The four Drivers' Championship challengers occupied fifth to eighth in the order of Alain Prost's McLaren, the two Williams of Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet, and Ayrton Senna's Lotus.

In fact, 1986 was the high watermark for power figures in Formula One with the BMW, Honda, Renault, Ferrari and TAG-Porsche turbo's all allegedly pumping out over 1,000 bhp (746 kW; 1,014 PS) in qualifying trim.

The low line Brabhams with their factory BMW turbos were proving to be far more effective on the high speed Österreichring where the Hella-Licht chicane was the only really slow section of the track.

Showing the difference in car set up (and it must be said, drivers'), Patrese, running more wing than his team mate was some 1.682 seconds faster around the circuit even though his recorded top speed was 7 km/h (4 mph) slower.

Alan Jones was actually aided by a slipping clutch in his Lola-Ford as it meant much less wheelspin, thus he was able to complete the race (albeit 2 laps down on Prost) without having to stop to change his Goodyears.

In the post race press conference, Alboreto was asked if the podiums were the start of a Ferrari revival, though he was reluctant to agree, instead pointing out that it was more through on the day reliability over most of their faster rivals than any great leap forward in speed by the F1/86.