 the 1987 san marino grand prix was a formula one race held on may 3, 1987 at the autodromo dino ferrari, imola. it was the second race of the 1987 formula one season. it was the seventh san marino grand prix and it was held over 59 laps of the five kilometre circuit for a race distance of 297 kilometres. the race was won by british driver nigel mansell driving a williams fw11b. it was mansell's eighth grand prix victory, his first (of two) at the imola circuit. mansell finished 27 seconds ahead of brazilian driver ayrton senna driving a lotus 99t. third was italian driver michele alboreto driving a ferrari f1/87. the win gave mansell a one point lead in the championship over french mclaren driver alain prost. ==race summary== in friday practice, championship contender nelson piquet was eliminated from the race after an accident at the tamburello corner. a tyre of his williams fw11b failed, which resulted in a violent impact against the wall (when the car was returned to the pits, williams designer patrick head could not confirm if the crash was a fault with the fw11b as half the rear end had been torn off by the impact, while both head and nigel mansell were seen talking a good look at piquet's wreck). whilst in his opinion he had only sustained a sore ankle, he was taken to the nearby bellaria-igea marina hospital, and after medical checks he was forbidden to start by fia medical delegate sid watkins. for the remainder of the weekend piquet worked as a guest commentator on italian television. years later he revealed that he was "never quite right" after the accident, suffering headaches and sometimes double vision and for the rest of the 1987 season secretly visited the hospital for treatment. he did this in secret for fear 
1987_Formula_One_races 1987_in_Italian_motorsport San_Marino_Grand_Prix