The 1985 Italian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Monza on September 8, 1985. It was the twelfth round of the 1985 Formula One season. It was the 55th Italian Grand Prix and the 50th to be held at Monza. The race was held over 51 laps of the five kilometre circuit for a total race distance of 295.8 kilometres.
The race was won by Frenchman Alain Prost driving a McLaren MP4/2B. It was Prost's fifth and final victory of the 1985 season as he powered towards the first of his four Formula One world championships. Prost won by almost 52 seconds over the Brazilian duo Nelson Piquet (Brabham BT54) and Ayrton Senna (Lotus 97T).
It was the last Formula One Grand Prix where the winning driver received a laurel wreath. It was also the debut race for the American owned Haas Lola team with their new car, the Lola THL1 running the Hart 415T turbocharged engine, driven by 1980 World Champion Australian Alan Jones. Jones was making a full-time return to Formula One after one race with Arrows in 1983.
Missing from the grid was popular German driver Stefan Bellof who was killed a week earlier in a sportscar race at the Spa Circuit in Belgium. With his funeral set for the day after the Italian Grand Prix the Tyrrell team only ran the one car for Martin Brundle feeling it would be disrespectful to Bellof to bring a driver in to replace him for the race.
Read more about 1985 Italian Grand Prix: Standings After The Race
Famous quotes containing the words italian and/or grand:
“The French courage proceeds from vanity—the German from phlegm—the Turkish from fanaticism & opium—the Spanish from pride—the English from coolness—the Dutch from obstinacy—the Russian from insensibility—but the Italian from anger.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“This we take it is the grand characteristic of our age. By our skill in Mechanism, it has come to pass, that in the management of external things we excel all other ages; while in whatever respects the pure moral nature, in true dignity of soul and character, we are perhaps inferior to most civilised ages.”
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881)