1981 Spanish Grand Prix

 1981 Spanish Grand Prix

Racing data
7th of 15 races in the 1981 Formula 1 World Championship
Surname:	XXVII Gran Premio de España
Date:	June 21, 1981
Place:	San Sebastian de los Reyes
Course:	Circuito Permanente del Jarama
Length:	264.96 km in 80 laps of 3.312 km
Weather:	sunny and hot
Spectator:	~ 40,000
Pole position
Driver:	Jacques Laffite	Ligier
Time:	1: 13.754 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Alan Jones	Williams
Time:	1: 17.818 min
Podium
First:	Gilles Villeneuve	Ferrari
Second:	Jacques Laffite	Ligier
Third:	John Watson	McLaren

The 1981 Spanish Grand Prix took place on June 21 at the Circuito Permanente del Jarama near Madrid and was the seventh race of the 1981 Formula 1 World Championship .

Reports

background

Three weeks after the Monaco Grand Prix, the Spanish Grand Prix took place on the Jarama circuit, which was slightly shorter than in previous years.

Eliseo Salazar had left the March team and replaced Marc Surer at Ensign Racing . From then on, March entered with only one racing car. Giorgio Francia was registered as a guest starter for Osella instead of Piercarlo Ghinzani .

Williams added the name of the new main sponsor TAG to the team name. Lotus returned to the former main sponsor John Player , which reappeared the racing cars in the legendary black and gold livery that they had already worn from 1972 to 1978 .

training

Ligier driver Jacques Laffite reached pole position in front of the two Williams drivers Alan Jones and Carlos Reutemann and McLaren driver John Watson . Alain Prost and Bruno Giacomelli formed the third row ahead of Gilles Villeneuve and Mario Andretti .

With the exception of Elio de Angelis , Jean-Pierre Jabouille and Giorgio Francia, all pilots achieved their best practice times during the second qualifying session.

run

The race took place on a very hot day. Laffite started badly, so Jones could take the lead from Reutemann. Villeneuve got past Prost in the first corner to third place, where he damaged his front wing. At the beginning of the second lap, the Canadian used Reutemann's slipstream to get into second place.

By lap 14, Jones had gained a lead of around ten seconds at the front when he briefly went off the track due to a driving error. As a result, Villeneuve took the lead ahead of Reutemann, Prost, Watson and Laffite. Prost was eliminated on lap 29 and Reutemann fell behind Watson and Laffite. De Angelis, who caught up with the leading group, followed in fifth place.

During the last 28 laps of the race, it turned out that Villeneuve only had a slight advantage on the start-finish straight due to its turbo engine over the four competitors who were directly following him. Laffite managed to sit next to the Canadian several times, but by cleverly blocking, the Canadian prevented any overtaking maneuvers. The five opponents crossed the finish line just 1.24 seconds apart.

The relatively winding and therefore comparatively slow course was now viewed as inappropriate for Formula 1 at that time. Not least because of the lack of spectator interest, it was decided not to hold any further Grand Prix there. Formula 1 therefore only returned to Spain in 1986 , to the newly built Circuito de Jerez .

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
TAG Williams team	1	Alan Jones	Williams FW07C	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	M.
	2	Carlos Reutemann
Tyrrell Racing Team	3	Eddie Cheever	Tyrrell 010		M.
	4th	Michele Alboreto
Parmalat Racing Team	5	Nelson Piquet	Brabham BT49C		M.
	6th	Hector Rebaque
Marlboro McLaren International	7th	John Watson	McLaren MP4 / 1		M.
	8th	Andrea de Cesaris
Team ATS	9	Slim Borgudd	ATS D5		M.
John Player Team Lotus	11	Elio de Angelis	Lotus 87		M.
	12	Nigel Mansell
Ensign Racing	14th	Eliseo Salazar	Ensign N180B		M.
Equipe Renault Elf	15th	Alain Prost	Renault RE30	Renault EF1 1.5 V6 t	M.
	16	René Arnoux
March Grand Prix Team	17th	Derek Daly	March 811	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	M.
Fittipaldi Automotive	20th	Keke Rosberg	Fittipaldi F8C		M.
	21st	Chico Serra
Marlboro Team Alfa Romeo	22nd	Mario Andretti	Alfa Romeo 179C	Alfa Romeo 1260 3.0 V12	M.
	23	Bruno Giacomelli
Equipe Talbot Gitanes	25th	Jean-Pierre Jabouille	Ligier JS17	Matra MS81 3.0 V12	M.
	26th	Jacques Laffite
Scuderia Ferrari SpA SEFAC	27	Gilles Villeneuve	Ferrari 126CK	Ferrari 021 1.5 V6 t	M.
	28	Didier Pironi
Ragno Arrows Beta Racing Team	29	Riccardo Patrese	Arrows A3B	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	M.
	30th	Siegfried Stohr
Osella Squadra Corse	31	Beppe Gabbiani	Osella FA1B		M.
	32	Giorgio Francia
Theodore Racing Team	33	Patrick Tambay	Theodore TY01		M.
Candy Toleman Motorsport	35	Brian Henton	Toleman TG181	Hart 415T 1.5 L4 t	P
	36	Derek Warwick

