong," he frowned on Friday. "I need to change the settings in a big way."

The following morning he felt better: "Softer at the front and more front wing has made quite a difference." But, of course, he never got the chance to improve. In the wet, predictably, he thrashed around, enjoying himself: "Six spins today, I think! I don't want a wet race - or a dry one. We don't have the grip to be competitive. No, I want a wet-dry-greasy-chaotic sort of day, where you have to take chances. That's the only way we can be in with a chance..."

The Ligiers were 13th and 14th, with Jacques Laffite - a spring lamb again after his third place at Silverstone! - quicker than Andrea de Cesaris. "Chassis and tyres are quite good here," he grinned. "My only real problem was the qualifiers - when the fronts are up to temperature the rears are starting to go off a bit. And tomorrow I think I'll run more wing - we are a bit short of downforce."

On Saturday morning he was quickest! True, the conditions were never completely dry and, true, he did run qualifiers. Who cared? The next names on the list were those of Senna and Prost. Jacques reported that the JS25 was even better, and he felt sure to get in the top 10 in the afternoon - if it stayed dry...

Ligier is a team making genuine progress at present, de Cesaris feeling that a poor Renault engine cost him several places on Friday. Both men looked to the race with good hopes - which is more than could be said of the other French team. Yet again the Renaults were quite hopeless. Having run two uncompetitive cars throughout the season, the Regie took the curious decision to run three uncompetitive cars at the Nurburgring. Joining Patrick Tambay and Derek Warwick for this race was Francois Hesnault, at the wheel of an Elf-funded standard RE60 with on-board camera to provide 'live' race coverage. The car was run by Renault Sport's test car crew, and Francois - whom it was good to see back again - set 23rd best time with it.

Hesnault's appearance meant that, for the first time in a long time, 27 cars were present. As the third RE60 was present solely to provide pictures, it seemed a little unfair that it should bump anyone else from the race. Before practice began, therefore, Jean Sage got the signature of every team manager: for this one race, 27 would be allowed to start.

Which was just as well for the unfortunately Pierluigi Martini, who on Friday morning had a horrifying accident in the Minardi-Moderni. After the fast 'S', the car's left rear wheel flew off. Immediately the suspension dug in and, in Martini's own words, "I was looking at the sky..."

The yellow car got some way off the ground before crashing down again on its gearbox. Mercifully, it did not flip on landing, but spun for 60 yards or so before coming to rest. He was a very fortunate man to be unhurt in the accident, and was visibly shocked afterwards. It was perhaps just as well that he was unable to practise in the afternoon, the other car having blown up earlier.

On Saturday afternoon, though, Martini did 15 brave laps in the rain, setting a best time of 1:40.506. It was far off a qualifying time, of course, but it had been settled the day before: 27 would take the start.

Race

Ayrton Senna (Lotus 97T Renault) leads the start of the 1985 German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring © LAT

The weather, to everyone's surprise, was dry on Sunday morning. Dull and grey, sure, but nevertheless dry. There was also enough of a stiff breeze to keep clouds on the move. Perhaps the rain would keep off.

For most of the warm-up, the familiar names of Prost and McLaren headed the times, but right at the end Rosberg went a hundredth quicker. Next up were the Lotuses of Senna and de Angelis, then the Ferraris of Alboreto and Johansson. Pole man Fabi set seventh best time, but complained of tyre temperature problems - which also afflicted the other Pirelli runners, Brabham and Ligier. Mid-morning it was just plain cold.

The warm-up was unusually trouble-free, in fact, with none of the leading runners requiring pre-race engine changes or anything of the like. With the race not scheduled to start until half-past two, people zipped up their anoraks and stood around, chatting. Prost said he felt good about the race if it stayed dry, and Warwick, with a humour commendable for one in a Renault, said he didn't.

One vastly unpopular figure had made a fool of himself the previous evening by taking of the grape to the point of temporarily losing the power of speech, and much time was given over to discussion of that and similarly weighty matters.

Eventually, though, it got serious again. This is Germany, after all. On the third stroke it will be 2:30 precisely - und ze race vill gestarten! (Forgive me, 'O'-Level was a long time ago...)

Round they came on the final parade lap, forming up on the grid. For Fabi, on the pole, the start was too long coming. The Toleman had 'clutch creep', and Teo had to put his foot on the brake pedal to keep the car still. Not without reason, therefore, he waved frantically for Derek Ongaro to give him the green light. When it came he jabbed back onto the throttle, let out the clutch - and it slipped. The Toleman was very slow away.

