Grand Prix Gold: Mexican GP 1986

All the attention was centred on the fight for the 1986 world championship. Would Nigel Mansell finish ahead of Piquet and Prost to clinch the title? Would Piquet score another win, or even Prost, and take the championship down to the wire in Australia?

That's what everyone was asking on Sunday morning, but by 3pm on Sunday afternoon it was Gerhard Berger and his Pirelli-shod Benetton-BMW that had upset the predictions.

Piquet looked like running away with the race, but fell out of the running with blistered tyres. Mansell made two stops, but was delayed right from the start when he limped off the line close to last.

Prost's tyres were gone at the end, but he was afraid to stop because of an engine problem while Senna was forced to make two stops for rubber.

Mansell, Prost and Piquet will now go to Australia still fighting for the title, but now separated by just seven points, six of which are still Mansell's cushion.

Qualifying

It had been 16 years since the last Mexican Grand Prix. Back in 1970 it was, in the words of Jackie Stewart who took part in the race, "a farce. We should never have raced, but everyone was frightened not to race because it would have resulted in a riot. People were lining the track and even sitting on it and despite repeated appeals from Pedro Rodriguez and myself it did little to help. The race was delayed and I remember the organisers finally coming to us and saying: "Everything is OK now, we have taken insurance and it doesn't matter if you kill anyone."

The race went on and Pedro Rodriguez came close to killing a young child who ran across the road, while Jackie Stewart's race was equally scary when, "I hit a great big Alsatian dog at around 140mph which destroyed the car and came close to putting me off the road and into the crowd."

Now, sadly, Pedro Rodriguez is no longer with us. The circuit, named after his brother Ricardo, who was killed at the turn before the pits driving Rob Walker's Lotus 24 in the inaugral F1 race, is now called "The Brothers Ricardo and Pedro Rodriguez," in memory of Mexico's two greatest drivers.

Thankfully, today, there is little chance of the same crowd control problems which ruined the race back in 1970. The track is bordered by a double row of ten foot high barbed wire-topped fencing with a guard-dog patrol roaming within the "no man's land," between them, should anyone be clever enough to make it over the first line of defences. Monza please note.

Scary-looking dogs were brought in to keep a sense of order © LAT

Should things get out of hand there was also a small army of police, the kind you wouldn't want to argue with unless armed with a thick role of US dollars to emphasise your point. After a few days in Mexico it wasn't long before most people had their own amusing anecdote to tell about being pulled to the side of the road by the local city policeman on the pretext of some driving 'offence' and on discovering you were a foreigner, then have him slip into the passenger seat or stick his arm discreetly through the window to demand US dollars to the sum he thought you could pay to let the matter slide. It was a kind of free entertainment that's quite alarming to us native law abiding Europeans.

It would almost have been worth paying up with pleasure if the police could only control Mexico City's impossible traffic jams that come out of 16 million people living in one place!

High fences are not the only change to the much revised circuit. Two corners have been considerably revised by the addition of two tighter complexes, while there is now a modern pit/paddock complex with hospitality suites above the pits. There are also individual team rooms in a block in the paddock to replace their missing hospitality units. For those willing to spend 100 dollars a day (free for the drivers) there was also a helicopter service from the roof of their downtown hotel to a helipad in the paddock.

All in all, an impressive circuit for which expense was obviously no problem. A stark contrast to the sprawling surrounds of Mexico City's endless suburbs, some still showing signs of the earthquake that ravaged the city a year ago.

Some parts of the circuit haven't changed. The straight is still very bumpy, as are all but the two chicane-type complexes, while most impressive of all is the long 180-degree right-hander that is taken virtually flat out in either fourth or fifth gear, depending how many are in the gearbox. It's a corner in the class of the old Woodcote bend at Silverstone, Curva Grande in Monza or the corner before the straight at Dijon. It is deceptively fast, for there is a considerable banking to the turn as well which gives the car an exit speed to the corner of around 180mph. A couple of bumps in the corner ensure the drivers' complete attention and really shows up those chassis that are handling well - or badly.

Back in the old days the same corner had the barrier mounted right on the edge of the track. Today there is a narrow run-off area and a concrete wall which still looks frighteningly close at those sort of speeds.

