1985 Detroit Grand Prix

1985 Detroit Grand Prix

The 1985 Detroit Grand Prix is the 6th race of the 1985 F1 Season. It was won by Michele Alboreto with Berger 2nd and Senna 3rd.

Qualifying

Marc Surer took his first ever pole with Prost 2nd and Alboreto 3rd.

Race

The drivers made a clean start, as Surer got away well on the outside and took the first corner ahead of Prost. In Turn 2, however, Prost took the lead back, and by the end of the first lap, Rosberg had also gotten around Surer. After one lap, Prost and Rosberg were opening a gap to Mansell, Senna, Alboreto, Derek Warwick, Elio de Angelis, Johansson, Piquet and Lauda. The Tyrrells of Bellof and Martin Brundle, down on power to the turbos but always extremely well suited to the tight Detroit circuit, each moved up six places on the first lap to 12th and 13th.

But as the race went on, the track was already beginning to break up, with the worst break up at Turn 2. By lap seven, Prost and Rosberg led Mansell by seven seconds. On lap eight, Prost surrendered the lead when he pitted for tires; regretting his gamble to try to run much of the race on one set of tires, relying on his car's superior performance to all of the other cars. Warwick had dropped back steadily, eventually retiring with a broken driveshaft, while the McLaren of Lauda quickly experienced brake problems. Lauda made it back to the pits to retire with no brakes on lap 10, but when Prost had the same problem on lap 13, he was unable to slow for Turn 2 and slid into the tyre wall.

De Angelis, on the other hand, was making steady progress. He took fourth when Senna pitted, then passed Alboreto for third and began closing the gap to Surer, who also was struggling with overheating brakes. On lap 17, with Rosberg's lead at 24 seconds, de Angelis got around Surer to take second place. Surer pitted on lap 18 after losing another position to Johansson. He returned in ninth place only to retire immediately when he hit the wall hard in Turn 2.

As he was about to be lapped, Pierluigi Martini damaged the nose of de Angelis' Lotus when he closed the door on the Italian. When de Angelis pitted for tires and a new nose, the Tyrrells were nose to tail in fourth and fifth, hounding the Ferrari of Alboreto. Approaching Turn 16 on lap 31, Philippe Alliot moved over to let Alboreto through but didn't see Bellof right behind. When Alliot moved back to the racing line, Bellof had nowhere to go and hit the wall in a shower of sparks.

At the halfway point, Rosberg led Johansson by 33 seconds. Alboreto was another 10 seconds back, followed by Brundle, Senna and de Angelis. Several successive fastest laps by Senna allowed him to overtake Brundle and then quickly close the gap to Alboreto.

Entering Turn 2, where the surface was beginning to break up and where both Prost and Mansell had crashed, Alboreto stayed right, away from the racing line and the bad patch at the apex. De Angelis charged through on the left, got on the marbles, and hit the wall exactly as the others had done, while Alboreto continued, minus the threat to his third place. Meanwhile, Rosberg, secure in the lead, had noticed his water temperature climbing. When a member of the crew noticed something caught in his radiator, he pitted to have it removed. The crew also gave him new tyres, which he didn't want because Johansson was not far behind. Rosberg eventually retired with engine failure

Alboreto, in third, had also been trying to save his brakes, but he now had to contend with a charging Brundle. With two laps to go, the Englishman had the Tyrrell right on Alboreto's tail, waiting for a mistake. Just as he was about to go by, however, Brundle's clutch began slipping, and he had to be content with sixth place, scoring the last point for Ford-Cosworth DFV engine in Formula One. Tambay, the last driver on the lead lap took fifth place, and Piquet brought the Brabham home in fourth.