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00:00:00Michele Alboreto in the Ferrari, leads Alain Prost in the McLaren, and then a gap of 9 points before Elio De Angelis in the Lotus.
00:00:09And with Murray Walker at Silverstone, we've got a new man alongside James Hunt in the commentary position, and that's Tony Jardim.
00:00:18And as the cars move off for their formation lap, don't forget at the European Grand Prix last year, 5 cars were involved in a first lap accident at the S's.
00:00:28But now I'm going to hand over to James Hunt, who'll take you through the warm-up lap.
00:00:33Thank you, Tony. And as you see, it's quite a big, long, wide run down to the start, which allows the cars to bunch, and then they go into quite a tight first corner.
00:00:42Into the right-hander, they're hard on the brakes, and look out for an incident here, because it really is quite a difficult corner to get 26 cars on top of each other through in one piece.
00:00:54Then we go on to the twistier part of the track. They come out of that left-hander, down a little short straight, where they turn left again in third gear.
00:01:07Down the hill to the lowest part of the circuit, to the long, open second-gear corner at the bottom of the hill, and then they start to climb and wind all their way back.
00:01:19On the far left-hand side of the circuit map is where they are now, and now they're coming back. They've returned back up the hill.
00:01:28Very fast, quick flick in fourth gear through the right-hander. Still climbing hard up the hill.
00:01:34As usual, you see them wandering about around the track, trying to get heat into their tyres, because it is a problem here. The weather is quite unusually cold for this time of the year.
00:01:48I've been walking around all day with a sweater on, and sometimes having to put an anorak on to keep the cold wind out, and this is a problem with the tyres, to get them warmed up quickly.
00:02:04Coming up the hill.
00:02:22Just weaving around, trying to get a bit of movement into the rubber, trying to build up the heat a little bit.
00:02:35Back to the final little S-bend wiggle. There is Fabi leading the field round. He's now slowing it right down, because they're on to the final hairpin, and this, incidentally, is a shot of Enos from Enos Renault.
00:02:54Enos Renault has got a camera mounted on the roll bar behind the driver's head, and it's the first time anybody has successfully engineered a camera to sit on a Formula 1 car without taking up the huge amount of vibration that is created by a Formula 1 car.
00:03:09We will be showing you shots from that car in the race, hoping, of course, that it lasts a reasonable amount, and Fabi bringing the field onto the grid, pulling up on pole position.
00:03:18When all the cars are in position and stop, the red light will go on with a four or five second delay, and then the green.
00:03:26Right, just quickly through the grid now. Theo, Fabi and the Toleman in pole position.
00:03:30Alongside him at the front, you can see there, Stefano Hansen in the Ferrari. In third place, Alain Prost in the Marlboro McLaren. In fourth place, Keke Rosberg in the Williams Honda.
00:03:40In fifth place, Ayrton Senna in the JBS Lotus. And in sixth place, Nelson Piquet in the Brabham. Red light is on.
00:04:00Alberto was seen locking up there through the S's in the first part of that corner, but they all appear to be safely through at this moment.
00:04:14Yes, that was the puff of blue smoke you saw coming off Alberto's car, locked his brakes.
00:04:19Theo Fabi, incidentally, was very slow away from pole position, never really got the car moving. But, so, we'll have to have a look, see where he is, but I would guess he's probably dropped down to eighth or ninth place.
00:04:31Cars reach up to over 180 miles an hour here, just under 190 miles an hour. Most of these cars have five-speed gearboxes for this particular short circuit. Of course, six-speed gearboxes are allowed, but most of the teams are going with five speeds here.
00:04:46The course is 2.822 miles in length. It utilizes part of the old Nurburgring, which was over 14 miles in length. The leader right now is Ayrton Senna as they approach the backstretch of this race course.
00:05:01And Keke Rosberg is coming through in the fastest stretch of the circuit through the kink. Keke Rosberg certainly has an acceleration advantage there coming out of that particular corner. We don't know if Ayrton made a slight mistake, but Keke Rosberg certainly blew by the Lotus with no problems whatsoever.
00:05:19Stephanie Johansson is falling back. Here we see the replay. Keke Rosberg coming through. Ayrton doesn't even try and block him in any way whatsoever. Getting the power down perfectly with that Williams chassis and the Honda engine.
00:05:36Keke Rosberg was the fastest practicer before the race began here today, and that's always a good indication of how things are going to go in the actual competition. So Keke Rosberg from Finland is leading this race, and one lap has been completed. Meanwhile, into the pit area is one of the Ferraris. I believe that's Stephanie Johansson.
00:05:58But very unfortunate, Johansson making a pit stop here, not even completing one full lap. So Keke Rosberg is the leader with Ayrton Senna running in second position, and we will be back with more live coverage of the 1985 German Grand Prix from Nürburgring right after these messages.
00:06:29Back at the German Grand Prix where Keke Rosberg is the leader, followed by Ayrton Senna running in third position is Michele Alvaredo, fourth is Elio de Angelis, fifth is Alain Prost. Those are the top five as we have completed six laps of the 67 lap race.
00:06:47Well, Keke Rosberg, as we said, he was the fastest in morning warm-up. Now, that is such a strong indicator because they aren't going for qualifying time. The grid is already set. They run full tank, maybe for the first time in the weekend, and they run on race tires. Now, the Goodyear boys, most of them have chosen C-type tires. That's a very soft tire. The Nürburgring with its new surface does not create the greatest amount of grip.
00:07:10Of course, of course, it's very cool here. Only about 62 degrees in these Eifel Mountains of Germany, and therefore, they have to go to a soft compound to try and maintain the grip. Grip is what makes the race car go around the corners and accelerate.
00:07:24Of course, there are two major tire suppliers this year in Formula One racing. As there again, you can see the leader, Keke Rosberg, closing in on Stefan Johansson, who has already been in the pit area. Two major tire suppliers this year, one Goodyear, of course, and Pirelli. Is there any difference in the two tire manufacturers as far as what they would use here today?
00:07:45Well, of course, Pirelli has a problem in cold weather, and I think you have seen so far that Pirelli's got tires going backwards in this race. They are very suited for hot, warm conditions, and of course, Nelson Piquet winning the French Grand Prix, where the temperature was just below 90, about 86, 87 outside temperature. So, Pirelli's going to have a tough time, Bob, in these particular conditions, that's for sure.
00:08:12It is very cloudy here also, and there is always a threat of rain. We received a report about a half hour ago that rain was as close as 15 to 20 miles away, but so far, no rain drops on this race course in the German Grand Prix with seven laps completed.
00:08:26Now, you see Keke Rosberg has pulled out quite a lead. This is the battle for third place between Michele Alboreto, Elio de Angelis, and Alain Prost. Of course, now, here you have three different chassis, three different types of motor. You have a Ferrari driver with a Ferrari engine and an Italian driver. You have an Italian driver and a Lotus, and into the pit, they look like Jonathan Palmer. That's certainly the Zaxby pit.
00:08:52Zaxby crew in the pit located directly across from our broadcast position here. There you can see Jonathan has brought that car in for a stop. They're examining it on the left side. It looks like it could be a serious problem for the practicing physician, who is also a race driver, Jonathan Palmer.
00:09:12It's an interesting thing about Jonathan. Somehow, every time throughout a race weekend, he has to practice a little medicine. Someone gets their finger a bit squashed in the wrong place, or burned, or here or there. But back to this interesting battle here for third place. Elio de Angelis, of course, these three people right here, they are the leaders of the current world championship.
00:09:35I mean, you're looking at Elio is in third place, Prost is in second, and Alvarelo is in first place. So these three people, they'll let Keke Rosberg go ahead and run for it. In fact, Keke's scoring points here, well, that would certainly put him into a better position. But these people right here, as you see them, are lined up for number one, two, and three in the world championship. So this is a very important battle going on.
00:10:02We also understand that Riccardo Patrese has come in for a pit stop. It's really been a great season as far as competition is concerned. The first half of the 1985 Formula One season, already 17 drivers have scored points in the first half of the year.
00:10:17And of course, we've had six winners in eight events. So there was a great deal of controversy once when the Renault-powered cars proved the point that turbocharging is the only way to go in Formula One, if the competition would ever get back to what it was.
00:10:33And here we see some very close running, coming down that long straight into some very heavy braking area. Let's see, now that the turbocharged cars have been developed over several years, the running is just as close as it has ever been. And here we see stopping on the track, I think it's Manfred Winkleheim.