It is, without doubt, the most dangerous and challenging corner on the circuit, but not surprisingly, one that all the drivers enjoy driving well - even those that had already gone off the road, some with disastrous consequences.

The track itself wasn't the only difficulty to contend with here. There was, of course, the added technical problem of racing a grand prix car a mile-and-a-half above sea level. All the cars were running the kind of wing settings they would normally use for a slow circuit. The Williams-Hondas, among others, sported the snorkel turbo inlets which they had briefly tested in Estoril, while the biggest changes of all were to the turbochargers themselves.

Each engine had modifications in an effort to maintain boost pressure without over-speeding the turbochargers, which naturally have to work harder in the thinner air to produce the same results as at sea level. There is no chance when it comes to trying to get the same qualifying boost as at other tracks. One compensation about racing in Mexico is that fuel consumption is dramatically reduced, and drivers had no need to worry about running short of fuel at the end of the race. Most of the teams were able to start the race on less than full tanks, the Brabham BMWs leaving out 25 litres of fuel and still having enough extra for a reasonable safety margin.

Senna romped to another pole in his Lotus, thanks largely to a new Renault engine © LAT

It might be the penultimate race for the Renault engine, but there was certainly no lack of effort on behalf of the French team of engine builders, for they had pulled out all the stops to produce the latest EF15C engine for all the Renault-powered cars in the field for this race, while Ayrton Senna and Rene Arnoux also got a C-type for qualifying as well.

A last minute delivery of a batch of specially prepared Garrett turbochargers kept the Renault runners right up with the other teams in terms of straightline speed. "Senna was running one of the new turbos during the Thursday unofficial practice and we only had the regular turbos. We must have been at least 150bhp down on the Lotus, and on Friday with the new turbos we were back to almost "normal" power," said Martin Brundle.

Ayrton Senna put both his Renault engine and trusty Lotus 98T/01 chassis to good effect right at the end of the second day's qualifying when on one flying lap with qualifying rubber he took the pole with an impressive lap at 1m16.99s. Instead of being delighted with his eighth pole of the year, the 15th of his career, and the 50th pole position for the Renault engine, Ayrton got out of his car and was noticeably upset with himself as it turned out. "I hit a bump, got off line and had to lift off the throttle. It seemed to take for ever before the power came back again. I could have been half a second quicker," Ayrton told Gerard Ducarouge.

His achievement was slightly soured by accusations from other teams that Lotus were once again on the pole by allowing the rear undertray to bend down at speed and create improved grip and air flow underneath the car. A close look by FISA technicians showed nothing considered illegal, and Lotus responded with an indignant statement to their detractors, which in essence said, either put up - with an official protest - or shut up.

There was an understandable touch of desperation in Johnny Dumfries's driving this weekend as the season draws to a close and he is hoping to impress enough to find a firm drive for next year.
He got away with a spin in the fast corner before the pits the first day and on Saturday did minor damage to the undertray when he went straight on at the end of the straight.

It was another difficult practice for Johnny. His first session ended early with an engine problem following his spin. He was confident that he could go faster on Saturday after setting up his car on race tyres at the start of the session, but when he went for a time on qualifiers his engine started to lose power and he failed to better his Friday time which put him back in 17th place.

The battle for the outside of the front row of the grid was between the two Williams cars of Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell. It would be important not to get stuck behind Senna at this track, which, like Portugal, has only one relatively safe overtaking spot at the end of the main straight. Piquet had found that out to his cost at Estoril, and was pulling out all the stops to get up on the front row in this vital race which he had to win to keep his championship hopes alive.

With the torque and power of the Honda engine, the Williams drivers were having a hard time keeping their left rear tyres in one piece through the long right-hander, and both of them had chosen to run race rubber for more laps and less risk of having both runs spoiled by traffic or an incident.

The two Williams men traded places during the session as Mansell set the quickest time and Piquet, the Brazilian finally coming out on top with a best lap three tenths faster than Mansell - who did a heroic job to have qualified as well as he did, for poor Nigel was suffering from a bad case of Mexico stomach, as were many of the people in the paddock.

Johansson was only 14th as the Ferraris again performed poorly © LAT

He had got a present at Murray Walker's birthday party the night before that he could well have done without. He would suddenly slow on the track with stomach problems and even had to rush into the pits and make a dive for the "Hombres".

