Race Summary
Missing from the grid was RAM driver Manfred Winkelhock who had been killed in a sportscar race in Canada just a week before. His place was taken in the team by Kenny Acheson for his first Formula One race since the 1983 South African Grand Prix.
Before Saturday morning practice triple (and defending) World Champion (and 1984 race winner) Niki Lauda announced to the media, flanked by a very unhappy McLaren team boss Ron Dennis, that he would be retiring for good from Formula One following the Australian Grand Prix to concentrate on running his airline Lauda Air. A now relaxed Lauda gave his home fans something to cheer about when he qualified a season high 3rd. Lauda's teammate Alain Prost captured pole position, averaging 155.478 mph (250.219 km/h), followed by Nigel Mansell, Lauda, Keke Rosberg and Nelson Piquet. Ayrton Senna qualified 14th on the grid.
The race was re-started after one lap (with Niki Lauda having made a great start from 3rd on the grid to lead Prost as the race was stopped). Mansell had got away very slowly in his Williams FW10 but behind him Teo Fabi in the Toleman TG185 barely moved. Elio de Angelis dived left to avoid Fabi and was hit by Alboreto. Fabi suffered damage as did the Arrows A8 of Austria's "other" driver in the race Gerhard Berger. Luckily for those with damaged cars (especially championship leader Alboreto) the first lap was declared null and void and the race was completely re-started meaning those with damaged cars were permitted to start in the team spares. Lucky too was Prost who was able to change cars after his McLaren had developed a misfire. Piercarlo Ghinzani became a non-starter in his Toleman TG185 after team mate Fabi took over the only remaining Toleman for the race which was Ghinzani's car leaving him without a drive.
On lap 13 Andrea de Cesaris survived one of the biggest crashes ever seen in Formula One when his Ligier JS25 got sideways at the left hand Texaco-Chikane and onto the outside grass at high speed. The grass, wet from overnight rain caused the Ligier to initially slide sideways before his right rear hit a slight bank launching the car into a series of rolls with de Cesaris' head bouncing around freely in the cockpit. Somehow as soon as the Ligier came to a rest (thankfully the right way up) de Cesaris undid his seat belts and walked away with nothing more than a mud splattered helmet and driving suit. The crash was the end for de Cesaris at Ligier with team principal Guy Ligier firing the Italian after he saw a replay of the crash stating "I can no longer afford to keep employing this man" referring to the constant repair bills from de Cesaris' crashes since he joined the team in 1984.
With his 20th career victory, Prost moved into a share of the lead in the World Drivers' Championship with Alboreto on 50 points. After a string of DNFs since his win in the second race of the season in Portugal, Ayrton Senna drove a great race into second from a lowly (for him) 14th in the grid with Alboreto third in in the spare Ferrari 156/85 to retain a share of the World Championship lead. Keke Rosberg (Williams FW10), Nelson Piquet (Brabham BT54) and Fabi completed the pointscoring finishers.
Read more about this topic: 1985 Austrian Grand Prix
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