00:10:52It's one of the Ram Skull Bandit cars, powered by the heart engine. It has almost come to a stop now, the driver pulling off of the racetrack into a safe area on the grass.
00:11:03That is a great disappointment for John McDonald and his sponsors, the Skull Bandit people. They've been looking for some well-deserved points and success, but they keep going on as if they were just fighting for the lead of the championship.
00:11:17Very interesting. You can see Michele Alboreto looking into his mirrors there. These people, as I say, are running for the lead of the championship. Michele is not going to give Elio any chance whatsoever.
00:11:30Now you see there, Elio has a better acceleration factor coming out of that corner, and that is what makes up the difference where the grip comes in. Maybe his tires are a little bit better suited, or maybe the gear ratios are a little bit better suited for this particular circuit.
00:11:47But you can see, coming out of the corner, where Elio can certainly gain ground. Let's see what happens now. Coming out of this low hairpin at the end of the straight, right past the pit, and there's our camera car. Sorry about that.
00:11:59That'll be the last shot we see from the on-camera car. We have to keep the car running if we want to keep the shots coming. But that is Pat Rojano climbing out of the number 14 Renault.
00:12:12And he has to be a very disappointed driver, and we're disappointed as spectators and viewers of this race, because the early in-car camera shots from that machine were just absolutely outstanding.
00:12:24This is the Tyrrell car, also powered now by Renault turbocharged.
00:12:30And Stefan Bellof is driving the car this time. The other Tyrrell car, which is driven by Martin Brundle, still has the normally aspirated Ford Cosworth engine, but this particular Tyrrell machine is powered by the Renault.
00:12:45And of course, Stefan Bellof is a German, so we'll see our national feed here. The cameras you're looking at are German cameras, and you'll see them maybe concentrating a little bit more on the local hero. That's very understandable.
00:12:58He is running in 14th position, by the way. Stefan Bellof, car number 3. He is from Germany, as John indicated.
00:13:07We really have to give Ken Tyrrell a lot of credit. He has no sponsorship, or very little sponsorship, we should say. And he just keeps continuing on. Of course, this is Jackie Stewart's old world championship team.
00:13:19And we certainly hope that in the very near future, they'll acquire the budget to keep these two cars running in top condition.
00:13:2511 laps have been completed. We're watching the 14th place competitor, Stefan Bellof. In the lead is K.K. Rossberg, and the car smoking very badly there. I don't know whether he came in contact with the barrier or not.
00:13:39We have three cars parked there now. One was the Renault, the other one looked like another Skull Bandit. The driver was definitely in a dark green racing suit. That means that it's a Skull Bandit, or possibly one of the Benetton drivers, but that is beginning to become a parking lot right there.
00:13:58And he was running, it looked like to me, after a marshal who may have a fire extinguisher. I hope he has a fire extinguisher.
00:14:05Stefan Bellof running in 14th spot ahead of him, Berger and Cheever. Now we can see that the smoke was coming from one of the Skull Bandit cars. Both of them are parked almost side-by-side on the race course, so both Winklehock and Aliot are out of the race.
00:14:21You can see at this particular circuit they've put a great amount of emphasis on safety. You can see how far back the crowd is from any edge of the track whatsoever.
00:14:34And the leaders still have not caught him, so he is staying ahead of the leaders, but certainly is not in contention for a victory here this afternoon.
00:14:43The lead continues to be held by Keke Rosberg. We've completed 11 of the 67 laps. Running in 2nd position is Ayrton Senna, and a good battle for 3rd that we have been following for you involving the Ferrari of Alvarado, the Lotus of De Angelis, and the McLaren of Alain Prost.
00:15:03But you know Bob, they have not pulled away to the point where this 3rd place race is going to get out of sight. The leader, Keke Rosberg, is only about less than a second ahead of 2nd place man, Ayrton Senna.
00:15:20Well there you can see it, it's only a tenth of a second actually. So Keke Rosberg has his mirrors full of Ayrton Senna. Now Ayrton Senna has led more Grand Prix laps than anyone this year, and he only has one finish in 9 points, so maybe the Lotus strategy has been, Ayrton, we know that you have a big heart, but let's play the waiting game a little bit in this particular race.
00:15:45So Keke Rosberg is the leader with Senna running in 2nd position. There is the exact speed of Jonathan Palmer. Jonathan has climbed out of that car as work continues on it. So we will resume our live coverage from Nürburgring in West Germany and the German Grand Prix right after these messages.
00:16:04Bob Jenkins and John Bisognato back at Nürburgring in West Germany where 13 laps have been completed in this German Grand Prix. The leader right now is Keke Rosberg. He jumped into the lead before the end of lap number 1 and has held it. His lead over Ayrton Senna is just a few car lengths as you can see.
00:16:32Senna following him in that black Lotus as they head into the first quarter here at Nürburgring. Running in 3rd position remains Michele Alvaredo in the Ferrari. 4th is Elio de Angelis. 5th is Alain Prost. In 6th position is Nigel Mansell.
00:16:53Nelson Piquet is 7th. Teo Bobbi the pole sitter is running in 8th spot. He got off to a very poor start when the green went on. In 9th position one of the aero drivers Thierry Boesen and in 10th the defending world champion Niki Lauda.
00:17:08Well of course Ayrton Senna is having certainly a go at Keke Rosberg now. He's very close coming into that last corner. Now one quick thing. The Goodyear person was in here giving us the tire distribution for this particular race and Ayrton Senna is all on soft C's like we said before where Keke Rosberg has one B that's a little bit harder. That tire is on the left rear. So the left rear tire of Keke's car is a little bit harder compound. The rest of them are C's.
00:17:38While it's raining in other parts of Germany and interrupting the Davis Cup tennis play it is not too bad at all here at Nürburgring. As a matter of fact it's just about as bright as it's been all morning. It remains mostly overcast but there are a few blue patches in the sky and the sun peeks through them every now and then. There are the standings. The top 6. Rosberg, Senna, Alvaredo, de Angelis, Prost and Mansell.
00:18:01We can't leave Mansell out of this race also. Now he's driving the same type of car that Keke Rosberg is and he's in a very good position. He still has the leading rack in his sights and he's a very calculating driver Nigel Mansell. Right up Keke Rosberg's exhaust. It certainly seems that Ayrton Senna has a braking advantage but Keke Rosberg has an acceleration advantage.
00:18:25Ayrton Senna on the inside. Keke I think saw him coming through there and realized that he was not going to be able to hold off. Ayrton Senna on the brakes and let him through.
00:18:37So a change of leader here. Ayrton Senna has gone into the lead. Here's a replay of the pass. Senna ducking low to the inside of the corner and moving to the inside and passing Keke Rosberg.
00:18:50And you can see Keke letting by there for sure. Keke has been known to be a very good door slammer in other times but only when he thinks that he has an advantage on the other parts of the circuit.
00:19:01They are working lap number 16 so Rosberg will have led the first 15 laps and the winner will be Senna lap number 16. Mark Schur one of the Brabham cars in the garage area.
00:19:13That's too bad for Mark. He has done very well joining this Brabham team in mid-season and he really deserves a good race here. Not his home crowd but he is Swiss coming from Basel just across the border.
00:19:25When he's doing well of course Germans consider him German and when he doesn't do so well they consider him Swiss. So one of the international things about Grand Prix racing your neighbors are always very welcome as long as they're doing well.
00:19:40Senna the leader now Rosberg in second position then there's about a seven second interval between second and third place. Alvarado continues to hang on to that third place spot.
00:19:53Just a few notes here. Mark Schur looks like he could be out of the race. They pushed the car into the garage with engine problems. Now they can push the car back out of the garage. If it goes into the back of the garage area the car is finished for the day.
00:20:10The problem with Johansson's car is that he had a collision with Alvarado on actually it was in the first corner. We saw Alvarado locking up the brakes on the first lap and that was the problem that they had to try and correct in the Ferrari pit by changing that right rear tile but still he must be having some sort of a handling problem or something.
00:20:33Ayrton Senna now beginning to lengthen his advantage just a little bit over KK Rosberg. Senna of course known as a driver who does very well under wet conditions but the track is dry here today and Senna took the lead from Rosberg last lap and continues to hold it.
00:20:51Beautiful long shot in that heat you see coming up in the back of the cars. Of course these turbochargers run extremely hot and with that particular type of shot you see the heat wave being well sprayed quite far back and high into the air. Ayrton Senna, young Brazilian.
