Qualifying
The 1987 Japanese Grand Prix was the first race to be held in Japan since James Hunt won in his McLaren at Fuji, in 1977. This time, the Grand Prix circus utilised the Honda owned Suzuka Circuit. The scene was set for a tense championship deciding race between bitter Williams Honda team mates, Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell. However, Mansell suffered a huge crash during Friday qualifying while trying to better Piquet's time which put him out of action for both the Japanese race and the subsequent Australian Grand Prix. As a consequence, Piquet won his third world championship before the race even began.
Qualifying once again demonstrated the return to form of Ferrari, as Gerhard Berger obtained his second pole position of the season, with the F1/87 being perfectly suited to the Suzuka circuit. Alain Prost qualified 2nd in his McLaren-TAG with Thierry Boutsen 3rd in his Benetton-Ford. Following Mansell's Friday crash, the three remaining Honda powered cars of Piquet, Senna, and Senna's team mate, local favourite Satoru Nakajima, could only qualify in 5th, 7th and 11th places respectively.
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