Qualifying
Williams driver, and 1982 World Champion Keke Rosberg, broke the Lotus-Renault stranglehold on 1985 pole positions by putting his car on pole position at Paul Ricard, averaging 140.561 mph (226.612 km/h). Ayrton Senna was second in his Lotus, followed by the Ferrari 156/85 of Michele Alboreto and the McLaren of Prost. The third row of the grid was taken by the first of the Pirelli runners in Nelson Piquet, while defending World Champion (and 1984 French Grand Prix winner) Niki Lauda (McLaren) rounded out the top six.
Nigel Mansell (Williams) had an accident at the high speed Signes corner, located at the end of the 1.8 km long Mistral Straight, during practice, and he suffered a concussion which kept him out of the race. Mansell had broken the record for the fastest accident in Formula One history when he went off at over 200 mph (322 km/h).
The BMW straight 4cyl engine, rated at about 1,000 bhp (746 kW; 1,014 PS), showed its worth on the Mistral Straight, the most distinguishing feature of the Paul Ricard Circuit, when it propelled the Brabham of Swiss driver Marc Surer to a season fastest 338 km/h (210 mph) during qualifying.
The French Grand Prix also marked the first time the Tyrrell team used the Renault turbocharged engine with Martin Brundle having use of it for the race mounted in a new Tyrrell 014 chassis while team mate Stefan Bellof still used the Cosworth DFV powered Tyrrell 012. It allowed Brundle to qualify some four seconds faster than his team mate. Brundle telling in qualifying that at one point while both were on a quick lap, he had followed the Bellof's 012 onto the Mistral by about 100 yards, and by the time he reached Signes, Bellof was nothing more than a dot in his mirrors. The top speed of the new turbo powered car was over 310 km/h (193 mph), some 40 km/h (25 mph) faster than the older V8.
Tyrrell were the last F1 team to change from a naturally aspirated engine to a turbocharged engine having done a deal with Renault in late 1984 but the new 014 was not ready until this race.
Read more about this topic: 1985 French Grand Prix