00:21:11Only 25 years of age this is his second season in Formula 1 racing. His first Grand Prix was at the Brazilian Grand Prix back last year driving for Toleman and he scored in only his second Grand Prix that he competed in last year, scored at 6th place and thus picked up a point for the World Championship.
00:21:32And again here we have the standings. Ayrton Senna doing what he does best, leading Grand Prix. KK Rosberg from Finland second, Michele Alboreto a tie-in third. Elio de Angelis a tie-in with the Lotus. Also Alain Prost with Nigel Mansell bringing up to 6th place.
00:21:50So we have 17 laps completed. We are 50 away from the end of this race. Senna is the leader. Rosberg second. Back with more in just a moment.
00:22:00Back at the Nürburgring in West Germany for the German Grand Prix, the leader Ayrton Senna. There is the interval between first and second. Behind Senna who is driving the Lotus, the Williams Honda KK Rosberg who led the first 15 laps of this race.
00:22:24For those of you interested in Davis Cup tennis, it's raining in Hamburg. Not too far from here but at the Nürburgring we have no rain at the present time and the German Grand Prix well underway.
00:22:37In fact Bob, this is about the best weather we've had all weekend. You're very lucky that you brought your warm winter Anorex to this particular event. We've both been trying to keep our feet warm in the hotel room. The hotel turns off the heat all summer long over here but we can't tell their summer from their winter this weekend.
00:22:55Well it has been extremely cool over here and I guess really the nicest day of all was Friday when it was mostly sunny although cool. Yesterday was a literally miserable day over here as it rained part of the afternoon and it was very cool. Now today, overcast skies, cool temperatures but so far no rain.
00:23:14Unfortunately that has cut down on the crowd a little bit here. They were expecting near on 100,000 people. Most Grand Prix's do hit the 100,000 mark but they figure around 60,000 in attendance today. So that's not a very good sign for the organizers here in Germany.
00:23:30Now there's that beautiful long shot. Those are the first five cars. Number one, Ayrton Senna, Keke Rosberg coming into view in the beautiful red Ferrari is Michele Alboreto. Mostly behind him, Elio D'Angeli.
00:23:44Two Italian drivers. These two drivers have been battling with one another since the go-kart days going back some 10 and 12 years ago. They actually started in go-kart near on the same time as very young men back in Italy.
00:24:00Right behind them, Alain Prost. And Alain Prost is a very calculated driver. And into the tire wall is number 15, Patrick Tompe in one of the Renaults. So Patrick's car stalled after coming into contact with one of the tire barriers.
00:24:19And unfortunately, that's two times Patrick has gone into the tires in the last two races. He had trouble in Silverstone and now here in Germany. Unfortunately, the Renault team has had terrible results so far this year. Their engines have been doing quite well in several different tracks.
00:24:40But unfortunately, their particular chassis has been slowing down relative to competition so far in the first half of this season.
00:24:48Watching third and fourth place here, Michele Alboreto in the red Ferrari and Elio D'Angeli in the number 11. And some smoke seen from the Ferrari.
00:24:58Yes, certainly. It looked like oil smoke to me. It was clear going down the straight, but as soon as he went around that right-hand corner, there was definitely some smoke.
00:25:08We'll continue to watch for that and it could mean a problem later on.
00:25:13What we call a death rattle over here. That smoke is the first sign of an internal engine problem. Of course, now the gearbox is a well-oiled machine also, but it's not always the motor.
00:25:24With that big of a pump of smoke, there has to be something going wrong with Michele Alboreto.
00:25:29There you can see the interval between third and fourth place. Only about a half a second.
00:25:34Post is running fifth. Mansell is in sixth spot. After that, it's Nelson Piquet in seventh.
00:25:40Theo Fabi in eighth. Terry Boots in ninth. Nicky Lauda running in tenth spot.
00:25:44Jacques Lafitte is in eleventh place. Eddie Cheever in the alpha is in twelfth spot.
00:25:49Kevin Gerhardt-Berger in the arrows in thirteenth. Stefan Beloff in the Tyrrell's fourteenth position.
00:25:54And Derek Warwick in one of the Renaults is running in fifteenth spot.
00:25:59Just a note on that, Bob. We have the first six cars on Goodyear tires.
00:26:04And Pirelli coming in as their first driver in seventh place with Nelson Piquet.
00:26:09I'll tell you, the Ferrari is certainly having no problems with power.
00:26:14As you can see, they're putting down the power and accelerating away from the Lotus.
00:26:20Elio is out there. It's the smoke again. Same spot.
00:26:24Elio De Angelis is certainly doing well on the brakes as seems to be Ayrton Senna's advantage at the moment.
00:26:32Which is strange, Bob. If you remember, we were going through the Lotus garage just before air time.
00:26:38One car is on carbon fiber brakes and the other car is on your traditional steel brakes.
00:26:44So Ayrton Senna has the carbon fiber brakes and Elio is on the steel brakes.
00:26:49And it seems like anything that Lotus does is excellent under de-acceleration.
00:26:54Well, one thing you always have to be concerned with in a Formula One race is running out of fuel.
00:26:59It's happened a couple of times already this year.
00:27:02Now, Ayrton Senna has pulled out to a four-second lead over K.K. Rosberg.
00:27:07Mindless indicates that Senna has turned up the boost and is taking a chance on running out of fuel.
00:27:12And there you have your leaders. Down to sixth place.
00:27:15We show you until sixth place because that is where the points stop.
00:27:20But Michele Alboreto certainly knows how to lead a group of cars as he's leading the World Championship now.
00:27:27What you were saying about fuel. Insurgency.
00:27:30Ayrton Senna went for the lead. He must have led 85% of that race.
00:27:34But unfortunately, he ran out of fuel about six or seven laps from the end.
00:27:38So, you know, if you turn up the boost to where you have a 500 or 600 horsepower,
00:27:45or let's say you turn up the boost to where your 500 or 600 horsepower goes up to 750 horsepower,
00:27:52that's certainly easy to stay out in the lead.
00:27:55But you can't do that and have enough fuel.
00:27:57They only have 220 liters to finish the race.
00:28:01So you cannot keep that boost at maximum position and have enough fuel to finish the race.
00:28:07It's been a very good weekend in some instances for Tao Fabi and not so good here in the race.
00:28:13Fabi was outstanding during qualifying as Nelson Piquet has climbed out of his car or is doing so.
00:28:20The car off the racetrack.
00:28:22And smoking in the rear.
00:28:24Now, Nelson.
00:28:26Now he's going for the fire extinguisher himself, knowing that there is a fire in that car.
00:28:31That's Nelson Piquet.
00:28:33It's incredible. A racing car driver can think so well in desperate situations.
00:28:38There is your poor fireman who's been probably standing on that corner for five years
00:28:42waiting for someone to stop with a smoking engine.
00:28:44And he can't figure out how to work the fire extinguisher.
00:28:47Every once in a while, you do see a driver taking the extinguisher out of the fireman's hand and going to work.
00:28:53Two reasons for that.
00:28:54Number one, they do think well under stress.
00:28:56But the second reason is because they don't want the whole car covered with foam.
00:29:00The very enthusiastic fire extinguisher will foam everything from the battery down to the engine.
00:29:06The battery being located in the front.
00:29:08And this foam can actually eat away at certain types of exotic metals used in these cars.
00:29:14So the driver normally likes to point that thing at himself if he has to use it.
00:29:19So the two-time world champion Nelson Piquet, champ in 1981 and 1983, is out of this race.
00:29:24We were talking about Tao Bobby.
00:29:26He was so dominant during qualifying in that Coleman Hart.
00:29:291.2 seconds faster than anyone else.
00:29:33Now Tao is beginning to move up just a little bit.
00:29:35He's shown now in seventh spot in car number 19.
00:29:38About 23 seconds behind the leader.
00:29:40But Bobby has moved up a position now and is in seventh.
00:29:44Of course, the Bobby story is another great story here in Formula 1.
00:29:49He drove for Grabham last year and he actually lost the Grabham ride.
00:29:53Unfortunately, his father passed away quite suddenly at the very end of last year.
00:29:59He missed the Portuguese Grand Prix because of his father's death.
00:30:03And I think it hit him very hard.
00:30:06He was actually running the family business.
00:30:10The Coleman situation as far as the tire supplier was involved.
