Race report In the race morning warmup, Elio de Angelis showed he and his
Lotus-
Renault turbo would be one to watch, posting the fastest time of the session. At the start of the race, Tambay moved ahead of Arnoux, while de Angelis quickly went from hero to zero, retiring on just the second lap with turbo failure heading into Becketts. The somewhat angry Italian pulled off onto the infield, threw his belts off, got out of his car and stalked back to the Lotus pits. While they would ultimately win through Prost plus would gain 4th place with
Nigel Mansell's stirring drive in his first GP in the Lotus-Renault in front of the home crowd, early on things were turning a bit sour for Renault. First de Angelis was out, then the second factory car of Cheever retired when his engine failed on lap 4. Then Stefan Johansson joined the growing list of retirements on lap 6 with fuel system problems in the Spirit-Honda. When Patrese's turbo gave up on lap 10, Piquet moved up to fourth behind the Ferraris and Prost, with de Cesaris fifth and Winkelhock sixth. Prost overtook Arnoux on lap 14, followed by Piquet five laps later. Then, on lap 20, Prost passed Tambay for the lead, with Piquet moving into second on lap 31. In the later stages of the race, Winkelhock's engine failed and de Cesaris dropped behind teammate
Mauro Baldi, while Mansell, who had qualified a lowly 18th in the second Lotus (the slowest turbo qualifier), made a charge through the field that would become his signature over the coming years, finally passing Arnoux for fourth on lap 48. At the chequered flag, Prost was 19 seconds ahead of Piquet with Tambay, Mansell, Arnoux and
Niki Lauda completing the top six. One lap down on Prost, Lauda was the only
Cosworth powered car to finish in the points on a track which clearly suited the more powerful turbos. In the Drivers' Championship, Prost doubled his lead over Piquet to six points, with Tambay two points further back. Renault moved into the outright lead of the Constructors' Championship, three points ahead of Ferrari.
Race classification ==Championship standings after the race==