1981 Spanish Grand Prix

Seventh race of the 1981 Formula One World Championship September 2023 F1 Spain 1977 Spanish XXVII Gran Premio de España Circuito Permanente del Jarama 1980.svg 21 June 1981 7 15 Circuito Permanente Del Jarama, Jarama, Spain Permanent racing facility 2.06 3.312 80 164.70 264.96 Sunny, hot Jacques Laffite Ligier-Matra 1:13.754Lang Mike Grand Prix! Vol 4 Haynes Publishing Group 1992 0-85429-733-2 40 France Alan Jones Williams-Ford 1:17.818 5Lang Mike Grand Prix! Vol 4 Haynes Publishing Group 1992 0-85429-733-2 43 Australia Gilles Villeneuve Ferrari Canada Jacques Laffite Ligier-Matra France John Watson McLaren-Ford United Kingdom ESP The 1981 Spanish Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 21 June 1981 at the Circuito Permanente del Jarama, Jarama, Spain. It was the seventh race of the 1981 Formula One World Championship. Summary The 1981 Spanish Grand Prix featured the second closest finish ever of a Formula One race: after Gilles Villeneuve's Ferrari, the four following cars finished in just 1.24 seconds. This was Villeneuve's last victory, often regarded as his tactical masterpiece.Gerald Donaldson. Gilles Villeneuve: The Life of the Legendary Racing Driver (London: Motor Racing Publications, 1996) 978-0-947981-44-0 There were some changes for this race: Eliseo Salazar had left March to join Ensign, replacing Marc Surer. Also, John Player Special sponsorship and livery returned to Team Lotus after a 2-year hiatus. The pole went to Jacques Laffite on his Ligier-Matra with the two Williams-Cosworth of Alan Jones and Carlos Reutemann second and third ahead of John Watson's McLaren, Alain Prost's Renault and the Alfa Romeo of Bruno Giacomelli. Gilles Villeneuve was seventh. Race day was unusually hot. At the beginning of the race Jones and Reutemann went into the lead, as Laffite made a poor start. Villeneuve jumped into third place at the first corner, damaging Prost's front wing as he took the position. At the end of the first lap Villeneuve pulled out of Reutemann's slipstream and took second place. Jones began to build a lead but on lap 14 he went off the track, when he was 10 seconds ahead of the Canadian. This left Villeneuve with Reutemann on his tail. Behind them Watson, Laffite and Elio de Angelis began to close on the dueling leaders. Reutemann was having some trouble with his gearbox and when Laffite arrived behind him there was little the Argentine could do to stop him from overtaking. Reutemann would later drop behind Watson. The five front-runners became a train of cars, packed together for the remaining laps of the race. Villeneuve used the power of his Ferrari engine on the straight to gain a little margin and not get overtaken by his rivals, but in the corners they were all over him. Many times Laffite pulled alongside the Canadian as they went out a corner but the Ferrari would stay ahead as the horsepower kicked in. The five remained locked together right to the flag, crossing the line covered by just 1.24 seconds to record the second-closest race in the history of Formula One. This would be the last Spanish Grand Prix at Jarama, owing to criticism of the track being very short and sinuous for modern Formula One, the unpleasant conditions and the small crowd (the small