00:30:14And he got the phone call to join the Coleman team.
00:30:17And I think he's glad that he has gotten back into full swing of Formula 1.
00:30:21The bittersweet weekend for him includes the crash that occurred in practice yesterday during very wet track conditions.
00:30:30And Tao had a rather hard head-on impact with the barrier.
00:30:34That particular accident, of course, is always upsetting.
00:30:38There's the smoke again.
00:30:39I don't know how much further this can go on.
00:30:41Where you see smoke like that just in one or two particular places, it's almost like oil is falling onto something hot.
00:30:48He may have an oil leak someplace and it's dropping onto the exhaust.
00:30:53Some sort of surge going through there where some oil is hitting something hot.
00:30:57But he certainly has no problem with the power.
00:30:59That was a very mean accident.
00:31:02The engine blew and oiled the rear tires.
00:31:04And all of a sudden, he was not going straight.
00:31:07He took a straight 90-degree turn right into the barrier.
00:31:12He was lucky that it happened on a second-gear corner.
00:31:16But still, a second-gear corner here is 60, 65 miles an hour.
00:31:19So they got in contact with a member of their team who was taking a third car to Monza for practice.
00:31:28And they brought him here this weekend to serve as a backup car.
00:31:33Once again, this is third, fourth, and fifth position.
00:31:36The number 27 of Michele Alboreto, followed by Elio de Angelis, and then Alain Proch.
00:31:43And there again, we have a Brazilian leading a gentleman from Finland.
00:31:49I'll tell you, I've seen some diehard race fans in my days.
00:31:53But the Finlanders or the Finns or the Finnish people have certainly caught on to Keke Rosberg's success in Formula 1.
00:32:00We saw a carload of them all the way down in circuit Paul Ricard.
00:32:05That would be like driving from Nome, Alaska to Miami to watch their driver compete at the French Grand Prix.
00:32:13And he did not disappoint them, too terribly bad.
00:32:16We are live at the Nürburgring in West Germany.
00:32:20Bob Jenkins and John Vincignano here with all the action.
00:32:24The leader, Ayrton Senna, Rosberg is second, more in a moment.
00:32:36The major story developing here, Ayrton Senna has pulled into the pit.
00:32:41The car just slowed down dramatically on the course.
00:32:44And Ayrton is in for a pit stop.
00:32:47Well, this is heartbreaking for sure.
00:32:49The gentleman has led 200 laps so far this season.
00:32:53And this looks like there goes the body cover.
00:32:56That is the longest piece of body work in Formula 1 they're lifting up there.
00:33:00That whole thing only weighs eight pounds, though.
00:33:02But it's 200 laps he has led and he's only finished one race.
00:33:07That's a good indication that first you must finish to finish first.
00:33:12This is certainly a heartbreaker for Ayrton Senna.
00:33:17Senna took over the lead on the 16th lap and held it until lap number 26.
00:33:24But then problems with that car, he's into the pits.
00:33:28And K.K. Rosberg is now back into the lead with second, third, and fourth.
00:33:34Here now with Alvarado in the number 27 Ferrari.
00:33:37Now running second, followed by de Angelis and Prost.
00:33:41And they're certainly well within striking distance, Bob.
00:33:44You can see that everyone is still in one camera shot.
00:33:48They are not falling behind.
00:33:50One of the best races we've had so far this year, the new standard.
00:33:53Standing, K.K. Rosberg, Michele Alvarado, Elio de Angelis, Prost, Mansell.
00:33:57And now Fabi has worked himself back up into the points, as I said earlier.
00:34:02Points go down to sixth place in Fabi.
00:34:04And the team is being rewarded at the moment, at least getting into the points.
00:34:08Well, it'll be a good weekend for Teo if he can hold in the top six
00:34:12and score a point for the Toleman team.
00:34:16A well-deserved point, that's for sure.
00:34:19Those points make a big difference.
00:34:21The traveling fund that these organizers pay towards
00:34:26is rewarded relative to how many points the team scores.
00:34:31So even one point can make a difference of several hundred thousands of dollars
00:34:37relative to the next year's travel fund distribution.
00:34:42So this is very important for people.
00:34:45Even how they line up up and down the pit row
00:34:48is determined by how many points you scored in the previous season.
00:34:51Bob, I'm worried about that smoke.
00:34:53I cannot see how that can continue on.
00:34:56Obviously, it is some sort of a surge problem.
00:34:59Where there is an oil leak getting onto something hot,
00:35:02it certainly has still plenty of power.
00:35:05But if that continues, they're going to use up enough oil
00:35:09to where the engine becomes a little bit tight.
00:35:12We really don't notice the problem except for up in Romer Curve,
00:35:15which is the final one before the straightaway.
00:35:17At that point, it's very obvious that smoke is coming from that car.
00:35:21But here in the other sections of the racetrack,
00:35:23there's a little bit as he brakes going into one of the other corners.
00:35:26But it is going to be interesting to see if that car can hold together.
00:35:29Elio DeAngelis right on his back wing now, looking for that second spot.
00:35:35And our people here tell us that Bobby is actually dropping back at the moment.
00:35:40So let's look and see what...
00:35:42Yes, we just gave you Bobby in 6th place, and he is back in 9th.
00:35:46He has been passed by Nicky Lauda, Thierry Bootsen, and Jacques Lafitte.
00:35:50So Bobby back now in 9th position as that Coleman car
00:35:54is apparently having some kind of a problem.
00:35:57And Cheever also in the pits, the only American driver,
00:36:01making a quick pit stop in his Benetton Alfa Romeo,
00:36:05in and out of the pits.
00:36:07We could not see exactly what was being done.
00:36:09It might have been only a tire change.
00:36:11But I'll tell you, Bob, the smoke is getting heavier now every time.
00:36:15Now, Elio DeAngelis is very aware of that.
00:36:18Coming up on some back markers, that's Martin Brundle,
00:36:21the only Ford-powered Cosworth car.
00:36:24He's dealing with several hundred horsepower less
00:36:29than the turbocharged car.
00:36:31And Elio also makes it around Martin.
00:36:34And here comes Prost to the inside and also passes Martin Brundle
00:36:38in that Carroll car, a normally aspirated Ford Cosworth engine.
00:36:41They hope to have both cars under turbo power within the next couple races.
00:36:46And that will be a sad end to a proud history,
00:36:49a legacy that Ford has given Formula 1 racing.
00:36:53But you know they are developing the new turbocharged Ford
00:36:57for the Beatrice team that will be out racing next year.
00:37:01The Beatrice team will be using the hard Ford for the first five races this year,
00:37:05the last five races, I should say, their first five races.
00:37:09And then over the winter, what we call the off-season,
00:37:12which there's very little of these days,
00:37:14the Ford-powered car will be developed, fully tested,
00:37:17and ready to go for the first race next year.
00:37:19Ford and Beatrice, two very powerful names.
00:37:22Alboreto now sneaking up on Uwe Rottengatter
00:37:25in that car number 24, the Osella,
00:37:29as there is the Carroll driven by Martin Brundle once again.
00:37:33Koop, of course, is the only Dutchman in the race,
00:37:36and he has taken over that seat.
00:37:40The Osella team was running low on financing,
00:37:43and unfortunately they had to tell their regular driver
00:37:46that unless he could come up with a big bunch of money
00:37:51that they would have to sell the drive,
00:37:53and Koop was the man there with the funds to secure the ride.
00:37:57It might not be terribly just, but that's the way things can happen in Formula 1.
00:38:04We might remind you once again that it is raining
00:38:07for the Davis Cup tennis match in another part of Germany
00:38:10as Niki Lauda comes into the pit,
00:38:12the defending world champion from Austria.
00:38:16It's raining over in Hamburg, so the tennis has been delayed.
00:38:19We're here live for the German Grand Prix.
00:38:21No weather problems at the moment,
00:38:23and of course later today another live auto race for you
00:38:26as Larry Neuber and Gary Lee and Jack Arood
00:38:30will have live coverage of the IndyCar race
00:38:32from Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.
00:38:35It's a very long pit stop for Niki Lauda, Bob,
00:38:37and I'm afraid Niki Lauda's terrible luck
00:38:40has found him here in the heart of Germany in the Eifel Mountains.
00:38:46So K.K. Rosberg is the leader.
00:38:4831 laps have been completed, his advantage over second place.
