1985 German Grand Prix

File:Alboreto 1985-08-02.jpg

Michele Alboreto won the race for Ferrari.

File:ProstAlain McLarenMP4-2B 1985.jpg

Alain Prost finished second, eleven seconds behind Alboreto.

The 1985 German Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Nürburgring on 4 August 1985. It was the ninth race of the 1985 Formula One season.

This was the first German Grand Prix that was held on the new GP-Strecke section of the track that replaced the old Südschleife section that had not been used since 1970. It was also the first time in nine years the German GP was held at Nürburgring; previously the German Grand Prix had been held on the Nordschleife configuration until 1976, after which the Grand Prix was moved to the Hockenheimring, following Niki Lauda's near-fatal accident at the 1976 German Grand Prix. The GP-Strecke would not host another Grand Prix until the 1995 European Grand Prix, and would not host the German Grand Prix again until the 2009 edition.

Michele Alboreto won the race, his fifth and last Formula One victory. This event was the first occasion on which an onboard camera was used in a race; on François Hesnault's Renault car. That car was not eligible for championship points, and this race marked the last time that an F1 team entered more than two cars for a race.

As it was the German Grand Prix (and that the team still only had 1 new car built) Tyrrell team boss Ken Tyrrell gave his German driver Stefan Bellof use of the Renault powered Tyrrell 014 for the weekend instead of the car's usual driver Martin Brundle, who was given Bellof's Cosworth powered 012 to drive. To get around a FISA rule stating that a team and driver could not run more than 2 engines in the one chassis during a season (with the 012 running the Cosworth and 014 the Renault), Tyrrell simply switched the drivers from one car to the other but not their car numbers, meaning Bellof drove in car #3 and Brundle in car #4. Bellof qualified the turbo powered car 19th while Brundle was 26th and last with the Cosworth V8, some 10.2 seconds of Fabi's pole time and 6.4 seconds slower than his teammate in his usual car, something Brundle was reported to be not happy with.Template:Cn This was to be the last Grand Prix for Manfred Winkelhock: the German fatally crashed his Porsche 962C sportscar at the 1000 km of Mosport in Canada the following week.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> His son Markus would make his F1 debut 22 years later, on the same track.

As of 2024, Alboreto's win remains the last for an Italian driver driving for Ferrari in Formula One.

Classification

Qualifying

Pole position went to Teo Fabi, the first of his career and the only pole for the Toleman team.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He set his pole time during the Friday qualifying session; rain on Saturday meant that none of the drivers could improve their times.Template:Cn

