1985 Monaco Grand Prix

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.

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.

Qualifying edit

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
DNQ	24	Piercarlo Ghinzani	Osella-Alfa Romeo	1:26.230	1:24.071	+3.621
DNQ	4	Stefan Bellof	Tyrrell-Ford	1:26.214	1:24.236	+3.786
DNQ	10	Philippe Alliot	RAM-Hart	1:28.026	1:24.763	+4.313
DNQ	9	Manfred Winkelhock	RAM-Hart	1:26.102	1:24.764	+4.314
DNQ	8	François Hesnault	Brabham-BMW	1:27.505	1:25.068	+4.618
DNQ	29	Pierluigi Martini	Minardi-Motori Moderni	6:41.307	no time	+5:20.857

Race edit

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
Ret	1	Niki Lauda	McLaren-TAG	17	Spun off	14
Ret	22	Riccardo Patrese	Alfa Romeo	16	Collision	12
Ret	7	Nelson Piquet	Brabham-BMW	16	Collision	13
Ret	19	Teo Fabi	Toleman-Hart	16	Turbo	20
Ret	12	Ayrton Senna	Lotus-Renault	13	Engine	1
Ret	23	Eddie Cheever	Alfa Romeo	10	Alternator	4
Ret	28	Stefan Johansson	Ferrari	1	Accident	15
Ret	17	Gerhard Berger	Arrows-BMW	0	Accident	11
Ret	15	Patrick Tambay	Renault	0	Accident	17
Source:[1]

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 9 Source: [2]

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Lotus-Renault 29 2 Ferrari 22 3 McLaren-TAG 21 4 Renault 12 5 Arrows-BMW 6 Source: [2]

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.