00:38:52Michele Alvareto is about five seconds.
00:38:55We'll be back with more from West Germany.
00:39:08The drive for the 1985 World Championship
00:39:11right now shows Michele Alvareto in the point lead with 37,
00:39:16just two ahead of Alain Prost who has 35 points.
00:39:19Third in the standings with half the season over,
00:39:22Elio de Angelis with 26.
00:39:24Fourth is K.K. Rosberg with 18.
00:39:27Fifth in the point standings is Stefan Johansson with 16.
00:39:31And sixth is Nelson Piquet with 13 points.
00:39:34And as we said earlier, 17 drivers have already scored this year.
00:39:38A championship point.
00:39:39The most recent driver to do so was Mark Schur at the British Grand Prix.
00:39:44And Mark will not be scoring any points in this particular event.
00:39:48Having a very long pit stop early on.
00:39:51There's a beautiful view.
00:39:53The crowd looks quite good, Bob.
00:39:55Maybe it was a late-arriving crowd.
00:39:57Late-arriving crowd.
00:39:59We tried our super-secret route to the track today.
00:40:02Which worked out fine, I might add.
00:40:04And we thought that they were holding the race on another date.
00:40:06We were so successful to sneak our way in here today.
00:40:09Word from the Tollman pit is that Tao Fabi has dropped out of competition.
00:40:13Polsitter is out of the German Grand Prix.
00:40:16We have Senna out with engine.
00:40:18Nelson Piquet out with turbo.
00:40:21Warrick is also out with injection problem.
00:40:24And Fabi out with suspension.
00:40:26The lead, K.K. Rosberg, about four and a half seconds ahead of
00:40:30Michele Alboreto, then Elio de Angelis, Alain Prost,
00:40:34Nigel Mansell, sixth as Thierry Bootsen.
00:40:37A good run for him in the Euros car.
00:40:39Jacques Lafitte in the Vigée is seventh.
00:40:41Gerhard Berger is in eighth spot.
00:40:44And Stefan Johansson has showed up in the top ten for the first time in a while.
00:40:49Stefan Belov is in tenth spot.
00:40:51But Johansson has moved back up to ninth in the Ferrari.
00:40:55And by that, the smoke is not only getting larger,
00:40:58but it's going a little bit further down the straightaway.
00:41:01Every time he accelerates out of that corner, the smoke is a greater quantity.
00:41:07And it runs down the straightaway just a little bit more.
00:41:09Now, Elio de Angelis, he sees that.
00:41:11In fact, I'm sure he sees it a little bit too closely.
00:41:14Sometimes the front of his car must be covered with considerable amount of oil
00:41:17at this particular point.
00:41:19And he knows in his mind, at least he's calculating.
00:41:23And there we have Rupert Rottengaarder coming into the pitch very slowly
00:41:27in the Osella.
00:41:28But anyway, Elio is certainly not going to make a big move on Michele,
00:41:34knowing that he may have a terminal problem.
00:41:38But he cannot let the leader, Keke Rosberg, get out of his grasp also.
00:41:45Keke Rosberg just going out of steam there, followed by Alboreto,
00:41:50de Angelis, and, of course, Proos.
00:41:54We can never leave Proos out of a winning situation
00:41:57because he's this close to the man in number one position.
00:42:01Of course, here, all weekend long we've been hearing from the commentator
00:42:05that this is a Porsche-powered car.
00:42:07It's actually a tag turbo designed by Porsche,
00:42:13tag being Technique Avant-Garde, French company.
00:42:18So successful last year with this particular engine.
00:42:21But, of course, here the Germans just call it nothing but Porsche.
00:42:25Alain Proos running fourth right now is trying to win a championship
00:42:33after finishing second in points for the last two years.
00:42:37Thirty years of age and has been competing in Formula One races
00:42:41since 1980, started driving for McLaren back then.
00:42:45Now Martini here driving the minority is certainly helping Keke Rosberg's
00:42:49effort to stay ahead.
00:42:51Coming up this track just slightly, Michele is through,
00:42:54Ballero is through, and Proos is through.
00:42:57These back markers have to be careful.
00:43:00They cannot just disappear off the face of the track.
00:43:03If they move too far off line, they're going to get you for the marbles.
00:43:07This is where the track is not in a grip situation,
00:43:11a high grip situation off the line.
00:43:13And by being courteous, he could find himself kissing the tires,
00:43:17and that makes his team manager too happy.
00:43:20Rosberg and Michele Alvareto.
00:43:22There you can see the interval between first and second is about 3.4 seconds.
00:43:26Your German is getting better there, Bob, being able to read those.
00:43:33Next Formula One race after today will be in Austria,
00:43:37which isn't too far from here, a little bit to the southeast of us.
00:43:40That will be two weeks from today.
00:43:43And then the race after that will be the Dutch Grand Prix,
00:43:45which is the following Sunday, three weeks from today.
00:43:49And then, of course, the all-sensational Italian Grand Prix,
00:43:53which certainly has one of the best Avion situations at that particular circuit
00:43:58throughout the year.
00:43:59Over 300,000 Italians will be there to do nothing but see Ferrari beat everyone else.
00:44:06The Ferrari of Michele Alvareto running in second spot here.
00:44:10There is Niki Lauda, who is back on the racetrack
00:44:13after having made a pit stop a few laps ago.
00:44:15He is now shown in 12th position.
00:44:20Unfortunately, that pit stop may have ruined his chances of scoring any points,
00:44:25but still, Niki Lauda is a great competitor,
00:44:28and he has been able to fight back from these situations before.
00:44:32His teammate, Alain Prost, running in fourth spot,
00:44:36trailing the leader by just about five seconds.
00:44:39K.K. Rosberg has been leading since Ayrton Senna dropped out of the race.
00:44:44We have completed more than half of this race.
00:44:4636 laps are now in the book, and 67 will make up this race.
00:44:50So, K.K. Rosberg is the leader of this race,
00:44:53with Alvareto, who we have been watching for the last few laps, running in second.
00:45:00There's a very fast S corner here.
00:45:03It's the Valvoline corner, actually,
00:45:05and this is one of the hardest-braking hairpins on the circuit.
00:45:08They go from near on 190 miles an hour
00:45:12down to about a 55, 60-mile-an-hour second-gear corner.
00:45:17That is the hardest-braking portion of the track.
00:45:20Derek Warren said that it's one of the hardest-braking portions
00:45:24of the Grand Prix trail, actually.
00:45:27So, brakes can be a very important thing as this race moves into the later stages.
00:45:35We are live at the Nürburgring in West Germany for the German Grand Prix.
00:45:40We'll take this and be back with more action
00:45:43with 37 laps completed and K.K. Rosberg the leader.
00:45:49Your number one auto racing network, ESPN, with a live doubleheader today.
00:45:54We're at Nürburgring in West Germany for the German Grand Prix.
00:45:57Later today, the 200-miler from Elkhart Lake in Wisconsin.
00:46:02With 38 laps completed here, K.K. Rosberg is the leader,
00:46:05Michele Alboreto is second, Elio de Angelis third,
00:46:08followed by Alain Prost and Nigel Mansell and Thierry Bootsen.
00:46:12Seventh right now is Jacques Lafitte.
00:46:14Eighth position belongs to Gerhard Berger,
00:46:17and ninth spot is Stefan Johansen.
00:46:20You know, Bob, when you talk about Elkhart Lake,
00:46:22of course, both of us being old Midwest boys in our youth,
00:46:26we certainly have had a lot of good experiences up at Elkhart Lake.
00:46:30But the big story for the Formula One crowd over here
00:46:33is the fact that Alan Jones,
00:46:35who is going to be the Beatrice Formula One driver,
00:46:37will be substituting for Mario Andretti,
00:46:39who was injured in Michigan last week.
00:46:42And Alan Jones is coming out of retirement
00:46:44into a very heavy competitive situation.
00:46:47Now, let me ask you,
00:46:49why are the Formula One drivers with the Formula One experience,
00:46:52why are they doing so well in the kart series these days?
00:46:56Well, that's a very good question.
00:46:57Of course, they run more road courses than they used to in IndyCar racing,
00:47:02as Tao Fabi is being talked to by reporters, the pole sitter.
00:47:05And Tao is one of the drivers that we're talking about,
00:47:08as a matter of fact, who came over to the United States two years ago
00:47:11and does such an outstanding job
00:47:13of qualifying for the pole position at Indianapolis
00:47:15and finishing second in points in the Kart PPG IndyCar World Series
00:47:20in the championship going right down to the final race that year.
