Race
The race of high attrition was won by the 1982 World Champion, Finnish driver Keke Rosberg driving the Williams FW10-Honda; it would turn out to be the last victory (and fastest lap) of his Formula One career. Rosberg was the only front running driver to finish strongly and one of only eight cars to be classified.
On the penultimate lap, Ligier driver Philippe Streiff tried to overtake his team-mate Jacques Laffite for second place and, as result of this manoeuvre, Streiff's front wheel axle was severely damaged. With fourth placed Ivan Capelli a lap down in his Tyrrell, Streiff managed to limp his Ligier JS25 home and retain third place despite only have three wheels firmly attached to the car, with the front left wheel bouncing up and down over the course of the last lap, but somehow remaining attached to the car. It would remain a career best finish for Streiff.
A delayed Stefan Johansson finished fifth in his Ferrari ahead of Gerhard Berger in his Arrows (Berger performed double duty during the weekend, also driving a BMW 635 CSi during the Group A touring car support races). The only other finishers were Huub Rothengatter (Osella) and Pierluigi Martini (Minardi), both of whom were four laps behind Rosberg. Martin Brundle's Tyrrell was running at the end, but Brundle was 33 laps down on Rosberg and was not classified as a finisher.
Every car qualified for the race. With RAM Racing and Zakspeed not making the journey to Australia, there would not be a cut-off based on grid numbers. Early in the race Elio de Angelis, driving in his last race for Lotus, was excluded for regaining his original grid position after being delayed on the parade lap. The race was the 100th World Championship start for Australian Alan Jones. Jones (along with Alain Prost) was one of two drivers to have won the Australian Grand Prix previously (Jones in 1980 and Prost in 1982). Jones' Lola retired on lap 20 with a failed electrics following a typically fiery drive through to the top 10 after stalling at the start, while Prost retired with engine failure on lap 26. It was also the last race for outgoing world champion Niki Lauda. His McLaren MP4/2B ended in the fence with damage to the front left after a brake failure at the end of the long Brabham Straight.
Both Alfa Romeo and Renault had their last Grand Prix as a constructor in the turbo era. As of 2012 Alfa have never returned to Grand Prix racing while Renault would return in 2002 following their purchase the Benetton team. It was also the last Grand Prix for the Toleman team as Toleman. The team would continue in 1986 but would be renamed Benetton after being purchased by their main sponsors, the Benetton Group. All six cars (the Alfa Romeo 184TBs of Riccardo Patrese and Eddie Cheever, the Renault RE60s of Patrick Tambay and Derek Warwick and the Toleman TG185s of Teo Fabi and Piercarlo Ghinzani) failed to finish the last F1 race for their teams.
Read more about this topic: 1985 Australian Grand Prix
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—W.E.B. (William Edward Burghardt)
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—Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898)
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—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)