1985 United States Grand Prix East

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**1985 United States Grand Prix East**
Race details
Race 6 of 16 in the 1985 Formula One season.
Date	June 23, 1985
Official name	4th United States Grand Prix East
Location	Detroit street circuit Detroit, Michigan
Course	Temporary street course 2.56 mi / 4.120 km
Distance	63 laps, 161.28 mi / 259.56 km
Weather	Clear, cool
Pole
Driver	Ayrton Senna	Lotus-Renault
Time	1:42.051
Fastest Lap
Driver	Ayrton Senna	Lotus-Renault
Time	1:45.612 (on lap 51 of 63)
Podium
First	Keke Rosberg	Williams-Honda
Second	Stefan Johansson	Ferrari
Third	Michele Alboreto	Ferrari

The 1985 United States Grand Prix East was a Formula One race held on June 23, 1985 in Detroit, Michigan. This event was also referred to as the Detroit Grand Prix.

1 Summary
2 Classification
3 Notes
4 Reference

[edit] Summary

In 1985, for the first time in ten years, the United States hosted only one Grand Prix. In that race, Finland's Keke Rosberg took the lead from pole-sitter Ayrton Senna on lap 8, avoided the tire and brake problems that plagued the other front-runners, and held off the Ferraris of Stefan Johansson and Michele Alboreto to win. Stefan Bellof earned a scintillating fourth place for Tyrrell, scoring the last points for the legendary Cosworth-Ford V8 engine.

In Friday qualifying, Senna's Lotus was easily quickest in both sessions, nearly 1.2 seconds clear of Nigel Mansell's Williams. Still, changes to the course meant that Senna's time was over a second slower than Nelson Piquet's pole-winning time from the previous year. The Ferraris of Alboreto and Johansson were in third and ninth place, as Alboreto said, "Our suspension does not absorb the bumps nearly as well as the Lotus. I have trouble getting the power down, which is necessary between the slow corners." Rain on Saturday meant that the Friday times would determine the grid, and the teams would be without a much-needed second day of practice.

The Williams teammates used different tire compounds in qualifying and were over a second apart on the grid. Rosberg, on qualifiers, was fifth, while Mansell chose the softer race compound and placed second. This revelation led Rosberg to gamble on using the soft race rubber for the race, while everyone else had the harder compound. Aided by a cool breeze on Sunday, this decision played an important role in the race's outcome.

Sunday was clear and breezy with a large and enthusiastic crowd. Unlike the 1984 race, the drivers made a clean start, as Mansell got away well on the outside and took the first corner ahead of Senna. In Turn 2, however, Senna took the lead back, and by the end of the first lap, Rosberg had also gotten around Mansell. After one lap, Senna and Rosberg were opening a gap to Mansell, Prost, 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.

By lap seven, Senna and Rosberg led Mansell by seven seconds. On lap eight, Senna surrendered the lead when he pitted for tires. Warwick had dropped back steadily, eventually retiring with a broken driveshaft, while the McLarens of Prost and 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 20, he was unable to slow for Turn 2 and slid into the tire 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 Mansell, who also was struggling with overheating brakes. On lap 20, with Rosberg's lead at 24 seconds, de Angelis got around Mansell to take second place. Mansell pitted on lap 24 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, Gerhard Berger 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 Brundle right behind. When Alliot moved back to the racing line, Brundle 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 Bellof, Senna and de Angelis. Several successive fastest laps by Senna allowed him to overtake Bellof 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. Senna 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 tires, which he didn't want because Johansson was not far behind. Rosberg blasted out of the pits and just managed to beat the Ferrari to the first corner. Spurred on by the chance for his first win, Johansson hounded the Williams until, with just three laps to go, a brake disc broke up and he began to crawl around the circuit, hoping to make the finish.

Alboreto, in third, had also been trying to save his brakes, but he now had to contend with a charging Bellof. With two laps to go, the German had the Tyrrell right on Alboreto's tail, waiting for a mistake. Just as he was about to go by, however, Bellof's clutch began slipping, and he had to be content to follow the Ferrari home. de Angelis, the last driver on the lead lap took fifth place, and Piquet brought the Brabham home in sixth.

[edit] Classification

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	6	Keke Rosberg	Williams-Honda	63	55:40.1	5	9
2	28	Stefan Johansson	Ferrari	63	57.549	9	6
3	27	Michele Alboreto	Ferrari	63	+ 1:03.170	3	4
4	4	Stefan Bellof	Tyrrell-Ford	63	+ 1:06.225	19	3
5	11	Elio de Angelis	Lotus-Renault	63	+ 1:26.966	8	2
6	7	Nelson Piquet	Brabham-BMW	62	+ 1 Lap	10	1
7	18	Thierry Boutsen	Arrows-BMW	62	+ 1 Lap	21
8	8	Marc Surer	Brabham-BMW	62	+ 1 Lap	11
9	23	Eddie Cheever	Alfa Romeo	61	+ 2 Laps	7
10	25	Andrea de Cesaris	Ligier-Renault	61	+ 2 Laps	17
11	17	Gerhard Berger	Arrows-BMW	60	+ 3 Laps	24
12	26	Jacques Laffite	Ligier-Renault	58	+ 5 Laps	16
Ret	12	Ayrton Senna	Lotus-Renault	51	Accident	1
Ret	3	Martin Brundle	Tyrrell-Ford	30	Accident	18
Ret	10	Philippe Alliot	RAM-Hart	27	Accident	23
Ret	5	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Honda	26	Accident	2
Ret	2	Alain Prost	McLaren-TAG	19	Brakes	4
Ret	22	Riccardo Patrese	Alfa Romeo	19	Electrical	14
Ret	16	Derek Warwick	Renault	18	Transmission	6
Ret	15	Patrick Tambay	Renault	15	Accident	15
Ret	29	Pierluigi Martini	Minardi-Motori Moderni	11	Engine	25
Ret	1	Niki Lauda	McLaren-TAG	10	Brakes	12
Ret	19	Teo Fabi	Toleman-Hart	4	Clutch	13
Ret	9	Manfred Winkelhock	RAM-Hart	3	Turbo	20
Ret	24	Piercarlo Ghinzani	Osella-Alfa Romeo	0	Accident	22

Previous race: 1985 Canadian Grand Prix	FIA Formula One World Championship, 1985 season	Next race: 1985 French Grand Prix

Previous race: 1984 United States Grand Prix East	United States Grand Prix East	Next race: 1986 United States Grand Prix East

[edit] Notes

Rosberg's win was the fourth of his career and his second consecutive American win, having captured the one and only Dallas Grand Prix the year before.