The 1986 Belgian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps on 25 May 1986. It was the fifth race of the 1986 FIA Formula One World Championship. The race was the 44th Belgian Grand Prix and the 32nd to be held at Spa-Francorchamps. It was held over 43 laps of the circuit for a total race distance of . The race was won by British driver Nigel Mansell, driving a Williams-Honda. It was Mansell's first victory of the season. Brazilian driver Ayrton Senna finished second in a Lotus-Renault, with Sweden's Stefan Johansson third in a Ferrari. Senna's result allowed him to take the lead of the Drivers' Championship from Frenchman Alain Prost, who could only manage sixth in his McLaren-TAG. Qualifying Brabham entered only one BT55, the car of Riccardo Patrese. Elio de Angelis had been killed in a testing accident at Circuit Paul Ricard just over a week before the race. Williams-Honda driver Nelson Piquet took pole late in the qualifying session using the team's spare car. Piquet's engine blew up in his race car during qualifying forcing him into the spare. Austrian Gerhard Berger scored his first front row start and the first for the BMW powered Benetton after being fastest in Friday qualifying. His Friday time of 1:54.468 was half a second faster than his Saturday time but still good enough for the front row. World Champion Alain Prost was third in his McLaren-TAG with the Lotus-Renault of Ayrton Senna completing the second row. Nigel Mansell qualified fifth in his Williams-Honda with Teo Fabi completing the top 6 in his Benetton-BMW. Race Piquet won the start and led the field into the La Source hairpin but behind him was chaos. Senna had made a good start from the 2nd row and when Berger's car twitched under brakes Senna went to the outside and then turned hard into the right hand corner. In doing so he squeezed out Berger who in turn squeezed out Prost while avoiding Senna. Prost, who had gone inside when the Benetton twitched, hit the inside barrier damaging the nose of his car with the right front wing drooping on the ground. He then drove over Berger's wheel launching the rear of his McLaren into the air. Other drivers were forced to take avoiding action with Berger's teammate Fabi having to stop to avoid hitting his teammates