"I wouldn't say that I would have taken the pole or made the front row of the grid without my stomach problems, but they certainly didn't help much," said an off-colour Nigel who had been loaded up with pills and potions in a bid to solve his problem for the race. "The car feels pretty good, and I am happy with the way practice has gone but for this," added Nigel, holding his stomach. He was surprisingly relaxed despite the difficult circumstances. Nigel sticking to his habit of this as "Just any other race," and showing no signs of any pressure with the world championship a possibility for him just a few hours away after so many years of waiting.

"It's going to be a hard race, not only for the drivers at this altitude, but also for the engine. Temperatures could be a problem, but it will be a problem for everyone," he explained, while there was also a worry on tyre choice with the left rear getting very hot during the Sunday morning warm-up.

Since Estoril, Piquet had gone into a serious training programme in the Italian Alps to prepare himself for the altitude problems of Mexico, while he even flew his own jet to the race with cabin pressure set to Mexico City altitude. Nigel had made do with "a few days training at home," while he had also been testing the car in Austria after Estoril.

Sharing the second row of the grid with Mansell was the Benetton-BMW of Gerhard Berger, the Austrian quickest on Friday but missing out on retaining his pole when the first turbo he tried at the start of the qualifying session didn't work properly. The team bolted on a second unit and Berger went for a better time than his first run, but was caught out by slower traffic and oil on the track left by Alboreto's third blown turbo of the session which left enough oil down to spoil several people's runs.

Fabi had similar trouble in the second Benetton and did not better ninth quickest by the end of practice.

Although both Brabham-BMW drivers were having a troubled time getting their chassis to handle to their liking, at least they did not have the usual engine problems which have plagued them for most of the season. "It's only the second day of trouble-free running that I have had this year, and that makes a big difference," said Derek. "When it keeps running we like to keep it in," he added with a grin after finally qualifying in seventh spot.

"There is very little grip and a lot of understeer, for every time we add some more wing to try and cure the problem it upsets the balance. The straight line speed is good, though, and so we do not look too bad overall."

Riccardo Patrese had an engine go at one point, forcing him to run the T-car, which had new experimental Brabham brake calipers with extra cooling fins. He ran his regular race chassis for the final session and came up with an impressive fifth place, the best overall starting position for the two BT55s since the start of the season.

Alain Prost's practice did not go so well. He had difficulty in getting his car to handle well over the bumps and suffered understeering problems into the slow corners, while his biggest trouble was the slow response of his TAG engine. The team had revised turbos for the circuit, but the Porsche engineers were having problems programming them into the car's computerised engine management system.

The TAG engine in Prost's McLaren suffered extreme turbo lag early on © LAT

Although the situation improved, Prost was still unable to run as much boost as he would have liked, and he had to be content with sixth place on the grid, behind both of his championship rivals, a final attempt at going faster in the last minutes of practice also spoiled by the oil that had been laid down.

His team-mate Rosberg had an even more miserable time. After a good start to the weekend with fourth fastest time on Friday morning it went downhill from then on, when at the end of the first session his engine blew a piston.

He didn't get into the afternoon session until 20 minutes before the end, and then trying to go too fast too soon his car was again off the track with a double turbo failure.

Still with no time and only a few minutes to run before the end of the session Rosberg rushed back onto the track with Prost's spare chassis, which he then spun half way into the fast right-hander before the pits. "It was my fault, just trying to go too fast too soon on cold tyres. The car swapped ends before I could even react," said Keke, who was lucky to have stopped short of the wall and done no more damage than knock of a front spoiler.

On Saturday his luck was no better. He struggled with slowly worsening handling which got so bad that it finally showed up as a suspension joint which had been damaged by the heat from the turbo.

"We found the problem just before the end of the session and the car was suddenly driveable again for my last run, but when I went for a time on qualifiers I had the oil to contend with and I also had to drive around Alliot's Ligier parked across the first chicane." Despite all that, Rosberg had still managed a lap that was to put him in 11th place on the grid, the Finn's mood slightly improved by the time he had packed up his picnic bag of sandwiches and biscuits prepared by the Marlboro hospitality girls rather than catching some local stomach bug in the restaurant.

