The 1985 San Marino Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Imola on 5 May 1985. It was the third race of the 1985 Formula One World Championship. The 60-lap race was won by local driver Elio de Angelis, driving a Lotus-Renault, after McLaren driver Alain Prost had been disqualified for being underweight. It was de Angelis' second and last win. Thierry Boutsen was second in an Arrows-BMW, with Patrick Tambay third in a factory Renault.

Elio de Angelis was the first Italian driver to win the San Marino Grand Prix.

Qualifying Qualifying report Before the previous race in Portugal it was revealed that René Arnoux had been fired by Ferrari, with no explanation ever given for his sudden departure by either the team or Arnoux. In his place was Swedish driver Stefan Johansson. Arnoux was in the pits at Imola, but was seen with the Brabham team, starting a false rumor he would soon join the team alongside Nelson Piquet. As it turned out, Arnoux would not drive in F1 again until joining Ligier in .

Ayrton Senna took pole position in his Lotus-Renault with a time of 1:27.327, with Keke Rosberg alongside him on the front row in the Williams-Honda. For Senna it would be the first of seven consecutive pole positions at Imola, a run which ended in 1992.

Filling the second row were Elio de Angelis in the second Lotus and Michele Alboreto in the Ferrari. Belgian Thierry Boutsen was a surprise 5th fastest in the Arrows-BMW, ahead of the McLaren-TAG of Alain Prost. In his second race for Ferrari, Johansson qualified 15th.

Qualifying classification Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap 1 12 Ayrton Senna Lotus-Renault 1:27.589 1:27.327 2 6 Keke Rosberg Williams-Honda 1:28.347 1:27.354 +0.027 3 11 Elio de Angelis Lotus-Renault 1:30.325 1:27.852 +0.525 4 27 Michele Alboreto Ferrari 1:27.871 1:30.637 +0.544 5 18 Thierry Boutsen Arrows-BMW 1:28.829 1:27.918 +0.591 6 2 Alain Prost McLaren-TAG 1:28.604 1:28.099 +0.772 7 5 Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda 1:29.756 1:28.202 +0.875 8 1 Niki Lauda McLaren-TAG 1:29.413 1:28.399 +1.072 9 7 Nelson Piquet Brabham-BMW 1:29.427 1:28.489 +1.162 10 17 Gerhard Berger Arrows-BMW 1:28.697 1:29.654 +1.370 11 15 Patrick Tambay Renault 1:30.201 1:29.102 +1.775 12 23 Eddie Cheever Alfa Romeo 1:30.605 1:29.259 +1.932 13 25 Andrea de Cesaris Ligier-Renault 1:30.339 1:29.406 +2.079 14 16 Derek Warwick Renault 1:30.440 1:29.466 +2.139 15 28 Stefan Johansson Ferrari 1:30.240 1:29.806 +2.479 16 26 Jacques Laffite Ligier-Renault 1:31.625 1:30.982 +3.655 17 30 Jonathan Palmer Zakspeed 2:30.990 1:31.028 +3.701 18 22 Riccardo Patrese Alfa Romeo 1:31.388 1:31.108 +3.781 19 29 Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Motori Moderni 1:32.770 1:48.391 +5.443 20 8 François Hesnault Brabham-BMW 1:33.142 1:33.160 +5.815 21 10 Philippe Alliot RAM-Hart 1:34.201 2:05.141 +6.874 22 24 Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Alfa Romeo 1:34.974 1:34.209 +6.882 23 9 Manfred Winkelhock RAM-Hart 1:34.936 1:34.579 +7.252 24 4 Stefan Bellof Tyrrell-Ford 1:35.774 1:35.653 +8.326 25 3 Martin Brundle Tyrrell-Ford 1:36.397 1:36.661 +9.070 26 21 Mauro Baldi Spirit-Hart 1:36.922 1:38.235 +9.595

Race Race report Limited fuel allowances played a big part in the race, as a succession of drivers ran out of fuel in the last few laps. Prost took the chequered flag before stopping on the slowing-down lap and hitching a ride with Patrick Tambay on the side pod to return to the pits. Later, Prost's car was found to be below the minimum permitted weight in post-race scrutineering, resulting in his disqualification. Summing up the general feeling that FISA's fuel limit rules had seen Formula One races reduced to mere economy runs, Williams driver Nigel Mansell noted that "it wasn't really racing".

