When Alain Prost became the driver with most Formula 1 wins in history

That Alain Prost is a legend in the world of Formula 1 is a fact that needn’t be oft repeated. The Frenchman won three world titles and was widely considered one of the best races of his time. That’s no mean feat, given he raced alongside and against the likes of Ayrton Senna, Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell. That he at one point held the record for most F1 wins ever also stands out. Prost, who drove for notable teams like McLaren, Ferrari and Renault, was a smooth operator behind the wheel. His calculated approach was also at stark contrast to the likes of Senna and Mansell, who were in-your-face and aggressive at all times.

With 34 years having passed since he took the wins record, let us revisit that fateful race in Portugal.

The background

Prost came into the 1987 season as the defending world champion, having won his second title in 1986 by the closest of margins. However, the 1987 season was a disappointing one for him. He only took two wins, the second of which came in Portugal.

By the time of that race, he was well out of the reckoning for a run at the title. Instead, the battle was mainly between Williams teammates Piquet and Senna, with the latter the favourite in that year.

However, the Williams’ had a new challenger in the second half of the season: Ferrari’s Gerhard Berger. The Austrian was in flying form and, in a much-improved Ferrari, was hungry for wins.

That much was evident when he took pole position in the Portuguese GP ahead of Mansell then Prost. Piquet, who was leading the championship standings, was fourth on the grid ahead of Senna at fifth.

As such, fans expected an interesting start to the race. What they got was an interesting start, middle and finish too.

Chaos reigns supreme in race

At the start of the race, Mansell took the lead from Berger but behind them Ferrari’s Michele Alboreto crashed into Piquet. Derek Warwick spun his Arrows trying to avoid them and then Lotus driver Satoru Nakajima hit Martin Brundle’s Zakspeed.

The rest of the field also got dragged into the crash, with Adrian Campos (Minardi), Christian Danner (Zakspeed), Rene Arnoux (Ligier), Philippe Alliot (Larrousse Lola) and Eddie Cheever (Arrows) also crashing.

The race was rightfully stopped and at the restart everyone was except Danner was at the grid. The reason for this was that Zakspeed’s spare car was taken by Brundle.

Nevertheless, the restart saw Mansell take the lead again but it was taken off him by Berger. Piquet was battling Senna for third place and the race would eventually settle down. Piquet eventually made the pass in the 11th lap.

Mansell was hot on the heels of Berger but his engine gave out and he retired on the fourteenth lap. Thereafter, Senna would go into the pits with an electronic problem in his engine.

The issue was fixed and he finished the race in seventh, two laps behind the leader. However, that wasn’t the only major drama that took place.

Alboreto and Piquet then got involved in a battle for position. The Italian won the battle but Piquet took the position back shortly thereafter. The real gamechanger, however, came with the pit-stops.

Alain Prost wins out in dramatic race

After the pit-stops, Berger was in front and Alain Prost stood in second. The race did begin to settle down more, even though further retirements came about. The most notable of those was Alboreto, whose transmission failed.

Thereafter, the order up front remained unchanged. However, Prost gradually caught up with the Ferrari of Bergher and soon the race was on.

Both drivers were giving it their absolute all, and it was only the case of which of them blinked first. Would Prost run out of steam or would Bergher crumble under the heat?

The answer arrived on the 68th lap of the 70-lap race, when Bergher spun and thus ceded the lead to Prost. Prost would then hold on to the lead and thus break Jackie Stewart’s long-standing F1 record for most wins ever with his 28th win.

Afterwards, Prost admitted he wasn’t shocked when Bergher spun. “I wasn’t altogether surprised when he spun because we were both running very hard,” Prost said.

Nevertheless, the record now belonged to Prost – even though he would not be winning the world title that year.

The aftermath

Piquet, who extended his championship lead over nearest rivals Senna and Mansell after this race, went on to win the title. This is despite not winning another race in the remaining rounds of the season.

Alain Prost, however, would go on to add another 23 wins to his tally, thus becoming the record holder by some margin. His record would stand until Michael Schumacher came along and broke the record.

Schumacher would go on to win 91 races, a record that has since been eclipsed by Lewis Hamilton, who currently has 99 and is aiming to become the first driver to notch up a century of wins.