One of the chassis that looked as impressive as the McLaren, Williams and Benetton chances on a quick qualifying lap through the corner before the pits was the Lola-Ford, a fact born out by the lap times which were impressive while the straightline speeds were not. After gearbox problems spoiled most of Tambay's first day's running, he ran a session on full tanks on the Saturday morning, while Jones went for a quick time on soft rubber.

Jones was more than pleased with the handling of his chassis, but Tambay wasn't, so he took Jones's settings for the final qualifying and set an impressive eighth quickest time. "The handling was much better with Alan's settings for the final and set an impressive eighth quickest time. "The handling was much better with Alan's settings on my car," said Patrick, but then it was Alan who was unhappy with his chassis.

"Just the slightest little difference on a track like this can change the car a lot, and I just didn't have as good a balance with the same tyres as I had in the morning," explained Alan who did not better 1m20.09s for 15th quickest, having done a couple of low 1m19s in the morning, the best of which would have put him in tenth place on the grid.

Rene Arnoux's hope of keeping a place in the top 10 after a seventh place in the first day was spoiled by a misfire from his EF15C qualifying engine which had run perfectly throughout the first session, which ended up being his quickest time.

Piquet found traffic when he really needed a clear lap in qualifying © LAT

Philippe Alliot ended up faster with a tenth place using the 'standard' qualifying engine, although he also had to use the team's spare chassis after damaging his own quite badly on Friday morning. He was the first to make contact with the wall on the outside of the last turn when he spun just before the exit. Fortunately the organisers had put in a short line of tyres which most of the impact, which was still strong enough to tear off the nose box and its fixing points and took a major repair job before the car could be called a spare again. He also spun again on his final run, the over-enthusiastic marshals filling his engine with fire extinguisher powder when they saw the usual trickle of flame coming from the hot turbos.

The bumps on this circuit brought the usual unhappy remarks from both the Ferrari drivers, while added to that they started off the weekend with really bad throttle lag problems.

The turbo troubles were slowly improved throughout practice, but reliability suffered, culminating in four blown turbos in the final hour of practice. Johansson managed a first run to improve upon his Friday time when the turbo blew on the spare chassis with which he was trying a different set-up. He got back to the pits to find that Alboreto had already blown his own race car and was then out in Stefan's race car which he also blew, finally making the hat-trick with a second blow-up in his by then repaired race car. For all that, Alboreto didn't better 12th on the grid, while Johansson was a creditable 14th. It is true that Johansson is often further back on the grid than his team-mate, but there is usually a good reason.

By the warm-up on Sunday both drivers were worried about the excessive understeer they were getting, which was blistering the front left tyre on both C and B compounds. Alboreto was even more unhappy by the way his car was riding the bumps. "It's impossible to drive - even down the straights," said a depressed looking Michele.

Neither of the Tyrrell drivers got their best crack at qualifying in the final session. Streiff used two sets of qualifiers and had traffic on his first set and a yellow flag on his second which spoiled his chances of bettering 19th fastest time which he set on Friday. Qualifying hadn't been particularly easy for the tall Frenchman, who also had a lucky escape when the front of the car slid out and put him over the kerb at the last turn which in turn caused the front left pullrod to fail.

Martin Brundle made it into 16th place with his car, but like Streiff had his final time spoiled by traffic and yellow flags. "I was on a flyer when Jonathan Palmer didn't see me coming up behind and he put me into the dirt. That spoiled one quick run and then the second one was spoiled when I had to lift for Rothengatter's crash." Said Martin. He was nevertheless happy with the full tank handling of his car and confident of a better race performance using the EF15C engine for the first time.

Jonathan Palmer was happy with the way his Zakspeed was running at this track, but never got the chance to show his true potential in practice, thanks partly to his own team-mate. "I ran the first run with C race tyres, and then went for a flyer on qualifiers which was spoiled by the yellow flags," said Jonathan.

The flags were for Huub Rothengatter, who had completed his two runs and was trying another run on full tanks for a race set-up. "I wasn't going very fast and was half way through the long fast right-hander before the pits when something happened with the front of the car and I couldn't steer it through the corner. The car just slid straight off the track," said a more-angry-than-shaken Huub who was extremely lucky to escape the 130mph plus shunt with nothing worse than bruised legs.