00:47:25And then last year, of course, leaving IndyCar racing to come back to Formula One,
00:47:29they run more road courses
00:47:31and the drivers are able to adapt more quickly to road courses,
00:47:37I believe, than a driver is able to come from a fast-paced circuit or oval
00:47:45and compete on road courses.
00:47:47So, I don't know, I think there are several factors that are involved.
00:47:51Well, of course, the world championship driver from Formula One,
00:47:57Emerson Fittipaldi, went and won a 500-mile race on a Super Oval in Michigan.
00:48:03So, certainly, Formula One experience is something that's a very valuable thing.
00:48:09As we look at the Tyrrell, he was just in front of the leading group
00:48:16and looked like only a tire change to me.
00:48:20We'll check and see what tire stuff Belloff started this particular race on
00:48:25and see if anyone else could be in trouble tire-wise.
00:48:29He started again with three Cs and one B, the same setup that Keke Rosberg has.
00:48:34So, that's interesting that the only other car with the same setup as Rosberg
00:48:41has a little bit of trouble on his tire situation, changing them quite quickly.
00:48:49There is Elio De Angelis, and we did miss him.
00:48:52As we noticed that there was no car between Alboreto and Close,
00:48:58there is Elio De Angelis, the Italian who has dropped out of this race in the Lotus.
00:49:04So, now both Lotuses are gone.
00:49:07And Elio, looking back over his shoulder, saying,
00:49:10if it's going to burn, let it go at this point.
00:49:13Getting out over the guardrail.
00:49:16And he, too, is directing the fire extinguishing operations on that car.
00:49:22Now, they've got to be careful here.
00:49:24They cannot cover that car.
00:49:25This is exactly what happens when you let firefighters loose on a Formula 1 car.
00:49:32They put so much foam on it that they could seriously damage many parts of that particular car.
00:49:39So much foam.
00:49:40But, actually, they could cover the track with a cloud of dust that no driver likes to pop through.
00:49:48Jack Lafitte, who did so well in Silverstone at the last Grand Prix,
00:49:53being passed by Nicky Lauda.
00:49:55Or at least Lauda trying to get to the inside.
00:49:57He never gives up.
00:49:59Lafitte being shown in fifth spot right now.
00:50:02Lauda a lap down because of the pit stop being shown in 11th place.
00:50:07Well, that's not going to bother Nicky Lauda.
00:50:10He'll race just as hard in 11th as he would in second or first place.
00:50:14But Jack Lafitte, the oldest driver in Formula 1 at the moment,
00:50:18was actually racing Formula 1 cars when he looked quite different.
00:50:23Way before the days of downforce and aerodynamics.
00:50:27And even the early days of the wing cars.
00:50:29Back in the late, early 70s.
00:50:3174, 75 was his first entrance into Formula 1, a French driver.
00:50:36Has a very good race record in the last few years.
00:50:39Has been dropping back.
00:50:40And everyone is so happy to see him up on the rostrum in third place at the British Grand Prix.
00:50:47Now, 14 cars are still in the race here.
00:50:5013 have dropped out.
00:50:52We'll give you an idea of some of the drivers that have dropped out of competition.
00:50:56They include the pole sitter, Teo Bocchi, also out.
00:50:59Both the Lotuses of Ayrton Senna and Elio De Angelis.
00:51:03Both of the ram cars, Winkelhock and Aliot, are out.
00:51:06Mark Sure and the Brabham has dropped from competition, as has Nelson Piquet.
00:51:11And among the others who have dropped out...
00:51:18Nigel Mansell.
00:51:20No, he's in fourth position right now.
00:51:22He's still doing well, Nigel.
00:51:24Francois Hainault and one of the Renaults is out in the car that provided some in-car camera shots for us earlier.
00:51:30And you did see Niki Lada go around Jacques Lafitte.
00:51:35But they're 1, 2 and 3.
00:51:37There they are, all within the same camera shot.
00:51:40Shot, we're three quarters of the way into this race.
00:51:43In the competition, it's still anyone's race.
00:51:45Here is the leaderboard.
00:51:46Rossler, Alvareto, close.
00:51:48Mansell now up into fourth.
00:51:51Lafitte is fifth.
00:51:53And sixth is Ferry Doosan from Belgium in the Barkley Arrows.
00:51:57And the other Barkley Arrows, driven by Gerhard Berger, is in seventh spot.
00:52:01Stefan Johansen in the Ferrari, who encountered some early problems, shown in eighth position.
00:52:07And Eddie Cheever, although he is the last down, is also in the race and shown in ninth position.
00:52:14Now Post is right up the Ferrari's exhaust, going into that hairpin.
00:52:18Trying to set up for a pass down that long straightaway.
00:52:21The Ferrari certainly has all the power that it needs, even with a smoking engine.
00:52:27He can certainly determine putting that power down with no problem whatsoever.
00:52:33He is in full control on the straightaway.
00:52:36But Post seems to be catching up on the brakes.
00:52:39We have a race shaping up here, as there are the first three cars.
00:52:43They're separated by only just a second or two.
00:52:46And we'll be back with more from the German Grand Prix.
00:52:52Back at the German Grand Prix, a tremendous battle for the lead here.
00:52:55And Michele Alboreto goes into the lead.
00:52:58K.K. Rosberg falls back to third as Alain Proust also going around K.K.
00:53:02And K.K. appears to be slowing.
00:53:05I would have to believe that they actually touched each other in that corner.
00:53:08There was a bit of tire smoke coming from both of those cars.
00:53:13Now we've been watching K.K. during the break.
00:53:15He's definitely in tire trouble.
00:53:17You can see the car wiggling back and forth coming out of those corners.
00:53:21He cannot put his power down.
00:53:23He is definitely in tire trouble.
00:53:25You may see him.
00:53:27Here's the replay.
00:53:29Alboreto calculating on the inside.
00:53:31K.K. does not want him to let him have it.
00:53:33He's trying to close the door.
00:53:35Alboreto sticks his foot in the door.
00:53:37And they do kiss.
00:53:38They do kiss each other.
00:53:40The tires, the two rear tires touch each other.
00:53:42And Michele accelerating away with that smoke and oil problem.
00:53:48It doesn't seem to be too big of a problem.
00:53:50No, it really doesn't.
00:53:51He has not slowed one iota as a matter of fact.
00:53:54But now, Alboreto in the lead.
00:53:57Proust running second.
00:53:58And Rosberg is in third spot.
00:54:00A tremendous job of driving there by Alboreto.
00:54:04Now that was a perfect example of how K.K. Rosberg let Ayrton Senna through.
00:54:08And how he will fight for every last inch when he feels really threatened by someone who's going to get by and stay in the lead.
00:54:17And Proust was certainly all over Alboreto before the battling started there.
00:54:21So, I think Proust is going to be able to be in control of this situation in the next few laps.
00:54:28And there we have a steady fever which looks like a little bit of a turbo fire there brewing.
00:54:34Cooking on the inside of the Benelton Alfa Romeo there.
00:54:38Yes, definitely something gone adrift in the right-of-way turbo of that Alfa Romeo powered car.
00:54:46Eddie not having the best season, but certainly better than last year.
00:54:50The only American driver, of course, in this entire championship.
00:54:54Well, Eddie's best finish has been a ninth this year in the Grand Prix at Detroit.
00:55:01And he also has a tenth-place finish in the French Grand Prix.
00:55:05Now, Michele Alboreto putting about five or six or even seven car lengths between himself and Alain Proust.
00:55:11And by the same token, Proust beginning to pull away from the third place of K.K. Rosberg.
00:55:16Alboreto, our third leader of the afternoon.
00:55:19Rosberg led the first few laps.
00:55:21Then Ayrton Senna took over the lead.
00:55:23He dropped out of competition.
00:55:25Rosberg retook the lead.
00:55:26And as you saw just a few minutes ago, Michele Alboreto with a neat move in the corner.
00:55:30Passing and going into first place.
00:55:32Well, we'll have to see what Frank Williams of Williams Racing decides to do with K.K.'s tire situation.
00:55:39And there you see the Alfa Benelton pulling off there with Eddie Cheever as the pilot.
00:55:46We'll have to see what Frank Williams does say about pulling him into the Pittsburgh tire chain.
00:55:53Now, he changed tires several races ago.