Classifications

Qualifying

Item	driver	constructor	Qualification training 1		Qualification training 2		begin
			time	Ø speed	time	Ø speed
01	Jacques Laffite	Ligier-Matra	1: 14.882	159.227 km / h	1: 13.754	161.662 km / h	01
02	Alan Jones	Williams-Ford	1: 14.424	160.206 km / h	1: 14.024	161.072 km / h	02
03	Carlos Reutemann	Williams-Ford	1: 14.808	159.384 km / h	1: 14.342	160.383 km / h	03
04th	John Watson	McLaren-Ford	1: 15.094	158.777 km / h	1: 14.657	159.706 km / h	04th
05	Alain Prost	Renault	1: 14.980	159.018 km / h	1: 14.669	159.681 km / h	05
06th	Bruno Giacomelli	Alfa Romeo	1: 16.807	155.236 km / h	1: 14.897	159.195 km / h	06th
07th	Gilles Villeneuve	Ferrari	1: 16.548	155.761 km / h	1: 14.987	159.004 km / h	07th
08th	Mario Andretti	Alfa Romeo	1: 15.576	157.764 km / h	1: 15.159	158.640 km / h	08th
09	Nelson Piquet	Brabham-Ford	1: 16.861	155.127 km / h	1: 15.355	158.227 km / h	09
10	Elio de Angelis	Lotus Ford	1: 15.399	158.135 km / h	1: 15.499	157.925 km / h	10
11	Nigel Mansell	Lotus Ford	1: 16.226	156.419 km / h	1: 15.562	157.794 km / h	11
12	Riccardo Patrese	Arrows Ford	1: 16.038	156.806 km / h	1: 15.627	157.658 km / h	12
13	Didier Pironi	Ferrari	1: 16.522	155.814 km / h	1: 15.715	157.475 km / h	13
14th	Andrea de Cesaris	McLaren-Ford	1: 16.119	156.639 km / h	1: 15.850	157.194 km / h	14th
15th	Keke Rosberg	Fittipaldi-Ford	1: 16.040	156.802 km / h	1: 15.924	157.041 km / h	15th
16	Patrick Tambay	Theodore Ford	1: 17.347	154.152 km / h	1: 16.355	156.155 km / h	16
17th	René Arnoux	Renault	1: 17.132	154.582 km / h	1: 16.406	156.051 km / h	17th
18th	Hector Rebaque	Brabham-Ford	1: 16.722	155.408 km / h	1: 16.527	155.804 km / h	18th
19th	Jean-Pierre Jabouille	Ligier-Matra	1: 16.559	155.739 km / h	1: 16.794	155.262 km / h	19th
20th	Eddie Cheever	Tyrrell-Ford	1: 17.459	153.929 km / h	1: 16.641	155.572 km / h	20th
21st	Chico Serra	Fittipaldi-Ford	1: 18.705	151.492 km / h	1: 16.782	155.286 km / h	21st
22nd	Derek Daly	March-Ford	1: 17.416	154.015 km / h	1: 16.979	154.889 km / h	22nd
23	Siegfried Stohr	Arrows Ford	1: 18.331	152.216 km / h	1: 17.294	154.258 km / h	23
24	Eliseo Salazar	Ensign-Ford	1: 18.769	151.369 km / h	1: 17.822	153.211 km / h	24
DNQ	Michele Alboreto	Tyrrell-Ford	1: 18.859	151.196 km / h	1: 17.943	152.973 km / h	-
DNQ	Beppe Gabbiani	Osella-Ford	no time	-	1: 18.169	152.531 km / h	-
DNQ	Slim Borgudd	ATS Ford	1: 20.028	148.988 km / h	1: 18.263	152.348 km / h	-
DNQ	Brian Henton	Toleman-Hart	1: 19.815	149.385 km / h	1: 18.340	152.198 km / h	-
DNQ	Derek Warwick	Toleman-Hart	1: 20.342	148.406 km / h	1: 18.872	151.172 km / h	-
DNQ	Giorgio Francia	Osella-Ford	1: 19.586	149.815 km / h	no time	-	-