Slipstreaming practice for Osella twins Ghinzani and Berg © LAT

His car was comprehensively destroyed on all four corners, not helped by the fact that the breakdown truck also dropped it from about ten feet when the rope of the roll bar came undone.

"When we took a closer look at the car we discovered that the front stub-axle had sheared and the front left wheel came off," said Huub. Proving it wasn't his fault was little compensation for the fact that the team had no spare car at this race, so his weekend was finished.

Both the Arrows drivers failed to improve on their Friday times, both having turbo problems. Boutsen's engine was losing its edge, while Danner lost boost and had his second run spoiled by the crash.

De Cesaris was another non-improver on Saturday when he was sidelined with a broken turbo early in the session which left him back in 22nd place on the grid just ahead of his team-mate Nannini, who was plagued by engine problems throughout practice.

Ghinzani and Berg brought up the rear with their Osellas, Ghinzani bettering Berg's best by 2.5s when the Canadian failed to improve on his time because of a broken throttle cable.

See FORIX for the full grid and all the stats from the 1986 Mexican Grand Prix

Race

The morning warm-up saw the Pirelli runners complaining of a lack of grip with the harder race rubber, which was the only way they could make it to the finish without a stop. Berger had got the quickest time, but that was soft tyres and they had not lasted well. Although they had been a couple of seconds quicker. Benetton had thought about a soft tyre, but Pirelli convinced the team that the hard tyre was the way to go, while Berger struck a compromise and suggested a softer tyre on the right with the harder ones on the left.

Alain Prost had been second quickest. He had run hard on a new set of soft C tyres on the McLaren, and reported that they had been just fine with no sign of blistering.

Piquet, who had got only a handful of laps because of an engine management problem with his race car, decided upon harder Bs on the back of his Williams, Mansell a B on the left rear only.

There were no real worried looks. While Johansson was slightly bothered about the understeer and wear to his Ferrari's left front, Warwick was equally pessimistic about the lack of grip from the Brabham's Pirellis.

It was just another race, or so we thought.

It started badly for Mansell. As the light turned green Nigel was still trying to get his car into first gear. "I just couldn't believe it when it wouldn't go in," he said later. By the time he found first, the rest of the field were streaming past him and he finally got going in almost last place and was in eighteenth at the end of the first lap. Also, well down the field, after starting from the back when his engine died on the warming up lap, was the Lola of Jones, who was making a typical charge back through the field from 21st place at the end of the first lap.

At the front of the field, Piquet had his hands full with Senna. On the long drag down to the first corner the Honda and the Lotus were almost side-by-side, and as they approached the breaking area Piquet edged Senna off the line and there was a puff of smoke from the Lotus's front brakes as he locked up momentarily and the two cars nearly touched.

Piquet won the corner, Senna tucked in behind with Berger third from Prost, Alboreto and Alliot, who had made a good start through the confusion surrounding Mansell. Tambay had been ahead of Alliot going down to the first corner, but his good pace soon disappeared.

"I went wide going into the corner and four or five cars got by me," said Tambay whose race did not last another two corners. "Unfortunately, it put me back with Arnoux. The man's a walking disaster and I do not mind admitting it makes me scared to have him anywhere around me on the track. You never know what he is going to come up with. Going into the left-hander at the far end of the circuit I was on the line and he came down the inside and rammed my left rear wheel," said Patrick. His car bounced over Arnoux's, and ended up out of the race on the edge of the track, while Arnoux was able to carry on, but with the front right splitter missing behind the front wheel.

"It completely upset the handling of the car, but it would have taken too long to change so I carried on the way it was," said Arnoux, who not surprisingly claimed Tambay had turned into him.

Piquet managed to pull out a few lengths over Senna, but that was all he had, while Berger was slipping back into the grips of Prost, who finally moved ahead to take third place on lap seven.
Alboreto was holding down fifth place with no trouble from Alliot, who was in turn well clear of Brundle running a strong seventh.

At the end of 10 laps, Piquet's lead was still just under two seconds from Senna, both drivers lapping in close company but apparently content to save their tyres and see how things developed.