00:55:56And everyone thought that he was totally out of the situation as far as the competitive scene goes.
00:56:02And he finished well within the points.
00:56:04So, K.K. with a new set of tires could certainly make up for, say, a 16 or 17-second tire.
00:56:12Twenty laps to go now.
00:56:14Twenty laps remain with Alboreto in the lead.
00:56:17And moving up into seventh position is Stefan Johansson.
00:56:21So, he is within one position of moving into points pain situation here today.
00:56:26Well, that's the situation I'm talking about.
00:56:28A driver can, if he does have the right setup, come out of the pits and still do extremely well.
00:56:34We remember, excuse me, Stefan Johansson actually just in front of the leaders at one point.
00:56:41And he pulled away from those leaders and now is in seventh place.
00:56:45Just behind Terry Bootson in the Barkley Arrows.
00:56:49And we also have been noting on the race course that Jacques Lafitte is catching Nigel Mantle for fourth place.
00:56:57We'll keep an eye on that situation while we watch Michele Alboreto in the Ferrari leading this race
00:57:03with smoke still evident from the rear end of that car at times,
00:57:06but certainly not slowing Michele down in his pursuit toward the checkered flag.
00:57:11Well, it's getting heavy now, though, Bob.
00:57:15With all the great Italian engineering behind this machine,
00:57:19I'm sure that the mechanics are very aware of what's going on here.
00:57:22And they have to be very eager to see the race come to a quick end.
00:57:28They have not been showing any oil flags in any of the corners,
00:57:33so we cannot think that Michele is laying down oil.
00:57:37If he was, they would certainly bring him off of the circuit for a mechanical problem.
00:57:42He is not allowed to be laying down oil like that.
00:57:45And there we have Nigel Mantle very hotly pursued by Jacques Lafitte.
00:57:50Yeah, this is a battle that we mentioned just a moment ago.
00:57:52Lafitte moving in on Mantle for fourth.
00:57:55This is the battle between fourth and fifth.
00:57:57And Jacques, you know, after being on the winner's stand in Silverstone,
00:58:01he likes the view from up there.
00:58:03And maybe he has a little bit more drive and spirit to go ahead and be a bit more competitive.
00:58:10Now, this is the number one Pirelli shot car here also.
00:58:15As you can see, only three-tenths of a second difference there.
00:58:18And Jacques has driven through the field to get into that position.
00:58:22And his Pirelli tires seem to be working quite well.
00:58:25For those of you who tuned in on this Sunday morning for Davis Cup Tennis from Hamburg, Germany,
00:58:31the situation there is rain.
00:58:33Play has been interrupted.
00:58:35When play resumes, we will be rejoining that tennis competition.
00:58:39Right here in Nürburgring in West Germany, which is a considerable distance west of Hamburg.
00:58:45The weather is not too bad at all.
00:58:47It has remained overcast, but no moisture has fallen from the skies.
00:58:52We're watching Nigel Mantle in fourth place, Jacques Lafitte in fifth.
00:58:57Of course, Hockenheim is the other circuit where the German Grand Prix is run.
00:59:02The plan now is to have the two races alternate year to year,
00:59:07just the way Silverson and Brandt-Hatch in England work out that situation.
00:59:12Hockenheim will be the scene of the race next year, then back here to the Nürburgring.
00:59:17That's the current plan.
00:59:19The only Formula One race that has been contested on this particular course, the shortened one,
00:59:25was the European Grand Prix last year that was won by Alonso.
00:59:29Now for 12 March, you can go drive around the old Nürburgring,
00:59:33and Bob and I were all set to do that this morning.
00:59:36And we got to the gate and we were explained very thoroughly by the German guards there
00:59:43that the only day that the Nürburgring is closed to the public is the day of the German Grand Prix.
00:59:48They do not want the 60,000 people leaving this particular event,
00:59:53going next door to the old track and proving how well they can do it.
00:59:56Jacques Lafitte is certainly doing it well here.
00:59:58It looks like it. It's on the brakes where Jacques makes up the time.
01:00:03You can see Mansell pulls away quite easily.
01:00:08He's dominating the straights.
01:00:10Look at the handling of those two cars going through that exit.
01:00:13The g-forces on these drivers through such an element upon the circuit has to be tremendous.
01:00:20The William Honda of Nigel Mansell and Jacques Lafitte,
01:00:27who of course is running the Liget Renault engines.
01:00:32And now you see these people are actually catching Keke Rosberg.
01:00:36You saw Lauda was going by Rosberg, or trying to go right by Rosberg.
01:00:41Now Lauda of course is not on the same lap as Keke is,
01:00:46but these two drivers, the battle for...
01:00:49Bob Jenkins and John Bisognato at Nürburgring in West Germany for the German Grand Prix.
01:00:54The world, the Davis Cup tennis we should say, has been interrupted by rain once again.
01:00:59Not too far from here.
01:01:00The track remains dry though and there are the first six positions.
01:01:04Alboreto, Post, Mansell, Lafitte, Rosberg and Bootsen.
01:01:08Now a couple of interesting developments have occurred in the last few laps.
01:01:12Alain Post's son or at least got off the track
01:01:15and is now 14 seconds behind the leader Alboreto.
01:01:18And Rosberg came in for a pit stop, dropping him from third.
01:01:22Well he had to come in and change those tires, Bob.
01:01:25There's no way he could have gone another seven or nine laps in the tire situation that he was in.
01:01:31Too bad he did not come in a little bit earlier.
01:01:33And there you see the spin, the replay.
01:01:35This is the first time we've actually seen it.
01:01:37It was under braking that Post did that and he's having trouble getting the car straight every once in a while.
01:01:45Every once in a while you see a race car going the wrong way on a circuit,
01:01:49but it's not the best situation to be in.
01:01:51And strange enough, that is exactly where Niki Lauda spun last year under pretty much the same conditions.
01:01:59It's the straightaway between what they call Hatzenbogen and Wiedol-Chicane,
01:02:04the area in the racetrack that Alain Post spun
01:02:09and now finds himself about 14.5 seconds behind Michele Alboreto.
01:02:14So moving now up into third spot since Rosberg has come in for the stop is Jacques Lafitte.
01:02:20And Jacques finds himself in the possibility of finishing in the points for the second straight race.
01:02:26He was third at Silverstone a couple of weeks ago.
01:02:29Nigel Mantle has moved up to fourth.
01:02:31Rosberg back to fifth.
01:02:33Bootsen is sixth.
01:02:35Johansson just out of points in seventh position right now,
01:02:38followed by Berger, Lauda, Beloff, Martini, and Brundle.
01:02:41Well now the McLaren you do see behind Alboreto at this point is Niki Lauda.
01:02:46It is not the McLaren you've seen there throughout much of this particular event.
01:02:52It's the first McLaren.
01:02:54And these two can blow smoke at each other all day long it seems.
01:02:58It's a battle who can throw more oil on the other one.
01:03:01Niki Lauda, here he is in ninth place and certainly wanted to un-lap himself.
01:03:06He's one lap down.
01:03:07He's not a driver who is used to being one lap down at the finish point.
01:03:12And you'll see him battling to un-lap himself just as hard as he would battle for any other position on the course.
01:03:18Now I don't know why Alboreto would want to run too hard with only a few laps to go.
01:03:24He must be aware of some type of motor problem.
01:03:28I'm sure he's getting signals from his pit on that.
01:03:30He can certainly see it in his rear view mirrors.
01:03:33So possibly Alboreto with six laps to go may start to cruise and let Lauda by.
01:03:40But it doesn't seem to be in Alboreto's mind to do that.
01:03:45He is coming up on his teammate Stephanie Johansson,
01:03:48who I would really like to see get at least one point yet this afternoon.
01:03:53Well, he is separated by about 18 seconds or 19 seconds.
01:04:01Separated from Thierry Boesen, who is running in sixth spot.
01:04:04So it's not going to be an easy chore for Johansson to get up into a point staying position.
01:04:09Again, to me it was very ironic that Kroos spun in the exact same spot that Lauda spun at this race course last year.
01:04:17Virtually under the same conditions.
01:04:20Passing a back marker and trying to get around when he should have possibly waited for the straightaway.
01:04:25Nicky Lauda going through there.
01:04:27And now Alboreto does let him around.
01:04:29He does let him around.
01:04:30It's much better to let Nicky around and have to battle with him during the last five laps of the Grand Prix.
