Brands Hatch in Kent hosted the 1986 British Grand Prix, the ninth round of the 1986 Formula 1 season. This race would mark the final time that Brands Hatch hosted a F1 race as the Silverstone circuit took over as the sole venue of the British GP.
FISA, the international motorsports governing body at the time, perceived Brands Hatch to be down in facilities when compared to Silverstone with the circuit in Northamptonshire seemingly holding much more room for potential expansions.
Brands Hatch’s 12th and final running of the British GP was held on July 13th, 1986, and with 76 scheduled laps ahead of the drivers, the weekend was setup to be a battle of attrition.
The championship standings at the halfway point
With eight races down in the 1986 season, the calendar arrived at the British GP and with that, the second half of the F1 season was ready to get underway.
After Nigel Mansell’s win at the French Grand Prix, Alain Prost led the Briton in the standings by one point. Simultaneously, they both overtook previous championship leader Ayrton Senna. Going into Brands Hatch, just three points would separate the top three in the World Drivers’ Championship.
Williams-Honda were the World Constructors’ Championship leaders at the halfway stage. They were closely pursued by McLaren-TAG Porsche who trailed by just five points. Lotus-Renault were still in the top three but found themselves at a 20 point disadvantage to the championship leaders.
Williams continue their momentum in qualifying
Williams secured themselves a one-two in qualifying as Nelson Piquet took pole position with a 1:06.961 lap time. His teammate Mansell was 0.438 seconds off the Brazilian’s time in second.
The only other driver to get within one second of the leader was Senna in the Lotus. He managed to qualify just over a tenth behind Mansell’s time.
Gerhard Berger, Keke Rosberg and championship leader Prost completed the point scoring starting positions in fourth, fifth and sixth respectively.
Chaos at the start
The weather was sunny for the Brands Hatch crowd on Sunday morning as they anticipated an entertaining battle for victory between the two Williams cars.
However, when the race began, Mansell immediately overtook his teammate but had to stop in the middle of Paddock Hill Bend due to an issue
This caused carnage as Thierry Boutsen spun in his Arrows which caused Stefan Johansson to take avoiding action. But this resulted in the latter jeering into the side of Jacques Laffite’s Ligier.
Career ending incident for Laffite
The contact from Johansson’s Ferrari sent Laffite’s car straight into the barrier which broke both of the Frenchman’s legs.
Zakspeed driver, and qualified doctor of medicine, Jonathan Palmer promptly stopped his damaged car to help extract Laffite who eventually needed to be cut from his car in a one-hour race delay.
On his 176th F1 start, matching Graham Hill’s record at the time, Laffite was airlifted to hospital and subsequently forced to retire from racing due to injuries sustained in the accident.
The race restarts
The race restarted with the grid reset to the original starting order with Mansell back on the front row despite now driving in the spare car.
This time, Piquet held his lead at the start, while Berger overtook Mansell and gained two positions in his Benetton.
Mansell did, however, promptly repass Berger to retake second and slowly began to take time out of his teammate’s lead.
Meanwhile, Senna remained stuck in fourth, fending off pressure from both McLarens and Michele Alboreto’s Ferrari.
The Williams cars take command of the British GP
Prost, who wasn’t really in contention for the victory, made an early stop for fresh tyres which left him way down the order as he attempted to still finish within the top six.
Unexpected mechanical failures forced Berger and Senna to retire, leaving only the two Williams drivers realistically contesting the lead.
At around one thirds race distance Piquet missed a gear which allowed Mansell to sneak through and take the lead of his home race.
Mansell sees it home
After passing Piquet, Mansell looked unfazed at the front of the field as he drove home to take victory at the final British GP around Brands Hatch. The victory was the Briton’s sixth career victory and his second at Brands Hatch.
Behind, Prost recovered to take third for McLaren as he passed Rene Arnoux in the closing stages. However, he did finish one lap down on the leading pair.
Arnoux ultimately finished in fourth with Tyrell scoring a double points finish to complete the points with Martin Brundle in fifth and Phillipe Alliot in sixth.
There was a special moment on the podium as Virginia Williams, wife of Frank Williams, received the Manufacturers’ Award. This marked the first time a woman had stood on a F1 podium to receive this award.
Victory enough for Mansell to take the championship lead
Victory at Brands Hatch charged Mansell to the top of the drivers’ standings as he obtained a four point lead over former leader Prost after the British Grand Prix.
Senna, still third in the standings, trailed the leader by 11 points, while Piquet closed the gap to his fellow Brazilian to just seven.
Williams-Honda’s one-two finish earned them a 16 point advantage over McLaren-TAG in the Constructors’ Championship. Lotus-Renault, Ligier-Renault and Ferrari completed the top five, a long way off the two leading outfits.
Mansell’s review
In Mansell’s episode of the Autosport Race of my life podcast series, he chose this victory as his best race and said: “The most satisfying race for me was the British Grand Prix in 1986 at Brands Hatch, when my racecar broke a driveshaft at the start.
“I had to climb into the T-car, which was set up for [team-mate] Nelson [Piquet], and I ended up winning in his car.”
On Brands Hatch, he said: “Racing at Brands was awesome because we still had 1000bhp to play with. There was no peace – you were on it all the time.
“Coming across the startline into Paddock doing 196mph, then down the dip with negative G followed by positive G as you went up Hailwood Hill. You had to have the car pointing in the right direction at the right time.
“There were points on the track that you had to get technically right. If you didn’t, you were slow and it was dangerous.”
On winning the British GP for the first time, he said: “The crowd was phenomenal. They always were in Britain. The thing is you build momentum. Winning the ’85 European GP at Brands, then the ’86 British and at Silverstone ’87 – doing the triple at home was very special.”
