Date August 25, 1985 | Course length 4.252 km (2.642 mi) | |
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Official name XXXIV Grote Prijs van Nederland Location Circuit Zandvoort, Zandvoort, Netherlands Course Permanent racing facility Distance 70 laps, 297.840 km (184.940 mi) | ||
The 1985 Dutch Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Circuit Zandvoort on August 25, 1985. It was the eleventh round of the 1985 FIA Formula One World Championship. The race was held over 70 laps of the four kilometre circuit for a race distance of 298 kilometres. The race also proved to be the 34th and last Dutch Grand Prix and the 25th and last Grand Prix victory for triple (and defending) World Champion Niki Lauda. Lauda's team mate Alain Prost was second in his McLaren MP4/2B with Brazilian racer Ayrton Senna third in his Lotus 97T.
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It was also rising German star Stefan Bellof's last Grand Prix, as he was killed at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in the 1000 km of Spa World Sportscar race a week later, driving a Porsche 956.
Race summary
Renault's Patrick Tambay, who qualified an excellent season best sixth, had a huge crash at nearly 200 mph (322 km/h) in the Sunday morning warm up from which he walked away from shaken but unhurt. After losing Saturday to rain and having not run on full tanks all weekend the RE60B's front suspension broke at the end of the main straight going into Tarzan. The car was destroyed in the tyre wall. Tambay was able to start in the spare. Both he and team mate Derek Warwick made what were considered brave decisions to start despite not really knowing what caused the suspension to fail in the first place.
Nelson Piquet recorded his first and only pole position of the season, averaging 133.824 mph (215.369 km/h), the first for tyre manufacturer Pirelli. It did him little good though as he stalled his Brabham BT54 when the lights changed to green. Luckily he was missed by those behind him and he was finally push started almost a lap behind. Despite a push start being against the rules, no one saw fit to protest as Piquet only finished in eighth place.
Niki Lauda won his last career victory in his McLaren MP4/2B. His team mate Alain Prost took the lead in the championship by finishing second, only 0.232 seconds behind Lauda. The two had diced for the lead over the final twelve laps of the race. Ayrton Senna continued his late season charge up the points and finished a fine third. Rounding out the points were Ferrari's Michele Alboreto, whose three points were not enough to keep his championship lead, Senna's Lotus team mate Elio de Angelis was fifth with Nigel Mansell sixth in his Williams FW10.
Following his car destroying crash at the previous race in Austria, this was also the last time Andrea de Cesaris appeared in a Ligier. It would in fact be the Italian's last race of the season.