turn-out was probably due to the backlash of the previous year's race not being counted as a World Championship race, the announcement was made on the weekend itself);August 2024 the last Formula One race in Madrid until 2026,Canseco Marco 2026-09-02 Madring refuerza la seguridad en un circuito que ya tiene la publicidad instalada https://www.marca.com/motor/formula1/gp-espana/2026/09/02/madring-refuerza-seguridad-circuito-publicidad-instalada.html 2026-09-11 MARCA es and the last Spanish Grand Prix until the 1986 season, when it would be held at the newly built Jerez circuit in the south of the country. At this Grand Prix the Equipe Banco Occidental team became the last privateer team to have entered a car for a race alongside a works team when they entered a Williams car alongside the Williams works team, but eventually withdrew before the practice and qualifying.https://www.racingsportscars.com/f1/entry/Jarama-1981-06-21.html 1981 Spanish Grand Prix Entry list Classification Qualifying Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap 1 26 France Jacques Laffite Ligier-Matra 1:14.822 1:13.754 — 2 1 Australia Alan Jones Williams-Ford 1:14.424 1:14.024 +0.270 3 2 Argentina Carlos Reutemann Williams-Ford 1:14.808 1:14.342 +0.588 4 7 UK John Watson McLaren-Ford 1:15.094 1:14.657 +0.903 5 15 France Alain Prost Renault 1:14.980 1:14.669 +0.915 6 23 Italy Bruno Giacomelli Alfa Romeo 1:16.807 1:14.897 +1.143 7 27 Canada Gilles Villeneuve Ferrari 1:16.548 1:14.987 +1.233 8 22 USA Mario Andretti Alfa Romeo 1:15.576 1:15.159 +1.405 9 5 Brazil 1968 Nelson Piquet Brabham-Ford 1:16.861 1:15.355 +1.601 10 11 Italy Elio de Angelis Lotus-Ford 1:15.399 1:15.449 +1.645 11 12 UK Nigel Mansell Lotus-Ford 1:16.226 1:15.562 +1.808 12 29 Italy Riccardo Patrese Arrows-Ford 1:16.038 1:15.627 +1.873 13 28 France Didier Pironi Ferrari 1:16.522 1:15.715 +1.961 14 8 Italy Andrea de Cesaris McLaren-Ford 1:16.119 1:15.850 +2.096 15 20 Finland Keke Rosberg Fittipaldi-Ford 1:16.040 1:15.924 +2.170 16 33 France Patrick Tambay Theodore-Ford 1:17.347 1:16.355 +2.601 17 16 France René Arnoux Renault 1:17.132 1:16.406 +2.652 18 6 Mexico Héctor Rebaque Brabham-Ford 1:16.722 1:16.527 +2.773 19 25 France Jean-Pierre Jabouille Ligier-Matra 1:16.559 1:16.794 +2.805 20 3 USA Eddie Cheever Tyrrell-Ford 1:17.459 1:16.641 +2.887 21 21 Brazil 1968 Chico Serra Fittipaldi-Ford 1:18.705 1:16.782 +3.028 22 17 Ireland Derek Daly March-Ford 1:17.416 1:16.979 +3.225 23 30 Italy Siegfried Stohr Arrows-Ford 1:18.331 1:17.294 +3.540 24 14 Chile Eliseo Salazar Ensign-Ford 1:18.769 1:17.822 +4.068 25 4 Italy Michele Alboreto Tyrrell-Ford 1:18.859 1:17.943 +4.189 26 31 Italy Beppe Gabbiani Osella-Ford no time 1:18.169 +4.415 27 9 Sweden Slim Borgudd ATS-Ford 1:20.028 1:18.263 +4.509 28 35 UK Brian Henton Toleman-Hart 1:19.815 1:18.340 +4.586 29 36 UK Derek Warwick Toleman-Hart 1:20.342 1:18.872 +5.118 30 32 Italy Giorgio Francia Osella-Ford 1:19.586 8:22.382 +5.832 WD Withdrawn 37 Spain 1977 Emilio de Villota Williams-Ford — — —Source:Hamilton Maurice AUTOCOURSE 1981–82 Hazleton Publishing Ltd 1981 146 0-905138-17-1 Race Pos No Driver Constructor Tyre Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 27 Canada Gilles Villeneuve Ferrari Michelin 80 1:46:35.01 7 9 2 26 France Jacques