Initially Johansson had no such problems. The second place Ferrari got off the line well, and Stefan looked sure to lead into the first corner. Long before it, though, Rosberg was by on the left, Senna on the right, and the red car was pincered out.

"It was a pick-up problem at the beginning," Johansson reported. "On each gearchange it went ba-barp - the power didn't come in properly."

That much Stefan could have lived with, for he was still third as he turned into the first right-hander. But the computer which designed the super-safe new 'Ring obviously had second thoughts before finalising the layout: programme in some thrills for the crowd somewhere... not allowed any testing corners... let's put the first constant-radius corner ridiculously near the start to guarantee a shunt in the opening seconds!

It never fails. Last year Senna and Rosberg were eliminated, and this time the Ligiers touched (de Cesaris out on the spot), and so did the Ferraris...

From his eighth grid position Alboreto had got off the line superbly. As they came down to the first turn he chopped left-right across the bows of de Angelis and was into fourth. Going into the corner he arrived way too fast and on the wrong line. Locked up in a cloud of tyre smoke he went up on the inside kerb, slithered off - and into Johansson. The side plate of #27's left front wing razored neatly through #28's right rear tyre.

"He did," Stefan glumly reported, "say how sorry he was afterwards..."

Ayrton Senna (Lotus 97T Renault) leads Keke Rosberg (Williams FW10 Honda) and Michele Alboreto (Ferrari 156/85) on the first lap © LAT

While Michele, undamaged, duly assumed third place behind Senna and Rosberg, his team-mate drove slowly round to the pits for a tardy wheelchange. On stone-cold Goodyears he rejoined, almost a lap back already.

Ayrton and Keke have made lap one something of a personal battle of late, and on Sunday the Williams-Honda simply powered by the Lotus-Renault to lead at the end of it. Behind were Alboreto, de Angelis, Prost, Piquet, Mansell, Fabi, Patrese and Laffite.

In the early going Rosberg had the hammer down, pulling clear of Senna at around half a second a lap. Keke has had many tyre stops in recent races, but Williams played the Nurburgring a little more conservatively than their major rivals, opting for a harder Goodyear B on the left rear. In the cold conditions everyone else has chanced Cs all around. Piquet went for the softer Pirellis than did Fabi and Laffite.

De Cesaris, as we said, did not complete so much as a lap, and others swiftly followed him into retirement. The luckless Palmer lasted only seven laps in the Zakspeed, and both RAMs disappeared at around the same time.

So also did Hesnault's camera car. If this experiment is to be pursued - and everyone hopes it will - it might be prudent in future to seek a more reliable means of transporting the camera.

Patrese's failing gearbox took him out of ninth place soon afterwards, maintaining Alfa Romeo's lamentable reliability record after a promising start. So six cars were out within 20 miles of the start.

At the front, though, all was not well. Rosberg and Senna, less than two seconds apart, had broken away on their own a little from Alboreto - de Angelis - Prost, and then came Mansell, who was running strongly and had quickly dispensed with Piquet.

Nelson, clearly, was not going to figure in this one. Despite its awesome BMW horsepower and softer Pirellis, the Brabham was very clearly holding up Fabi's Toleman. Unfortunately, though, the Nurburgring computer left overtaking spots out of its calculations, and by the end of each straight Teo was never close enough to capitalise on his car's phenomenal ability into corners. All he could do was sit there, and in time he was joined in the queue by Boutsen and Laffite.

After a dozen laps it was clear that Rosberg was not in a position to break Senna. The Lotus, indeed, began steadily to close in. At the end of lap 12 Ayrton lost a little ground - and nearly his nosecone - when Rothengatter's lapped Osella moved across his bows at the last corner, but a lap later he had regained it and more.

Alboreto still ran third, with de Angelis right behind him and Prost not far back of the Lotus. Alain, it seemed, was playing the waiting game, thinking about fuel and tyres, an ominous presence as usual. But such was not the case this time.

"I had no engine today," he frowned afterwards. "My car was perfect through the corners, better than anything else. But on acceleration and top speed... 'opeless. Every straight I seem to lose a hundred metres." Which was the way it looked.

Stefan Johansson, Ferrari 156/85 © LAT

Another focal point at this stage - indeed, virtually throughout the race - was the progress of Johansson. After his first lap pit stop he has returned to the track only a few seconds in front of the leaders. For three or four laps, while his tyres warmed up, they had closed on him, but now he was going away from them, obviously the fastest man out there. And one could only regret that he was not part of the lead battle.