Prost, too, was saving his tyres in those opening laps with a heavy fuel load, another couple of seconds behind the leading pair with Berger and Alboreto similarly spaced out behind, seven seconds covering the leading group. Alliot had already dropped a further six seconds behind the leaders, but was still clear of Brundle, who was about to be passed by Johansson.

Streiff's race had come to a smokey stop on lap eight with a blown turbo, while the second Benetton of Teo Fabi had slipped away almost unnoticed along with the Osella of Ghinzani with electrical problems.

Senna and Berger stuck with Piquet during the early laps © LAT

"The engine was running on three cylinders almost right from the start. I think it was a valve problem," said Fabi, who was soon changed and back at the pitwall to watch his team-mate's and the team's first win, but that was to come later.

Right now, this race still looked like a Piquet benefit as he kept the same distance on Senna. Alboreto's race ended abruptly on lap 11 with yet another blown turbo.

After his bad start, Mansell had been charging along at an amazing rate. He was up to ninth place when Alboreto went out, but on lap 12 Mansell's charge had taken its toll on his tyres and he headed into the pits for front rubber which dropped him back to 17th place again.

Jones had also used up his tyres and pitted for a fresh set, the first of three stops for the same reason, and then a fourth stop when he retired for good. "The car would be fast for about five laps and then the left side tyres would go away, and I had to come back into the pits again. The gearbox started to jump out of sixth gear and the temperatures were getting a bit hot, so it wasn't worth carrying on, and I came in for good," said Alan, who was watching the race from his pit and counting the hours when he would be on the jet to Aussie.

By lap 20 the first four cars were still running in the same well ordered single file. Johansson had moved ahead of Alliot and so had Rosberg, now in sixth place and already having trouble with his tyres.

Alliot was a distant seventh now, Brundle was eighth with Warwick right behind him in ninth place and running well. Boutsen had moved up to tenth, Patrese having dropped back to 11th place after a spin.

Palmer was holding down a strong 12th by this time, with Mansell closing fast and about to move ahead next time around.

The first of the leading group to pit for tyres was Prost on lap 30. He made a quick stop and was back in the race in sixth place, and now we all waited to see who would be next. It was Piquet on lap 32 with an even quicker stop, which dropped him back to fourth place behind Senna, Berger and Johansson.

Rosberg had also pitted with Piquet, but in contrast to Prost's stop the Finn's was a disaster. He took his foot off the brake and started spinning the rear wheels before the rear left had been tightened. It threw the mechanic off balance and took the gun out of his hand which, unbeknown at the time, had damaged the tyre valve. Ron Dennis waved the brake sign back in Rosberg's face with an accusing finger for Keke, who was eventually waved out back into the race on what looked like a normal tyre.

He had just got up to almost top speed on the straight when the car lurched sideways giving Rosberg a big fright. "After the suspension problem in practice I looked in the mirror and saw the rear tyre crooked and I thought the suspension had broken," admitted Rosberg. He limped back to the pits with the flat rear tyre and when he stopped climbed out immediately without even turning to look at the car. His mechanics tried to motion him back into the car, but the still angry Rosberg pushed him aside and marched off into the pits. When he later learned that he was out of the race with nothing more than a puncture he was apologetic about his behaviour.

Tambay's race was a short one, thanks to the efforts of Arnoux © LAT

"I thought the suspension was broken and I was also upset about the stop, which was exactly the same problem as at Imola," he said. "I was all keyed up ready to go and Ron started to wave the brake sign up and down. When it started to move I took my foot off the break. He should hold it rock steady in front of me, not wave it around in front of my face when I am just waiting there for the sign to go. What's really a shame is that it is another chance of a good finish lost in my second to last race," said Keke.

So with that drama out of the way both Senna and Johansson pitted with more routine tyre stops, as did both Mansell and Brundle for a second stop. Berger was now a comfortable leader, from Senna, Piquet, Prost and Warwick in fifth place.

Poor Derek's luck didn't last long, however. Just after he had moved into fifth spot the engine coughed out clouds of smoke and he was forced to retire with what turned out to be a damaged piston.

"We think a plug electrode dropped into one of the cylinders and holed the piston," said a disappointed Derek. The handling was fantastic. It was understeering for the first half dozen laps and then it got better and better all the time."

