Grand Prix Gold: Spain 1986
Autosport relives the great races of the past, and this week it's the readers choice: James Whiteley picked the 1986 Spanish Grand Prix, where Senna and Mansell enthralled the Jerez crowd to end the race with one of the closest finishes ever
Spain '86: the runners & riders
The thrill of the chase
By Nigel Roebuck
It began as a five-car race and in the end it came down to just two. Ayrton Senna and Nigel Mansell enthralled the sparse crowd at Jerez, the Lotus and Williams drivers finally crossing the line perhaps a foot apart - two at the most. Each had led, Senna first, then Mansell in the middle section of the race. As Nigel's tyres began to go away, Ayrton moved by once more, followed by the McLaren-TAG of Alain Prost.
Share Or Save This Story
Archive: The flamboyant F1 ace who lost his best years at Ferrari
Archive: When F1's Italian GP no-overtaking proposal was rejected
From the archive: How Williams's last F1 title challenge unravelled
Autosport 70: How Mansell bested Senna in the greatest F1 Hungarian GP ever
Autosport70: Senna, tragedy and the battle for Coulthard
Autosport 70: The rise and fall of Ferrari's first great champion
Grand Prix Gold: Australian GP 1986
The pre-Christmas pressure on Bottas and Vettel
DTM rivals question Lamborghini’s “overperformance” in Spielberg races
Red Bull staff being poached is a “natural development” – Marko
BTCC Brands Hatch: Vauxhall duo claim 1-2 in free practice
Vinales "looked like a cone" after Motegi sprint start woes
When a generation of drivers learned skills for life from an atypical academy scheme
The enduring power of Prodrive at 40
Inside the archive that keeps motorsport’s most closely-guarded secrets
The choppy waters McLaren has navigated behind the scenes of its F1 success
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
