1985 German Grand Prix

The 1985 German Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Nürburgring on 4 August 1985. It was the ninth race of the 1985 Formula One season.

1985 German Grand Prix
Race 9 of 16 in the 1985 Formula One World Championship
Race details
Date	4 August 1985
Official name	XLVII Großer Preis von Deutschland
Location	Nürburgring, Nürburg, West Germany
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	4.54 km (2.82 mi)
Distance	67 laps, 304.18 km (188.94 mi)
Weather	Dry
Pole position
Driver	Teo Fabi	Toleman-Hart
Time	1:17.429
Fastest lap
Driver	Niki Lauda	McLaren-TAG
Time	1:22.806 on lap 53
Podium
First	Michele Alboreto	Ferrari
Second	Alain Prost	McLaren-TAG
Third	Jacques Laffite	Ligier-Renault

Michele Alboreto won the race for Ferrari.

Alain Prost finished second, eleven seconds behind Alboreto.

This was the first German Grand Prix that was held on the new GP-Strecke section of the track that replaced the old Südschleife section that had not been used since 1970. It was also the first time in nine years the German GP was held at Nürburgring; previously the German GP was held on the dangerous and very long Nordschleife section of the track up until 1976, and at that race Niki Lauda had a near-fatal accident in his Ferrari that forced the Formula One circus to move to the safer, shorter and faster Hockenheimring. The GP-Strecke would not host another Grand Prix until it hosted the 1995 European Grand Prix, and would not host the German Grand Prix again until 2009.

Michele Alboreto won the race, his fifth and last F1 victory. This event was the first occasion on which an onboard camera was used in a race; one was attached to François Hesnault's Renault. That car was not eligible for championship points, and this race marked the last time, as of the end of the 2019 season, that an F1 team entered three cars for a race.

As it was the German Grand Prix (and that the team still only had 1 new car built) Tyrrell team boss Ken Tyrrell gave his German driver Stefan Bellof use of the Renault powered Tyrrell 014 for the weekend instead of the car's usual driver Martin Brundle who was given Bellof's Cosworth powered 012 to drive. To get around a FISA rule that a team and driver can not run more than 2 engines in the one chassis during a season (with the 012 running the Cosworth and 014 the Renault), Tyrrell simply switched the drivers from one car to the other but not their car numbers meaning Bellof drove in car #3 and Brundle in car #4. Bellof qualified the turbo powered car 19th while Brundle was 26th and last with the Cosworth V8, some 10.2 seconds of Fabi's pole time and 6.4 seconds slower than his teammate in his usual car, something Brundle was reported to be not happy with.

This was to be the last Grand Prix for Manfred Winkelhock: the German fatally crashed his Porsche 962C sportscar at the 1000 km of Mosport in Canada the following week.