F1 Throwback: Nigel Mansell Survives Two Restarts to Win the 1987 Austrian Grand Prix
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The 1987 Austrian Grand Prix will go down as one of the most chaotic races in Formula One history. Williams F1 duo, Nelson Piquet, and Nigel Mansell managed to lock out the front row, with Gerhard Berger’s Ferrari in 3rd.
The race weekend got a bad reputation due to numerous accidents throughout the weekend. Everything kicked off when an unsighted Stefan Johansson hit an unsuspecting deer that had wandered onto the circuit.
Naturally, the noise from the cars terrified the Austrian fauna.
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As a result of the hefty contact, Johansson tore off the McLaren’s left front suspension and speared into the guardrail. The good news was that Johansson escaped uninjured, though he underwent further tests as a precaution.
Meanwhile, McLaren brought in a spare car overnight to get ready for the rest of the weekend.
When the lights went out, the grid witnessed a scene straight out of a Final Destination movie, luckily without any fatalities. Martin Brundle’s Zakspeed crashed out, triggering a wreck.
Other victims included Tyrrell teammates, Jonathan Palmer and Philippe Streiff, Ligier’s Piercarlo Ghinzani, and a couple of others.
Nigel Mansell was at fault during take two
Luckily, the teams still had spare cars, so everyone took the restart. Unfortunately, it had to be halted yet again because of yet another start-line crash. This time, Mansell’s Williams developed clutch problems and the grid bunched up behind him.
On this occasion, Arrows’ Eddie Cheever, Brabham’s Riccardo Patrese, and practically half the grid got wiped out. Other victims were Johansson, Osella’s Alex Caffi, March’s Ivan Capelli, AGS’ Pascal Fabre, Larrousse’s Philippe Alliot, and the Zakspeed duo.
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For Take Three, Tyrell ran out of spare cars, so Streiff had to miss out. Fortunately, most of the drivers managed to hop into repaired cars or spare cars.
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The bad news was that there were still plenty of victims, with Alain Prost’s McLaren developing an electrical failure during the warm-up lap.
Luckily, they fired up the car and he joined Ayrton Senna and Michele Alboreto in the pit lane. Third time’s the charm, as everyone managed to proceed without any start line incidents.
Finally, Nigel Mansell managed to claw his way to victory ahead of Piquet and Benetton’s Teo Fabi. The drama didn’t end there, because Mansell got a massive knock on the head while on the way to the podium.
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As it turned out, the podium finishers got into a car and went to the podium, when Mansell stood up to hand his helmet to someone. Unfortunately, he failed to spot a low hanging girder and went head-first into it.
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