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Gap
1	19	Template:Flagicon Teo Fabi	Toleman-Hart	1:17.429		—
2	28	Template:Flagicon Stefan Johansson	Ferrari	1:18.616	1:46.919	+1.187
3	2	Template:Flagicon Alain Prost	McLaren-TAG	1:18.725	1:43.088	+1.296
4	6	Template:Flagicon Keke Rosberg	Williams-Honda	1:18.781	1:39.547	+1.352
5	12	Template:Flagicon Ayrton Senna	Lotus-Renault	1:18.792	1:36.471	+1.363
6	7	Template:Flagicon Nelson Piquet	Brabham-BMW	1:18.802	1:49.347	+1.373
7	11	Template:Flagicon Elio de Angelis	Lotus-Renault	1:19.120	1:29.714	+1.691
8	27	Template:Flagicon Michele Alboreto	Ferrari	1:19.194	1:41.490	+1.765
9	22	Template:Flagicon Riccardo Patrese	Alfa Romeo	1:19.338		+1.909
10	5	Template:Flagicon Nigel Mansell	Williams-Honda	1:19.475	1:42.050	+2.046
11	8	Template:Flagicon Marc Surer	Brabham-BMW	1:19.558	1:38.330	+2.129
12	1	Template:Flagicon Niki Lauda	McLaren-TAG	1:19.562	1:44.330	+2.133
13	26	Template:Flagicon Jacques Laffite	Ligier-Renault	1:19.656		+2.227
14	25	Template:Flagicon Andrea de Cesaris	Ligier-Renault	1:19.738	1:39.623	+2.309
15	18	Template:Flagicon Thierry Boutsen	Arrows-BMW	1:19.781	1:54.674	+2.352
16	15	Template:Flagicon Patrick Tambay	Renault	1:19.917	1:33.373	+2.488
17	17	Template:Flagicon Gerhard Berger	Arrows-BMW	1:20.666	1:41.131	+3.237
18	23	Template:Flagicon Eddie Cheever	Alfa Romeo	1:21.074	1:32.376	+3.645
19	3	Template:Flagicon Stefan Bellof	Tyrrell-Renault	1:21.219	14:04.270	+3.790
20	16	Template:Flagicon Derek Warwick	Renault	1:21.237	1:46.773	+3.808
21	10	Template:Flagicon Philippe Alliot	RAM-Hart	1:22.017		+4.588
22	9	Template:Flagicon Manfred Winkelhock	RAM-Hart	1:22.607	1:51.109	+5.178
23	14	Template:Flagicon François Hesnault	Renault	1:23.161		+5.732
24	30	Template:Flagicon Jonathan Palmer	Zakspeed	1:24.217	1:51.833	+6.788
25	24	Template:Flagicon Huub Rothengatter	Osella-Alfa Romeo	1:26.478		+9.049
26	4	Template:Flagicon Martin Brundle	Tyrrell-Ford	1:27.621	1:47.820	+10.192
27	29	Template:Flagicon Pierluigi Martini	Minardi-Motori Moderni		1:40.506	+23.077
Sources:<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	27	Template:Flagicon Michele Alboreto	Ferrari	67	1:35:31.337	8	9
2	2	Template:Flagicon Alain Prost	McLaren-TAG	67	+ 11.661	3	6
3	26	Template:Flagicon Jacques Laffite	Ligier-Renault	67	+ 51.154	13	4
4	18	Template:Flagicon Thierry Boutsen	Arrows-BMW	67	+ 55.279	15	3
5	1	Template:Flagicon Niki Lauda	McLaren-TAG	67	+ 1:13.972	12	2
6	5	Template:Flagicon Nigel Mansell	Williams-Honda	67	+ 1:16.820	10	1
7	17	Template:Flagicon Gerhard Berger	Arrows-BMW	66	+ 1 Lap	17
8	3	Template:Flagicon Stefan Bellof	Tyrrell-Renault	66	+ 1 Lap	19
9	28	Template:Flagicon Stefan Johansson	Ferrari	66	+ 1 Lap	2
10	4	Template:Flagicon Martin Brundle	Tyrrell-Ford	63	+ 4 Laps	26
11	29	Template:Flagicon Pierluigi Martini	Minardi-Motori Moderni	62	Engine	27
12	6	Template:Flagicon Keke Rosberg	Williams-Honda	61	Brakes	4
Ret	23	Template:Flagicon Eddie Cheever	Alfa Romeo	45	Turbo	18
Ret	11	Template:Flagicon Elio de Angelis	Lotus-Renault	40	Engine	7
Ret	24	Template:Flagicon Huub Rothengatter	Osella-Alfa Romeo	32	Gearbox	25
Ret	19	Template:Flagicon Teo Fabi	Toleman-Hart	29	Clutch	1
Ret	12	Template:Flagicon Ayrton Senna	Lotus-Renault	27	CV joint<ref name="Lotusp245">Template:Cite book</ref>	5
Ret	16	Template:Flagicon Derek Warwick	Renault	25	Ignition	20
Ret	7	Template:Flagicon Nelson Piquet	Brabham-BMW	23	Turbo	6
Ret	15	Template:Flagicon Patrick Tambay	Renault	19	Spun Off	16
Ret	8	Template:Flagicon Marc Surer	Brabham-BMW	15	Engine	11
Ret	9	Template:Flagicon Manfred Winkelhock	RAM-Hart	8	Engine	22
Ret	22	Template:Flagicon Riccardo Patrese	Alfa Romeo	8	Gearbox	9
Ret	14	Template:Flagicon François Hesnault	Renault	8	Clutch	23
Ret	10	Template:Flagicon Philippe Alliot	RAM-Hart	8	Oil pressure	21
Ret	30	Template:Flagicon Jonathan Palmer	Zakspeed	7	Alternator	24
Ret	25	Template:Flagicon Andrea de Cesaris	Ligier-Renault	0	Collision	14
Source:<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> {{safesubst:#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=|preview=Page using Template:Center with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| 1 | style }}

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Template:Flagicon Michele Alboreto	46
2	Template:Flagicon Alain Prost	41
3	Template:Flagicon Elio de Angelis	26
4	Template:Flagicon Keke Rosberg	18
5	Template:Flagicon Stefan Johansson	16
Source: <ref name="Championship standings">Template:Cite web</ref>

Constructors' Championship standings

Pos	Constructor	Points
1	Template:Flagicon Ferrari	65
2	Template:Flagicon McLaren-TAG	46
3	Template:Flagicon Lotus-Renault	35
4	Template:Flagicon Williams-Honda	24
5	Template:Flagicon Renault	15
Source: <ref name="Championship standings"/>

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

Template:S-start |- style="text-align:center" |width="35%"|Previous race:
1985 British Grand Prix |width="30%"|Template:Nowrap
Template:Ifnumber |width="35%"|Next race:
1985 Austrian Grand Prix |- style="text-align:center" |width="35%"|Previous race:
1984 German Grand Prix
Previous race at the Nürburgring: 1984 European Grand Prix |width="30%"|German Grand Prix |width="35%"|Next race:
1986 German Grand Prix
Next race at the Nürburgring: 1995 European Grand Prix |- style="text-align:center" {{#if: | Template:Succession box }} |- style="text-align:center" {{#if: | Template:Designated European Grand Prix }} |- style="text-align:center" {{#if: | Template:S-ach }} |- style="text-align:center" {{#if: | Template:F1 Promotional Trophy }} |- style="text-align:center" {{#if: | | {{ #if: | Template:S-ach }} }} |- style="text-align:center" {{#if: | Template:Succession box }} Template:S-end Template:F1GP 80-89