The 1985 Monaco Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Monaco on 19 May 1985. It was the fourth race of the 1985 Formula One World Championship.
The 78-lap race was won by Alain Prost, driving a McLaren-TAG. Ayrton Senna took pole position in his Lotus-Renault and led until he suffered an engine failure on lap 14. Michele Alboreto finished second in a Ferrari, with Elio de Angelis third in the other Lotus-Renault.
After the race, de Angelis led the Drivers' Championship by two points from Prost and Alboreto.
Summary As usual for the time, the FIA allowed only 20 cars to start the race, due to the tight confines of the Monaco circuit. The Toleman team entered their first race of the season, having missed the opening three rounds due to not having tyres. Having bought out the tyre contract of the struggling Spirit team, Toleman were able to race for the rest of the season. This was the first race in which they were sponsored by the Benetton clothing company, who would buy the team and rename it Benetton Formula from 1986 onwards. Former Brabham driver Teo Fabi got the new Toleman-Hart onto the grid in 20th and last place just 0.106 seconds ahead of the Osella-Alfa Romeo of Piercarlo Ghinzani.
There was a big accident on the pit straight involving Nelson Piquet and Riccardo Patrese, this accident was to affect the outcome of the race. The accident happened right after Piquet and Patrese crossed the start/finish line, Piquet attempted to pass Patrese, the two cars touched and Patrese crashed violently and collected Piquet, whose Brabham's rear suspension broke during the collision before Patrese collected Piquet. The cars then spun into the run-off at the first corner at Sainte Devote; both drivers were unhurt. Patrese's gearbox dropped oil onto the track which took out Niki Lauda who while sliding off on the oil managed to avoid hitting anything, he stalled his engine and was out on the spot. The crash also nearly took out the closely following Jacques Laffite and Teo Fabi, while race leader Michele Alboreto also slid wide on the oil; Alboreto's off handed the lead to Alain Prost. Alboreto drove a hard race; he eventually caught and passed Prost 3 laps later, but was re-passed by Prost after he punctured his left rear tyre at the first corner where Piquet and Patrese crashed. This dropped him to 4th behind Andrea de Cesaris, Elio de Angelis and Prost; he caught and passed his compatriots but could not catch Prost; who despite a leaking turbo wastegate, had kept the gap wide enough for Alboreto to be unable to catch him in the remaining laps.
Classification Qualifying Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap 1 12 Ayrton Senna Lotus-Renault 1:21.631 1:20.450 2 5 Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda 1:22.560 1:20.536 +0.086 3 27 Michele Alboreto Ferrari 1:22.630 1:20.563 +0.113 4 23 Eddie Cheever Alfa Romeo 1:22.755 1:20.729 +0.279 5 2 Alain Prost McLaren-TAG 1:22.270 1:20.885 +0.435 6 18 Thierry Boutsen Arrows-BMW 1:24.510 1:21.302 +0.852 7 6 Keke Rosberg Williams-Honda 1:23.099 1:21.320 +0.870 8 25 Andrea de Cesaris Ligier-Renault 1:22.992 1:21.347 +0.897 9 11 Elio de Angelis Lotus-Renault 1:23.319 1:21.465 +1.015 10 16 Derek Warwick Renault 1:23.524 1:21.531 +1.081 11 17 Gerhard Berger Arrows-BMW 1:24.293 1:21.665 +1.215 12 22 Riccardo Patrese Alfa Romeo 1:22.145 1:21.813 +1.363 13 7 Nelson Piquet Brabham-BMW 1:23.548 1:21.817 +1.367 14 1 Niki Lauda McLaren-TAG 1:22.897 1:21.907 +1.457 15 28 Stefan Johansson Ferrari 1:23.163 1:22.635 +2.185 16 26 Jacques Laffite Ligier-Renault 1:26.681 1:22.888 +2.438 17 15 Patrick Tambay Renault 1:24.473 1:22.912 +2.462 18 3 Martin Brundle Tyrrell-Ford 1:26.499 1:23.827 +3.377 19 30 Jonathan Palmer Zakspeed 1:41.564 1:23.840 +3.390 20 19 Teo Fabi Toleman-Hart 1:26.243 1:23.965 +3.515 24 Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Alfa Romeo 1:26.230 1:24.071 +3.621 4 Stefan Bellof Tyrrell-Ford 1:26.214 1:24.236 +3.786 10 Philippe Alliot RAM-Hart 1:28.026 1:24.763 +4.313 9 Manfred Winkelhock RAM-Hart 1:26.102 1:24.764 +4.314 8 François Hesnault Brabham-BMW 1:27.505 1:25.068 +4.618 29 Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Motori Moderni 6:41.307 no time +5:20.857
Race Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 2 Alain Prost McLaren-TAG 78 1:51:58.034 5 9 2 27 Michele Alboreto Ferrari 78 + 7.541 3 6 3 11 Elio de Angelis Lotus-Renault 78 + 1:27.171 9 4 4 25 Andrea de Cesaris Ligier-Renault 77 + 1 Lap 8 3 5 16 Derek Warwick Renault 77 + 1 Lap 10 2 6 26 Jacques Laffite Ligier-Renault 77 + 1 Lap 16 1 7 5 Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda 77 + 1 Lap 2 8 6 Keke Rosberg Williams-Honda 76 + 2 Laps 7 9 18 Thierry Boutsen Arrows-BMW 76 + 2 Laps 6 10 3 Martin Brundle Tyrrell-Ford 74 + 4 Laps 18 11 30 Jonathan Palmer Zakspeed 74 + 4 Laps 19 1 Niki Lauda McLaren-TAG 17 Spun off 14 22 Riccardo Patrese Alfa Romeo 16 Collision 12 7 Nelson Piquet Brabham-BMW 16 Collision 13 19 Teo Fabi Toleman-Hart 16 Turbo 20 12 Ayrton Senna Lotus-Renault 13 Engine 1 23 Eddie Cheever Alfa Romeo 10 Alternator 4 28 Stefan Johansson Ferrari 1 Accident 15 17 Gerhard Berger Arrows-BMW 0 Accident 11 15 Patrick Tambay Renault 0 Accident 17
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Elio de Angelis 20 2 Alain Prost 18 3 Michele Alboreto 18 4 Patrick Tambay 10 5 Ayrton Senna 9Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Lotus-Renault 29 2 Ferrari 22 3 McLaren-TAG 21 4 Renault 12 5 Arrows-BMW 6Source:
References