F1 1987 USA GP VHS - Description
Detroit, Round 5, Sunday, June 21st
Reigning World Champion Alain Prost (McLaren) enjoyed a three point lead as the Formula One teams moved to the United States for round five at Detroit.
But Ayrton Senna in the ever-improving 'active suspension' Lotus Honda, had won at Monaco and was relishing the prospect of another nine points from a similar street circuit. However, most observers recalled the way Britain's Nigel Mansell (Williams Honda) had dominated the fourth round until mechanical trouble set in, and weren't surprised when he took pole position in practice for Detroit.
This video gets to the heart of racing on the unrelenting concrete streets, with their demanding 90 degree corners requiring utmost driver concentration not to contact the barriers and walls only inches away.
Stefan Johansson was running third in the title chase in the second McLaren and could be relied upon for a good performance. And Nelson Piquet's stated dislike for public road circuits would not deter him from attempting to preserve his fourth place ahead of Mansell. He held the lap record at 89.90 mph.
Michele Alboreto (Ferrari), Gerhard Berger (Ferrari), Andrea de Cesaris (Brabham), Satoru Nakalima (Lotus), Eddie Cheever (Arrows)Thierry Boutsen (Benetton), Martin Brundle (Zakspeed), Jonathon Palmer (Tyrrell), Rene Arnoux (Ligier) and Ivan Capelli (March) had all scored points in the previous stages and would be out for further substantiation.