Following this, until the end of the turbo era at the end of , McLaren drivers would routinely pull up just beyond the finish line after a race so as to leave as much fuel in the tank as possible and avoid being underweight. It would actually become a common sight during this time to see all finishing cars pulling up just beyond the line in order to beat the weight limit.

Stefan Johansson ran a good race in his second drive for Ferrari. After starting 15th he steadily made his way through the field and by late in the race had moved to second (benefiting from others running out of fuel) and was poised to benefit from Senna also running dry 3 laps from home. Johansson took the lead from the Lotus to a thunderous applause from the Tifosi, only to run out of fuel himself half a lap later coming out of the Acque Minerali chicane. A post race examination of his car revealed the Ferrari had an electrical malfunction and a tiny, barely visible crack in the turbo pipe that caused the engine to use more fuel than the readout was telling the team or Johansson. The Ferrari's readout had told Johansson that he still had enough fuel to finish the race.

Prost's disqualification promoted de Angelis to the win, his second and last in F1, even though at no point did he ever actually lead the race. Second place was thus awarded to Boutsen — who ran out of fuel as he reached the start-finish straight on his final lap and pushed his Arrows-BMW across the finish line to secure his finishing position (unlike Prost's McLaren, the Arrows was still over the weight limit), with third going to Frenchman Patrick Tambay who had won the race for Ferrari in , his 2nd of two F1GP race wins. This would turn out to be the last podium finish for both Tambay and the original factory Renault team.

Mauro Baldi and Spirit Racing entered their last Grand Prix: the small British team were having financial troubles and the Toleman team, via their new major sponsor, Italian fashion house Benetton, offered to buy the Spirit team. The offer was accepted and the Benetton Group immediately transferred Spirit's existing Pirelli tyre contract to Toleman, allowing them to race from the next round in Monaco.

Race classification Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 11 Elio de Angelis Lotus-Renault 60 1:34:35.955 3 9 2 18 Thierry Boutsen Arrows-BMW 59 Out of fuel 5 6 3 15 Patrick Tambay Renault 59 + 1 Lap 11 4 4 1 Niki Lauda McLaren-TAG 59 + 1 Lap 8 3 5 5 Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda 58 Out of fuel 7 2 6 28 Stefan Johansson Ferrari 57 Out of fuel 15 1 7 12 Ayrton Senna Lotus-Renault 57 Out of fuel 1   8 7 Nelson Piquet Brabham-BMW 57 Out of fuel 9   9 3 Martin Brundle Tyrrell-Ford 56 Out of fuel 25   10 16 Derek Warwick Renault 56 + 4 Laps 14   2 Alain Prost McLaren-TAG 60 (1:33:57.118) Underweight 6   23 Eddie Cheever Alfa Romeo 50 Engine 12   24 Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Alfa Romeo 46 + 14 Laps 22   27 Michele Alboreto Ferrari 29 Electrical 4   9 Manfred Winkelhock RAM-Hart 27 Engine 23   10 Philippe Alliot RAM-Hart 24 Engine 21   6 Keke Rosberg Williams-Honda 23 Brakes 2   26 Jacques Laffite Ligier-Renault 22 Turbo 16   29 Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Motori Moderni 14 Turbo 19   25 Andrea de Cesaris Ligier-Renault 11 Spun off 13   21 Mauro Baldi Spirit-Hart 9 Electrical 26   8 François Hesnault Brabham-BMW 5 Engine 20   4 Stefan Bellof Tyrrell-Ford 5 Engine 24   17 Gerhard Berger Arrows-BMW 4 Engine 10   22 Riccardo Patrese Alfa Romeo 4 Engine 18   30 Jonathan Palmer Zakspeed 0 Engine 17  

Boutsen, Mansell, Johannsson, Senna, Piquet and Brundle were classified as they had completed more than 90% of the race distance. Alain Prost finished first, but was disqualified as his car was found to be underweight.

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Elio de Angelis 16 2 Michele Alboreto 12 3 Patrick Tambay 10 4 Ayrton Senna 9 5 Alain Prost 9Source:

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Lotus-Renault 25 2 Ferrari 16 3 McLaren-TAG 12 4 Renault 10 5 Arrows-BMW 6Source:

References