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	Gilles Villeneuve	Ferrari	80	0	1: 46: 35.01	07th	1: 18.43
02	Jacques Laffite	Ligier-Matra	80	0	+ 0.22	01	1: 18.50
03	John Watson	McLaren-Ford	80	0	+ 0.58	04th	1: 18.95
04th	Carlos Reutemann	Williams-Ford	80	0	+ 1.01	03	1: 18.47
05	Elio de Angelis	Lotus Ford	80	0	+ 1.24	10	1: 18.72
06th	Nigel Mansell	Lotus Ford	80	0	+ 28.58	11	1: 19.00
07th	Alan Jones	Williams-Ford	80	0	+ 56.58	02	1: 17.818
08th	Mario Andretti	Alfa Romeo	80	0	+ 1: 00.80	08th	1: 19.07
09	René Arnoux	Renault	80	0	+1: 07.08	17th	1: 19.56
10	Bruno Giacomelli	Alfa Romeo	80	0	+1: 13.65	06th	1: 19.58
11	Chico Serra	Fittipaldi-Ford	79	0	+ 1 lap	21st	1: 20.09
12	Keke Rosberg	Fittipaldi-Ford	78	0	+ 2 rounds	15th	1: 20.01
13	Patrick Tambay	Theodore Ford	78	1	+ 2 rounds	16	1: 18.22
14th	Eliseo Salazar	Ensign-Ford	77	0	+ 3 rounds	24	1: 22.20
15th	Didier Pironi	Ferrari	76	1	+ 4 rounds	13	1: 18.69
16	Derek Daly	March-Ford	75	2	+ 5 rounds	22nd	1: 20.11
-	Eddie Cheever	Tyrrell-Ford	62	1	NC	20th	1: 20.02	Unrated
-	Jean-Pierre Jabouille	Ligier-Matra	51	1	DNF	19th	1: 19.43	Brake defect
-	Hector Rebaque	Brabham-Ford	46	1	DNF	18th	1: 19.76	Gearbox damage
-	Nelson Piquet	Brabham-Ford	43	0	DNF	09	1: 18.92	accident
-	Siegfried Stohr	Arrows Ford	35	1	DNF	23	1: 20.68	Engine failure
-	Alain Prost	Renault	28	0	DNF	05	1: 18.81	accident
-	Riccardo Patrese	Arrows Ford	21st	0	DNF	12	1: 19.39	Engine failure
-	Andrea de Cesaris	McLaren-Ford	09	0	DNF	14th	1: 19.95	accident

World Cup stands after the race

The first six of the race got 9, 6, 4, 3, 2 and 1 point (s) respectively.

Driver ranking

Item driver constructor Points 01  Carlos Reutemann Williams 37 02  Alan Jones Williams 24 03  Nelson Piquet Brabham 22nd 04th  Gilles Villeneuve Ferrari 21st 05  Jacques Laffite Ligier 17th 06th  Riccardo Patrese Arrows 10 07th  Elio de Angelis lotus 7th 08th  Didier Pironi Ferrari 5 09  Nigel Mansell lotus 5

Item driver constructor Points 10  Eddie Cheever Tyrrell 5 11  John Watson McLaren 4th 12  Marc Surer Ensign 4th 13  Alain Prost Renault 4th 14th  Hector Rebaque Brabham 3 15th  Mario Andretti Alfa Romeo 3 16  René Arnoux Renault 2 17th  Andrea de Cesaris McLaren 1 18th  Patrick Tambay Theodore 1

Constructors' championship

Item constructor Points 01  Williams 61 02  Ferrari 26th 03  Brabham 25th 04th  Ligier 17th 05  lotus 12 06th  Arrows 10

Item constructor Points 07th  Renault 6th 08th  Tyrrell 5 09  McLaren 5 10  Ensign 4th 11  Alfa Romeo 3 12  Theodore 1

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "Training" ( Memento of the original from July 25, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Motorsportarchiv.de; accessed on October 14, 2012)  
2. ^ "Report" (accessed on October 14, 2012)
3. ↑ Fight at the limit. The Formula 1 Chronicle 1950–2000 , ed. v. Willy Knupp, RTL book edition: Zeitgeist Verlag: Düsseldorf / Gütersloh 2000, ISBN 3-89748-277-0 , p. 226
4. ↑ "World Cup stands" ( Memento of the original from August 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Motorsportarchiv.de; accessed on October 14, 2012)  

Web links

• Race result on the official Formula 1 website