It was not a good day for Brabham. Getting away from the grid, Surer had over-revved and broken a valve spring, which led to a blown BMW after 15 laps. And eight laps after that Piquet, with Fabi, Boutsen, Lauda and Lafitte stuck behind him, pulled smartly off to the right before the first corner, turbo ablaze.

Last October a similar thing happened to Mansell's Lotus, and on that occasion Nigel was obliged to grab the extinguisher from the marshal so as to halt the fire before it took serious hold. This time Nelson had to do the same. During testing in Germany, of course, Surer's car incinerated itself while the fire marshal dozed. This one was at least awake; just slow.

By now there had been a change of lead. On lap 16 Senna took a run at Rosberg into the long Dunlop hairpin. Initially he looked too far back for a passing move, but pulled it off to perfection, darting by on the inside and leaving Keke no option but to give. Once through, Ayrton quickly moved out of range, pulling away at half a second a lap or so.

Lap 25: Senna, three seconds clear of Rosberg, nine clear of Alboreto/de Angelis/Prost, then Mansell running alone, leading Fabi/Lauda/Boutsen/Laffite. But yet again we were to see the #12 retiring from the lead. At the end of lap 27 Keke came through in the lead, and Ayrton, arm raised, was heading for the pits.

The problem this time was a broken CV joint, a surprising fault on this, a billiard table circuit. Since winning at Estoril Senna had retired from the lead at Imola, Monaco, Detroit, Silverstone and now the Nurburgring.

This, of course, left Rosberg nicely placed in the lead, but there was no question of relaxing, for the Ferrari-Lotus-McLaren combo was, if anything, a little nearer than it had been. Considering that defensive driving inevitably slows up a group, Alboreto, de Angelis and Prost were looking good; there were still 40 laps to go.

Senna apart, there were other drivers packing their bags. Renault were packing their transporter. Tambay, in severe pain after pulling a muscle in his neck the day before, had locked a rear wheel and gone off into soft sand and retirement on lap 20, and five laps afterwards Warwick was into the pits. His rev limiter had broken, and this had somehow disturbed the entire ignition system to the point that the engine would barely run.

Neither man finished at the circuit last year, either, but at least Patrick ran second most of the way, and Derek got up to third. So much for the new broom.

On lap 29 Cheever's surviving Alfa was into the pits for nothing more than new tyres. He, like most, had started on Cs all round. Were we in for a crop of tyre stops?

Not from the pole man, anyway. Fabi, once Piquet had retired, had really got going with the Toleman, despite sundry problems. Occasionally his engine had been cutting out, and the clutch was still slipping. It was this last, in fact, which expired after 29 laps, stranding him out on the circuit.

Niki Lauda, McLaren MP4-2B TAG © LAT

At the end of lap 31 Lauda came in, having just gone straight over the chicane. "He felt there was something loose, something wobbly at the back of the car," said John Barnard later. "We checked everything over, couldn't see anything wrong, gave him a new set of tyres and sent him out again. After that the car was perfect."

It's been a rough season for the world champion, on way and another, with only one points finish in eight races. But in the second half of the German Grand Prix Niki reminded us how he won the title last year. On fresh tyres and half tanks he really got his head down, quickly setting new fastest laps and doing it with grace and precision.

Lap 40: now Rosberg was looking truly vulnerable, being reeled in by Alboreto, de Angelis and Prost, who were still circulating together, as they had been from the start. Mansell's Williams was keeping time with the trio (although 10 seconds behind it), so he, too, was catching Keke.

Catching Nigel was the previous occupant of the second Williams. Softly, softly, Jack Lafferty was coming through, just as at Silverstone! He had taken the Ligier past Boutsen's Arrows, and into sixth place. As Keke has more than once said: "Jacques is always as good as his car."

On lap 41 there was a break in the pattern: no de Angelis. After one of his best drives of the season, dogding Alboreto for going on an hour, Elio had pulled off with massive engine failure. No points for him.

Prost immediately took over from the Lotus, closing right up on the Ferrari's tail - and both now had Rosberg in their sights: 2.1, 1.5, 0.9 on lap 44.

By the end of the 45th, Keke was down to third. Tyres going away, he was ragged through the uphill left-right towards the end of the lap, allowing Michele to get momentum on him down to the final right-hander.