Had he stayed in the race, he could have proved his point against the Goodyear shod cars ahead of him.

Now it was all left to Berger, the Austrian already no stranger to leading grands prix, but winning one is different. Even more so when he had also started the race feeling off-colour. "I had a temperature, and took some oxygen to make me feel better before the start," Berger said later.

"Once in the car I forgot about feeling sick, and concentrated on the race, but I had already made up my mind that I wasn't going to stop and break my concentration."

Anyway, he didn't need to, for like Warwick, Berger found his car handling better with every lap as the changing track suited his tyres and brought more woes to the Goodyear runners.

Berger soon had 35 seconds over his nearest rival, and he kept it that way without any problem, Senna giving second place away to Prost as the Lotus headed to the pits for another set of tyres. So, too, had Piquet, just twelve laps after his first stop. There was no doubt that the Goodyear runners were in big trouble.

Prost just hung on to second place where he stayed to the finish, his own tyres also blistered and difficult to drive, but he was equally worried about a sick engine. "I think it was running on five cylinders, and I was worried that if I stopped for fresh tyres it might die."

So he carried on, and it turned out to be the wise decision, for Senna was well behind, and Prost made it home to a safe six points.

Mansell fought back after being left on the line © LAT

Johansson was, by lap 52 (when Piquet made a third stop for tyres), the only other driver still on the same lap as the leaders, and looked to be heading for a well earned fourth spot, only to be chewed out of it in the closing laps when a turbo failed.

This handed fourth place to Patrese, whom Johansson had fought so hard to pass earlier in the race, but Patrese never got to enjoy it. As he came up to lap Boutsen for a second time, he misjudged his braking. "It was the most stupid accident I have ever seen. I pulled right over to let him by. He left his braking too late and locked up and went off, putting me off the track with him," said Thierry. Patrese's race stopped against the wall, while Boutsen was able to carry on to end up an eventual seventh.

Johansson's and Patrese's misfortune left Piquet back in fourth place, being chased for all he was worth by Mansell, now in fifth spot. It looked for a moment as though Mansell might even be able to pass Piquet, who took the fastest lap of the race in a bid to stay ahead, putting his third set of tyres in even worse shape. But four laps from the end Mansell almost crashed, and he decided to settle for fifth. "I think there was oil down from Johansson," said Mansell, although it was more likely to be Arnoux whose race finally came to an end on lap 64 with a broken engine, having just passed Boutsen.

The battle for sixth place was a close one. Alliot had it under control until a spectacular but harmless 150mph spin coming out of the turn before the pits saw him lose ground to Palmer's Zakspeed. "I was having to hold my car in fifth gear, and it caught me out," said Alliot.

With the Ligier on four very flat spotted tyres, Palmer was able to close the rest of the gap to Alliot and was right on his tail going into the last lap. "I was sure I could have passed him for my first point and the first for the team, but the car ran out of petrol with a half a lap to go when it was showing 13 litres on the computer," said a frustrated Palmer who was finally classified tenth.

Alliot got his first point, instead, while Boutsen, de Cesaris and Danner took the next three places. Boutsen suddenly found his missing turbo boost appear all by itself half way through the race, while Danner lost out to de Cesaris when his own turbo boost went out of control.

Delighted with his EF15C engine, Brundle was disappointed to lose so much time with two pitstops for tyres. He also lost two places to Boutsen and Palmer right at the end of the race when Johansson blew-up. "I was convinced I saw the red light, and thought either the race had been stopped or it was a slow lap." Ken Tyrrell even tried to protest the incident, but the Stewards threw his protest out.

Johnny Dumfries's hopes of a good finish were spoiled by tyre problems, and then an electrical fault which caused the car to cut dead.

As Berger took the flag for his first win, it was a popular victory, not only for the Austrian, but also for the Benetton team, who have deserved it for so long. "It's the best day of my life, along with the day my daughter was born," said Berger who added, "I am leaving the Benetton team at the end of the year, and this was the best present I could have given them."

It was also a popular win from the championship point of view. It is far from decided, even though Mansell is still the firm favourite.

See FORIX for the results and stats from the 1986 Mexican Grand Prix