Laffite Ligier-Matra Michelin 80 + 0.22 1 6 3 7 UK John Watson McLaren-Ford Michelin 80 + 0.58 4 4 4 2 Argentina Carlos Reutemann Williams-Ford Michelin 80 + 1.01 3 3 5 11 Italy Elio de Angelis Lotus-Ford Michelin 80 + 1.24 10 2 6 12 UK Nigel Mansell Lotus-Ford Michelin 80 + 28.58 11 1 7 1 Australia Alan Jones Williams-Ford Michelin 80 + 56.58 2   8 22 USA Mario Andretti Alfa Romeo Michelin 80 + 1:00.80 8   9 16 France René Arnoux Renault Michelin 80 + 1:07.08 17   10 23 Italy Bruno Giacomelli Alfa Romeo Michelin 80 + 1:13.65 6   11 21 Brazil 1968 Chico Serra Fittipaldi-Ford Michelin 79 + 1 lap 21   12 20 Finland Keke Rosberg Fittipaldi-Ford Michelin 78 + 2 laps 15   13 33 France Patrick Tambay Theodore-Ford Michelin 78 + 2 laps 16   14 14 Chile Eliseo Salazar Ensign-Ford Michelin 77 + 3 laps 24   15 28 France Didier Pironi Ferrari Michelin 76 + 4 laps 13   16 17 Ireland Derek Daly March-Ford Michelin 75 + 5 laps 22   NC Not classified 3 USA Eddie Cheever Tyrrell-Ford Michelin 62 + 18 laps 20   Ret Retired 25 France Jean-Pierre Jabouille Ligier-Matra Michelin 51 Brakes 19   Ret Retired 6 Mexico Héctor Rebaque Brabham-Ford Michelin 46 Gearbox 18   Ret Retired 30 Italy Siegfried Stohr Arrows-Ford Michelin 43 Ignition 23   Ret Retired 5 Brazil 1968 Nelson Piquet Brabham-Ford Michelin 43 Accident 9   Ret Retired 15 France Alain Prost Renault Michelin 28 Spun off 5   Ret Retired 29 Italy Riccardo Patrese Arrows-Ford Michelin 21 Brakes 12   Ret Retired 8 Italy Andrea de Cesaris McLaren-Ford Michelin 9 Accident 14   DNQ Did not qualify 4 Italy Michele Alboreto Tyrrell-Ford Michelin     DNQ Did not qualify 31 Italy Beppe Gabbiani Osella-Ford Michelin     DNQ Did not qualify 9 Sweden Slim Borgudd ATS-Ford Michelin     DNQ Did not qualify 35 UK Brian Henton Toleman-Hart Pirelli     DNQ Did not qualify 36 UK Derek Warwick Toleman-Hart Pirelli     DNQ Did not qualify 32 Italy Giorgio Francia Osella-Ford Michelin        Source:http://www.formula1.com/results/season/1981/364/ 1981 Spanish Grand Prix formula1.com 23 December 2015 https://web.archive.org/web/20140824174602/http://www.formula1.com/results/season/1981/364/ 24 August 2014https://gparchive.com/formula-1/1981-spanish-grand-prix/ 1981 Spanish Grand Prix - Race Results & History - GP Archive GPArchive.com 21 June 1981 7 November 2021 Notes This was the 300th Grand Prix in which a Frenchman participated. In those 300 races, French drivers had won 15 Grands Prix, achieved 106 podium finishes, 24 pole positions, 29 fastest laps and 2 Grand Slams. Championship standings after the race Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 ARG Carlos Reutemann 37 2 AUS Alan Jones 24 3 BRA 1968 Nelson Piquet 22 4 CAN Gilles Villeneuve 21 5 FRA Jacques Laffite 17Source:https://www.statsf1.com/en/1981/espagne/championnat.aspx Spain 1981 - Championship • STATS F1 www.statsf1.com 20 March 2019 Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 UK Williams-Ford 61 2 ITA Ferrari 26 3 UK Brabham-Ford 25 4 FRA Ligier-Matra 17 5 UK Lotus-Ford 12Source: Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. References 30em Spanish Grand Prix 1981 1981 Monaco Grand Prix 1981 French Grand Prix 1980 Spanish Grand Prix 1986 Spanish Grand Prix Spanish Grand Prix Category:Spanish Grand Prix Grand Prix