1985 South African F1 Grand Prix Race Report & Results

Event: South African Grand Prix
Track: Kyalami

Weather: dry, warm, thin air

Nigel Mansell won his 2nd F1 World Championship race at the 1985 South African Grand Prix on the road. The Williams-Honda driver started from pole and won on the Kyalami circuit for the 1st time. It was his 2nd win of the season and the 21st win for the Williams F1 team, his second consecutive victory in two weeks, with team-mate Rosberg making it a Williams 1-2.

The politicised race

Over 700 deaths in South Africa's racial unrest in the year-to-date, including 15 in the week before the race, made the round politically toxic. France's Sport Ministry ordered Renault and Ligier to withdraw; both complied. Marlboro, Barclay and Beatrice asked their teams to remove the sponsors' names from cars. Only four TV networks took the live feed instead of the usual 23. Antenne 2 in France did not show it. Prost flew in late and refused to skip the race, drawing fire from the French press: "I'm only doing my job," he said. "It's for politicians to solve these problems, not us." Two days before the race, Pretoria hanged the poet Benjamin Moloise for killing a policeman, making the atmosphere yet heavier. Jean-Marie Balestre, newly elected as both FIA and FISA president, defended the FIA's decision to keep the race on but did not himself attend.

Mansell's pole, BMW's altitude problems

Mansell took pole at 1:02.366 with a Honda boost reading 340 km/h before Crowthorne; Piquet 0.124 behind, Rosberg third, Senna fourth, Surer fifth, de Angelis sixth, Fabi seventh, Lauda eighth, Prost only ninth. From the lights Mansell led from Piquet and Rosberg; Patrese and Cheever crashed together at Crowthorne on lap 1, both out. Surer's BMW lost a valve on lap 3 in the thin air. Piquet's followed on lap 6. Senna's V6 caught fire on lap 8. Ghinzani blew an engine on lap 9 and oiled the track; Rosberg arrived first, spun harmlessly into the gravel and rejoined sixth. Mansell saved his Williams from the same oil. Alboreto retired the Ferrari with another turbo failure.

Lauda's last leading lap

Mansell led from Prost and Lauda by lap 11. The McLarens stayed in close formation behind the Williams. Pit stops mid-race shuffled it all up: Lauda's stop on lap 33 was 15 seconds and a sticky right-front nut; Prost's lap 35 was 18 seconds for a sticky rear-left. On lap 38 Lauda was leading mathematically when his TAG-Porsche turbo's left bearing seized and he coasted to retirement. Mansell, his pit stop on lap 38 a textbook 12 seconds, emerged a second ahead of Prost. Rosberg climbed back through, but his over-driven tyres made him pit twice and lose 30 seconds to Prost.

Aftermath

Rosberg, in inspired closing-lap mode, hauled in Prost in the final ten laps and passed him into Sunset on lap 71, a typical Rosberg attack. Prost's electronic injection then failed; his TAG-Porsche died completely and he coasted across the line on inertia, throwing the car side to side to keep momentum. Mansell won by ten seconds; Williams 1-2. Johansson fourth, Berger fifth (his first F1 points), Boutsen sixth, Brundle the only other finisher. Prost broke the single-season points record (76, beating Lauda's 1984 total of 72). McLaren's constructors' lead was 10 over Ferrari, with one race to go. Williams-Honda was visibly now the fastest combination on the grid; Prost's quiet line to a journalist about Rosberg's signing, "He may have just made a big mistake", would carry into 1986.

Classification 1985 South African F1 GP

Pos	#	Driver	Team	Time	Laps	Grid	Pts
1	5	Nigel Mansell	Williams	1:28:22.866	75	1	9
2	6	Keke Rosberg	Williams	1:28:30.438	75	3	6
3	2	Alain Prost	McLaren	+1 lap	74	9	4
4	28	Stefan Johansson	Ferrari	+1 lap	74	16	3
5	17	Gerhard Berger	Arrows	+1 lap	74	11	2
6	18	Thierry Boutsen	Arrows	+1 lap	74	10	1
7	3	Martin Brundle	Tyrrell	+2 laps	73	17	0
DNF	11	Elio de Angelis	Team Lotus	Engine	52	6	0
DNF	29	Pierluigi Martini	Minardi	Radiator	45	20	0
DNF	1	Niki Lauda	McLaren	Turbo	37	8	0
DNF	4	Philippe Streiff	Tyrrell	Accident	16	19	0
DNF	12	Ayrton Senna	Team Lotus	Engine	8	4	0
DNF	27	Michele Alboreto	Ferrari	Turbo	8	15	0
DNF	7	Nelson Piquet	Brabham	Engine	6	2	0
DNF	20	Piercarlo Ghinzani	Toleman	Engine	4	13	0
DNF	19	Teo Fabi	Toleman	Engine	3	7	0
DNF	8	Marc Surer	Brabham	Engine	3	5	0
DNF	24	Huub Rothengatter	Osella	Electrical	1	21	0
DNF	22	Riccardo Patrese	Alfa Romeo	Accident	0	12	0
DNF	23	Eddie Cheever	Alfa Romeo	Accident	0	14	0
DNS	33	Alan Jones	Lola	Unwell	0	18	0

Fastest lap: 1:08.149 min by Keke Rosberg (Williams FW10) in lap 74

✅ Check out 1985 F1 Championship Standings
✅ Check out 1985 F1 Teams & Drivers

✅ Check out All Time F1 Drivers Rankings
✅ Check out All Time F1 Driver Records
✅ Check out All Time F1 Teams Rankings

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Leopold

Leopold Pleijsier founded F1-Fansite.com in 2001 and has followed Formula 1 since the early 1980s. He writes about daily F1 news, race weekends, drivers and the sport’s history.

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