United States GP 1982

United States GP, 1982

In the fortnight between the Brazilian and Long Beach races, Carlos Reutemann decided that he wanted to retire from Formula 1. Williams scrambled around to find a replacement and ended up with Mario Andretti in the car. Qualifying produced a surprise as Andrea de Cesaris took pole position in his Alfa Romeo ahead of Niki Lauda's McLaren, the two Renaults of Rene Arnoux and Alain Prost and Bruno Giacomelli in the second Alfa. The top 10 was completed by Nelson Piquet (Brabham), Gilles Villeneuve's Ferrari (which featured a strange extra wide rear wing), Keke Rosberg in the Williams FW07 and the impressive Jean-Pierre Jarier in one of the Osellas.

At the start de Cesaris went into the lead while Lauda did not get away well and so it was Arnoux who led the chase. On lap six Giacomelli tried to pass Lauda and in doing so collided with Arnoux. Both were out and the road was clear for Lauda to close on de Cesaris. In the early laps John Watson drove a storming race in his McLaren and was in third place by the ninth lap ahead of Villeneuve, Rosberg, Piquet and the rest. Pironi and Prost soon joined the list of retirements as they crashed out. On lap 15 Lauda took the lead from de Cesaris and began to pull away.

Six laps later Villeneuve tried to pass Rosberg and ended up in an escape road. On lap 26 Piquet made a mistake and hit the wall and nine laps later de Cesaris's race ended in a similar fashion although his engine had blown up just before the crash. All this left Lauda with a huge lead. Rosberg was second because Watson had run into trouble and pitted. Villeneuve was third but was later disqualified for using the curious rear wing which was declared illegal. This gave Patrese third with Michele Alboreto (Tyrrell) fourth, Elio de Angelis (Lotus) fifth and Watson sixth.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
Niki Lauda McLaren-Cosworth  75 1h58m25.318s  
Keke Rosberg Williams-Cosworth  75 1h58m39.978s  
dq 27 Gilles Villeneuve Ferrari  75 Irregular Wing 
Riccardo Patrese Brabham-BMW  75 1h59m44.461s  18 
Michele Alboreto Tyrrell-Cosworth  75 1h59m46.265s  12 
11 Elio de Angelis Lotus-Cosworth  74  16 
John Watson McLaren-Cosworth  74  11 
12 Nigel Mansell Lotus-Cosworth  73  17 
17 Jochen Mass March-Cosworth  73  21 
18 Raul Boesel March-Cosworth  70  23 
10 Slim Borgudd Tyrrell-Cosworth  68  24 
25 Eddie Cheever Talbot Ligier-Matra  59 Gearbox 13 
22 Andrea de Cesaris Alfa Romeo  33 Accident 
29 Brian Henton Arrows-Cosworth  32 Accident 20 
14 Roberto Guerrero Ensign-Cosworth  27 Accident 19 
26 Jacques Laffite Talbot Ligier-Matra  26 Spin 15 
31 Jean-Pierre Jarier Osella-Cosworth  26 Gearbox 10 
Nelson Piquet Brabham-BMW  25 Accident 
33 Derek Daly Theodore-Cosworth  23 Accident 22 
Mario Andretti Williams-Cosworth  19 Accident/rear Suspension 14 
15 Alain Prost Renault  10 Brakes/accident 
28 Didier Pironi Ferrari  Accident 
16 Rene Arnoux Renault  Accident 
23 Bruno Giacomelli Alfa Romeo  Accident 
10 Eliseo Salazar ATS-Cosworth  Accident 26 
Manfred Winkelhock ATS-Cosworth  Accident 25 
nq 36 Teo Fabi Toleman-Hart    27 
nq 32 Riccardo Paletti Osella-Cosworth    28 
nq 20 Chico Serra Fittipaldi-Cosworth    29 
nq 30 Mauro Baldi Arrows-Cosworth    30 
nq 35 Derek Warwick Toleman-Hart    31