The race was won by France's Alain Prost driving a McLaren-TAG. This was Prost's second victory of the 1987 season and his second in the Belgian Grand Prix (after 1983), as well as his 27th Grand Prix victory overall, equalling Jackie Stewart's all-time record. Prost's Swedish team-mate Stefan Johansson finished second, the only other driver on the same lap, giving McLaren their first 1-2 finish since the previous year's Monaco Grand Prix. Italy's Andrea de Cesaris, driving a Brabham-BMW, finished third despite having to push his car over the line as he had run out of fuel.
The event, officially called the Grand Prix de Belgique, was held at the 6.940-kilometre (4.312 mi) Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps outside the Belgian village of Francorchamps. Untimed free practice sessions were held on the mornings of Friday 15 May, Saturday 16 May, and Sunday 17 May 1987, with timed qualifying practice sessions held on the Friday and Saturday afternoons and the main Grand Prix race itself held on the Sunday afternoon. Twenty-six cars were entered by fifteen constructors. All teams used Goodyear tyres. Several teams had modified their cars ahead of this event. Friday practice was wet with temperatures below 7 °C (45 °F). The race was held in dry conditions with temperatures around 11 °C (52 °F).
The two Williams FW11Bs took the front row, with Nigel Mansell on the pole, nearly 1.5 seconds faster than Nelson Piquet. Ayrton Senna took third place in his Lotus 99T ahead of the two Ferrari F1/87s of Gerhard Berger and Michele Alboreto.
The race required two starts. On the first start Mansell took the lead ahead of Senna, Piquet and Alboreto. At the back of the grid René Arnoux (Ligier JS29B) and Andrea de Cesaris (Brabham BT56) tangled, whilst Thierry Boutsen (Benetton B187) hit Berger's spinning Ferrari F1/87. Philippe Streiff crashed heavily at the Eau Rouge; his teammate Jonathan Palmer was also involved. Streiff was given the spare car for the restart, which forced Palmer out of the race.
On the second start, Senna led Mansell away, but during lap one the Briton tried to overtake the Brazilian on the outside of the Fagnes chicane. The two tangled, leading to the retirement of the Lotus 99T. Mansell rejoined the race at the back, but eventually retired on lap 17. Mansell and Senna had an altercation in the Lotus garage.
Berger retired on lap three with a broken piston. Alboreto retired on lap 10 with a broken wheel bearing, and Nelson Piquet retired with a broken turbo pipe, handing the lead to Alain Prost. Prost maintained the lead to win easily by 25 seconds. This was a race of attrition, with several cars experiencing mechanical issues.
This was Prost's 27th win, equalling Jackie Stewart's record. Johansson finished second, and Andrea de Cesaris drove superbly to finish third for Brabham. Eddie Cheever (Arrows A10), Satoru Nakajima (Lotus 99T) and Arnoux took the remaining points. Philippe Alliot won the Jim Clark points in his Lola LC87. As of 2025, this was also the last time that the Belgian Grand Prix was held at the beginning of the season; since 1988, it has always been held in July, August or September.
Numbers in brackets refer to positions of normally aspirants competing for the Jim Clark Trophy.
Note: Only the top five positions are included for all four sets of standings.
The article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted beyond the provided information.