The Italian, in truth, was not really close enough for a legitimate shot at the lead, but went for it anyway, lunging for the inside as Rosberg took a wider entry line. For the second time in the afternoon the Ferrari was up on the kerb, scrabbling, and for the second time Alboreto got away with it.

Keke took a charitable attitude, steering wide and giving Michele room, but even so the two cars briefly banged rear wheels. The Ferrari came out of the corner ahead, and Prost also nipped past the Williams on the exit, immediately moving right onto Albereto's tail.

Once relegated, Rosberg fell back. There was no way he could stay with them, and there was no threat to his third place - or so it seemed. Mansell's sister car was fourth, but Laffite was almost up with him, well clear of Boutsen. Seventh by now was the remarkable Johansson, still charging along but unlikely to make further progress, 40 seconds behind the Arrows.

Behind Stefan was Berger, in Jack Oliver's second car, being caught at an amazing rate by Lauda, still lapping clearly faster than anyone else.

Michele Alboreto (Ferrari 156/85) leads Alain Prost (McLaren MP4-2B TAG) in the closing stages © LAT

Prost now knew that, barring anything untoward, he wasn't going to pass Alboreto. Through the corners he took yards off Michele, but on horsepower the Ferrari driver had him cold. "All I could do," he said, "was try and keep the pressure on. I could see there was oil smoke coming from the back of his car..."

Indeed there was, but it signalled nothing serious. On lap 56 Alain had fought back to within half a second, but that was the end of it. At the end of the 57th Alboreto emerged onto the pit straight alone, and nearly 20 seconds dragged by before we saw the McLaren. Going into the last corner Prost had spun - exactly as did Lauda last autumn.

"My own fault," Alain related. "I was really pushing to keep with him because my engine was so bad, and I'd been gaining on him under braking. The brakes were fantastic, I must say. But towards the end the pedal went a little bit soft - this was the first time it had happened. Already I was braking as late as possible, and the pedal caught me out. I locked the rears - and that was it..."

He kept the engine running, and after indulging in some rather untypical autocross on the grass resumed his race, still securely second but now without thoughts of victory.

The first two places seemed therefore set, but third was a much more open affair. Rosberg, slithering increasingly, held onto it until lap 57, but Mansell and Laffite were right on his tail by now, and soon both were by, Jacques seizing the opportunity to take both Williams at the same time!

Keke took his car into the pits for tyres (resuming in fifth place), but Nigel swiftly counter-attacked, passing the Ligier down to the first corner in an impressive burst of Honda acceleration. Two laps later the story was the same: Laffite in front over the finish line, Mansell passed again before the first corner.

After only four laps on his new tyres Rosberg was done for the day. Back in the pits with just six laps to go, he retired, brakeless. A seal in the right rear calliper failed. He led more laps than anyone, scored nothing.

On the 64th lap Laffite again had third place over the line, having ducked by Mansell earlier in the lap than on previous occasions, and this time the Williams was too far back to dispute the issue.

Next time round it had been passed for fourth by Boutsen's Arrows! The Belgian had been in for tyres a dozen laps earlier, and really went for it on his fresh Goodyears. But catching Mansell would have been out of the question had not Nigel's perennial ill-fortune struck. During the last four laps he looked to be cruising, and we all assumed the car to be low on fuel. Not so: it was low on boost. The Honda V6 had simply lost its power.

Nor was it even to finish fifth. In the last lap Lauda, sailed past to claim the place. In four laps Mansell had gone from third to sixth.

Alain Prost, Michele Alboreto, and Jacques Laffite on the podium © LAT

Still, there was at least a championship point, a small reward for a brave drive. Johansson got nothing at all. Seventh for a long way, he was out of brakes in the closing stages, spinning at the last corner once, running wide another time. In the last few laps he was passed by Berger, and also by Bellof, another man to stop for tyres.

Understandably, Stefan was disconsolate afterwards, "I had a good race, I suppose," he muttered, "but I could've won the bloody thing..." So, too, he could.

Alboreto, though, did. It was a very fine drive, but you would have to say - bearing in mind somewhat forceful incidents with Johansson and Rosberg - that it was rather a fortunate victory. Twice he touched another car in a precarious manoeuvre, and twice his own survived intact.

"No, no problems with the car at all," he said "I had some vibration through the steering near the end, but that was just my tyres picking up rubber from the track. Normal, you know. Today I'm happy because Ferrari were not so quick in the last two races. This time we were competitive, no?"

All the results from the 1985 German Grand Prix weekend