01:04:36So now Lauda moves on to the lead lap in eighth position.
01:04:41And he is, of course, the final car on the lead lap.
01:04:44Berger, Beloff, Martini and Brundle are at least one lap down.
01:04:48This is, of course, the racetrack.
01:04:50Not this particular racetrack as K.K. Rosberg comes in for another stop.
01:04:54K.K. Rosberg, it is K.K. coming in.
01:04:56Nigel Mansfield, an identical car, is also on the track.
01:04:58But that was K.K.
01:05:00You can see him coming down the pit lane and he's coming very slowly at the same time.
01:05:05He doesn't even look to be under power in this situation.
01:05:10I don't know if he could be possibly out of gas.
01:05:14He is moving down pit road toward his area.
01:05:18But it is a very slow movement.
01:05:21This is the stage where if you're going to have fuel problems, they'll start showing up now.
01:05:26I don't believe anyone has dropped out because of lack of fuel to this particular point.
01:05:31But everyone is very worried about that in the last four or five laps.
01:05:36You can see Nicky Lauda there just ahead of our leader, Michaele Alboreto.
01:05:40And this is the place, not the particular racetrack, but the course on which Nicky Lauda had his terrific accident back in 1976 on the 14-mile Nürburgring,
01:05:51which has been shortened and rejuvenated into this 2.822-mile racetrack.
01:05:56And, of course, that accident did determine the closing of the Nürburgring for Formula One cars.
01:06:03Of course, they still race very high-powered sports cars and saloon-type cars there.
01:06:08But there has not been a Formula One car race since Nicky's accident.
01:06:13Just a few laps to go now.
01:06:15Sixty-one laps have been completed.
01:06:18Michaele Alboreto on his way to a victory in this race, should everything go well for him.
01:06:26And the smoke continues to be evident from the rear of that race car, as it is from Nicky Lauda's.
01:06:32But neither driver is slowing down very much.
01:06:35I think we must have a new term in Formula One this weekend.
01:06:38Where there's smoke, there's not always fire.
01:06:41Because these two drivers seem to be having plenty of power.
01:06:45Michaele has had this smoking problem from the very early stages.
01:06:49So the German Grand Prix is wrapping up here.
01:06:52And we'll be back to see if Michaele Alboreto can go the distance and bring home the win right after this.
01:07:05On the replay, you can see a change of position here as Jacques Lafitte has moved into third place now, passing Nigel Mansell.
01:07:14So we do have good racing going on here with just a couple of more laps to go.
01:07:19As Lafitte has passed Mansell and now is in third spot.
01:07:23The lead continues to be held by Michaele Alboreto.
01:07:26And his lead is about 17 seconds over Alain Prost.
01:07:32And Prost is not going to add nine points to his particular championship total in this race,
01:07:38unless the smoke doesn't fire on his last four laps for Michaele Alboreto.
01:07:44But he has to be cruising now.
01:07:46Stephan Johansson, his teammate, is dropping back rather rapidly.
01:07:50And Niki Lauda has gone by into sixth place.
01:07:55A great drive there.
01:07:57And Mansell has stopped.
01:07:59We have a message that Nigel Mansell has slowed down tremendously on the circuit.
01:08:04So again, maybe fuel bringing some of these cars into a slower or stopping situation in the closing laps.
01:08:12They only get 220 liters.
01:08:14They cannot add fuel during the event whatsoever.
01:08:18That's all they get from flag to flag.
01:08:21And we saw it in Imola.
01:08:23That was not enough for several cars.
01:08:25And in Silverstone it was not enough for several cars.
01:08:2964 laps completed.
01:08:3012 cars still in the race.
01:08:32Alboreto, Prost, Lafitte, Mansell, Bootson, Lauda, Berger, Johansson,
01:08:37Beloff, Rosberg, Martini, and Brundle.
01:08:41We have had three leaders of this race.
01:08:44K.K. Rosberg, Ayrton Senna, and Michele Alboreto.
01:08:50Which again shows the competitiveness of this year's season.
01:08:55Last year it was a McLaren show.
01:08:58With Niki Lauda and Prost winning but all two Grand Prix out of the entire championship.
01:09:04And there is Stefan Beloff, the German in the Tyrrell Renault,
01:09:09who is running a nice spot a lap down.
01:09:12It would be nice for that car to finish in the top ten.
01:09:15Ken Tyrrell working very hard to develop a turbocharged engine in the middle of the season.
01:09:22It's not the easiest thing to do.
01:09:23A nice view of the new Nürburgring through the very fast S's.
01:09:28With a little bit of pollution coming out of Niki Lauda's turbocharging system in between the shifts.
01:09:35Beautiful country here in the western portion of West Germany in the Eifel Mountains.
01:09:41It's been a cool and cloudy afternoon but no rain.
01:09:44And it looks like we're going to be able to complete the race under dry conditions.
01:09:48There's now only one lap remains for Michele Alboreto.
01:09:52This is when things get very tense.
01:09:54Several cars are going by here, popping now.
01:09:56There was definite fuel starvation, at least in the straightaways.
01:10:00You may see them wiggling the cars back and forth,
01:10:03trying to get the last drops of fuel into the fuel pumps and back into the motor.
01:10:08For Michele Alboreto, this is certainly one of his toughest laps, the last lap.
01:10:13Even under slowing conditions, it's one where he listens for any troubles developing whatsoever.
01:10:21John, two weeks from today we'll be at the Austrian Grand Prix.
01:10:25What kind of a course is that? What can we expect?
01:10:27The fastest course in Formula One with an average speed of over 160 miles an hour.
01:10:32Beautiful Austrian countryside, much like what you see around here,
01:10:35with the mountains a little bit higher in the background.
01:10:39It's one of my most enjoyable Grand Prix's, Bob, and it's going to be nice to be there with you.
01:10:44And we will be there two weeks from today, the Austrian Grand Prix.
01:10:48Right now on his final lap is Michele Alboreto from Italy, in the Ferrari.
01:10:54He is 28 years old, was fourth in the World Championship points last year.
01:11:00He has four wins to his credit in Grand Prix racing,
01:11:04and just a few feet away from his fifth victory.
01:11:07Michele Alboreto takes the checkered flag, and Alboreto wins the German Grand Prix.
01:11:13Fantastic drive, fantastic race.
01:11:16Fantastic drive, fantastic finish.
01:11:19The team, extremely happy there.
01:11:22The Olivetti boys, he's not going to make a cool-off lap.
01:11:27I don't see why not. I think that car could drive all the way back to Italy with that smoke problem.
01:11:32But one of the reasons they don't do that is they're afraid of being underweight at the end of the race.
01:11:38This is a situation that has developed after Post was disqualified in Imola.
01:11:45So you see many of these drivers will be parking immediately after crossing the line.
01:11:51So the German Grand Prix is history.
01:11:53The winner, Michele Alboreto, finishing about 11 seconds back in second place, was Alain Prost.
01:12:00We'll return to Nuremberg Ring in a moment.
01:12:04He has landed and is in position.
01:12:10There's an overhead good shot of the Nuremberg Ring taken from the Goodyear blimp.
01:12:15The race is over. It was a safe race and a very competitive race.
01:12:20The one that Michele Alboreto wins here today.
01:12:24We still have six winners in nine events now.
01:12:27As the drivers move towards the winning rostrum for the traditional spray of champagne.
01:12:33I think the championship may be running into a two-man battle between Michele Alboreto and Alain Prost.
01:12:42A battle between Ferrari and McLaren.
01:12:44A powerful show for the rest of the season.
01:12:46It's been a pleasure working with you, Mr. Bisignano.
01:12:49And I'll be doing so again in two weeks as we bring you the Austrian Grand Prix.
01:12:52Look forward to it, Bob.
01:12:53The German Grand Prix has been brought to you by Dodge.
01:12:57A performance revolution and American revolution.
01:13:02And by Budweiser. For all you do, this Bud's for you.
01:13:08And by BFGoodrich. Makers of high-performance TA radials.
01:13:12We make cars perform.
01:13:14I'll be talking to you on Speed Week with this Thursday night.
01:13:17And we'll have the live NASCAR race from Michigan International Speedway next Sunday.
01:13:22In two weeks, we'll have the Austrian Grand Prix.
01:13:25For now, for John Bisignano, this is Bob Jenkins.
01:13:28So long, everyone.
01:13:32See you next week.