1980 British Grand Prix

United Kingdom  1980 British Grand Prix
Race details
Race 8 of 14 in the 1980 Formula One season
Date 13 July 1980
Official name XXXIII Marlboro British Grand Prix
Location Brands Hatch, Kent, Great Britain
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 4.207 km (2.614 mi)
Distance 76 laps, 319.732 km (198.672 mi)
Pole position
Driver Ligier-Ford
Time 1:11.004
Fastest lap
Driver France Didier Pironi Ligier-Ford
Time 1:12.368 on lap 54
Podium
First Williams-Ford
Second Brabham-Ford
Third Williams-Ford

The 1980 British Grand Prix (formally the XXXIII Marlboro British Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held at Brands Hatch on 13 July 1980. It was the eighth round of the 1980 Formula One season. The race was held over 76 laps of the 4.207-km (2.614-mile) circuit for a total race distance of 319.73 km (198.67 miles).

The race was won by Australian driver, Alan Jones driving a Williams FW07B. The win was Jones' eighth Formula One Grand Prix victory and his fourth of the year. Including the non-championship Spanish Grand Prix it was Jones' third victory in a row as he built his charge towards becoming the 1980 World Drivers' Champion. Jones won by eleven seconds over the man becoming his arch-rival, Brazilian driver Nelson Piquet driving a Brabham BT49. Third, and the only other car to finish on the lead lap, was Jones' Williams Grand Prix Engineering team mate, Argentinian driver Carlos Reutemann.

Report

Background

In the two weeks between the French and British Grands Prix, Brabham decided to replace Ricardo Zunino with Mexican driver Héctor Rebaque, while the Shadow team closed down. There were still 27 cars on the entry list, as RAM Racing entered year-old Williams FW07s for Rupert Keegan and South African female racer Desiré Wilson.[1]

Qualifying

For the third consecutive race, a Ligier driver took pole position, Didier Pironi setting a time some 5.8 seconds faster than the pole time set by Ronnie Peterson at the previous Grand Prix at Brands Hatch two years before. Pironi's team-mate Jacques Laffite was alongside on the front row, while the works Williams filled the second row with championship leader Alan Jones ahead of Carlos Reutemann. On the third row were Nelson Piquet in the Brabham and Bruno Giacomelli in the Alfa Romeo, and on the fourth were Alain Prost in the McLaren and Patrick Depailler in the second Alfa Romeo. Mario Andretti in the Lotus and Derek Daly in the Tyrrell completed the top ten.

The Renaults and Ferraris had issues with their Michelin tyres,[2] and Jean-Pierre Jabouille and René Arnoux could only manage 13th and 16th respectively for the French team, while Gilles Villeneuve and reigning champion Jody Scheckter struggled to 19th and 23rd respectively for the Italian outfit, and were both out-qualified by Keegan's private Williams. Wilson failed to qualify in the other private Williams.

Race

At the start, Pironi led with Laffite holding off Jones and Piquet passing Reutemann for fourth. Pironi held a comfortable lead until lap 19, when he suffered a deflating front tyre followed by a long pit stop to replace it. Laffite led until he too suffered a deflating tyre, causing him to spin off into catch fencing at Hawthorn Bend on lap 31. Thereafter, Jones retained a comfortable advantage over Piquet and Reutemann, while Pironi made a charge from the back of the field, reaching fifth before suffering another tyre failure on lap 64. It was later established that the Ligiers' problems were caused by their wheel rims cracking.[2]

Jones eventually took the chequered flag 11 seconds ahead of Piquet, for his fourth victory of the season and his third in succession (including the Spanish Grand Prix, which was subsequently stripped of its World Championship status). Reutemann, the last man on the lead lap, finished 2.2 seconds behind Piquet, with the minor points going to Daly, his Tyrrell team-mate Jean-Pierre Jarier, and Prost.

In the Drivers' Championship, Jones doubled his lead over Piquet to six points, while in the Constructors' Championship Williams moved 18 points clear of Ligier.

This race turned out to be the last for Depailler, who lost his life three weeks later while testing at Hockenheim ahead of the German Grand Prix.

Classification

Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 27 Australia Alan Jones Williams-Ford 76 1:34:49.228 3 9
2 5 Brazil Nelson Piquet Brabham-Ford 76 + 11.007 5 6
3 28 Argentina Carlos Reutemann Williams-Ford 76 + 13.285 4 4
4 4 Republic of Ireland Derek Daly Tyrrell-Ford 75 + 1 Lap 10 3
5 3 France Jean-Pierre Jarier Tyrrell-Ford 75 + 1 Lap 11 2
6 8 France Alain Prost McLaren-Ford 75 + 1 Lap 7 1
7 6 Mexico Héctor Rebaque Brabham-Ford 74 + 2 Laps 17
8 7 United Kingdom John Watson McLaren-Ford 74 Engine 12
9 29 Italy Riccardo Patrese Arrows-Ford 73 + 3 Laps 21
10 1 South Africa Jody Scheckter Ferrari 73 + 3 Laps 23
11 50 United Kingdom Rupert Keegan Williams-Ford 73 + 3 Laps 18
12 20 Brazil Emerson Fittipaldi Fittipaldi-Ford 72 + 4 Laps 22
13 30 West Germany Jochen Mass Arrows-Ford 69 + 7 Laps 24
NC 16 France René Arnoux Renault 67 Not Classified 16
Ret 25 France Didier Pironi Ligier-Ford 63 Tyre 1
Ret 9 Switzerland Marc Surer ATS-Ford 59 Engine 15
Ret 11 United States Mario Andretti Lotus-Ford 57 Gearbox 9
Ret 23 Italy Bruno Giacomelli Alfa Romeo 42 Spun Off 6
Ret 2 Canada Gilles Villeneuve Ferrari 35 Engine 19
Ret 26 France Jacques Laffite Ligier-Ford 30 Tyre 2
Ret 22 France Patrick Depailler Alfa Romeo 27 Engine 8
Ret 31 United States Eddie Cheever Osella-Ford 17 Suspension 20
Ret 12 Italy Elio de Angelis Lotus-Ford 16 Suspension 14
Ret 15 France Jean-Pierre Jabouille Renault 4 Engine 13
DNQ 14 Netherlands Jan Lammers Ensign-Ford
DNQ 21 Finland Keke Rosberg Fittipaldi-Ford
DNQ 43 South Africa Desiré Wilson Williams-Ford
Source:[3]

Lap Leaders

Didier Pironi 18 (1-18), Jacques Laffite 12 (19-30), Alan Jones 46 (31-76)

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings
Pos Driver Points
1 Australia Alan Jones 37
2 Brazil Nelson Piquet 31
3 France René Arnoux 23
4 France Didier Pironi 23
5 Argentina Carlos Reutemann 20

Constructors' Championship standings
Pos Constructor Points
1 United Kingdom Williams-Ford 57
2 France Ligier-Ford 39
3 United Kingdom Brabham-Ford 31
4 France Renault 23
5 United Kingdom Arrows-Ford 11

References

  1. "Desiré Wilson – Biography". Formula One Rejects. Archived from the original on 4 June 2011. Retrieved 19 January 2016.
  2. 1 2 "Grand Prix Results: British GP, 1980". Grandprix.com. Retrieved 30 October 2013.
  3. "1980 British Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 19 February 2014. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
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1980 French Grand Prix
FIA Formula One World Championship
1980 season
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1980 German Grand Prix
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1979 British Grand Prix
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