Monaco GP 1982

Monaco GP, 1982

It was only a fortnight since Gilles Villeneuve had been killed at Zolder and the Formula 1 world was still reeling. Ferrari took only one car to the Principality. Otherwise the field was as normal with the addition of Emilio de Villota in an Onyx Racing March 821. There was some confusion because Avon had announced that it was pulling out of F1. March had given up with Pirelli and bought all the existing Avon stock but Ensign and Theodore were left without tires. Theodore eventually did a deal with Goodyear but Ensign had to use leftover Avons. Prequalifying got rid of de Villota, Riccardo Paletti's Osella, Teo Fabi's Toleman, Chico Serra's Fittipaldi and Raul Boesel's March and in qualifying itself Roberto Guerrero (Ensign), Jochen Mass (March), Mauro Baldi's Arrows, Jean-Pierre Jarier's Osella, Jan Lammers's Theodore and Derek Warwick's Toleman all failed to make it.

At the other end of the grid Rene Arnoux took pole position for Renault with Riccardo Patrese second quickest in the Brabham-BMW. he was followed by Bruno Giacomelli's Alfa Romeo, Alain Prost's Renault, Pironi's Ferrari, Keke Rosberg's Williams and Andrea de Cesaris (Alfa Romeo). The top 10 was completed by Derek Daly's Williams, Michele Alboreto (Tyrrell) and John Watson (McLaren). There was trouble for Talbot Ligier with the new JS19 being declared illegal until changes had been made. The changes made the cars difficult to drive.

At the start Arnoux took the lead while everyone was fairly well behaved and so Giacomelli was second, Patrese third, Prost fourth and Pironi fifth. De Cesaris made a good start to get ahead of Alboreto and Rosberg. Prost quickly moved ahead of Patrese and then on lap four Giacomelli went out with an axle problem, which promoted Prost to second place. Nothing then changed until lap 15 when Arnoux spun and stalled. Prost was left in the lead but now Patrese began to close in. Further back Rosberg got ahead of Alboreto to claim fifth but otherwise the order was static. Pironi lost the nose of his Ferrari against a backmarker but it seemed to make little difference.

It was not until the closing stages of the race that things changed when rain began to fall. Rosberg was one of the first to go, hitting a barrier on lap 65. Then Daly did likewise at Tabac but managed to keep going, although the rear wing was gone and he was trailing oil. On lap 74 Prost went off heavily at the chicane and hit the barriers hard. He bruised his legs badly but was otherwise unhurt. This put Patrese into the lead but halfway around the 75th lap he spun at the Loews Hairpin. Pironi took the lead but he was going slower and slower as he set off on the final lap. The car was out of fuel. The lead would have passed to de Cesaris but he too was out of fuel. In theory Mansell was the man but Patrese had been pushed by marshals because his Brabham was in a dangerous position. It had rolled down the hill and bump-started. Riccardo drove through to win his first Grand Prix victory. He did not even know he had won.

In the end they gave Pironi second and de Cesaris third with Mansell and de Angelis fourth and fifth and the final point going to Daly.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
Riccardo Patrese Brabham-BMW  76 1h54m11.259s  
2r 28 Didier Pironi Ferrari  75 Electrics 
3r 22 Andrea de Cesaris Alfa Romeo  75 Out Of Fuel 
12 Nigel Mansell Lotus-Cosworth  75  11 
11 Elio de Angelis Lotus-Cosworth  75  15 
6r Derek Daly Williams-Cosworth  74 Accident/gear Box 
7r 15 Alain Prost Renault  73 Accident 
Brian Henton Tyrrell-Cosworth  72  17 
29 Marc Surer Arrows-Cosworth  70  19 
10r Michele Alboreto Tyrrell-Cosworth  69 Front Suspension 
Keke Rosberg Williams-Cosworth  64 Front Suspension 
Niki Lauda McLaren-Cosworth  56 Engine 12 
Nelson Piquet Brabham-BMW  49 Gearbox 13 
John Watson McLaren-Cosworth  35 Oil Leak/battery 10 
Manfred Winkelhock ATS-Cosworth  31 Differential 14 
26 Jacques Laffite Talbot Ligier-Matra  29 Handling 18 
25 Eddie Cheever Talbot Ligier-Matra  27 Engine 16 
10 Eliseo Salazar ATS-Cosworth  22 Fire Extinguisher 20 
16 Rene Arnoux Renault  14 Spin 
23 Bruno Giacomelli Alfa Romeo  Transmission 
nq 30 Mauro Baldi Arrows-Cosworth    21 
nq 33 Jan Lammers Theodore-Cosworth    22 
nq 17 Jochen Mass March-Cosworth    23 
nq 35 Derek Warwick Toleman-Hart    24 
nq 31 Jean-Pierre Jarier Osella-Cosworth    25 
nq 14 Roberto Guerrero Ensign-Cosworth    26 
nq 36 Teo Fabi Toleman-Hart    27 
nq 32 Riccardo Paletti Osella-Cosworth    28 
nq 18 Raul Boesel March-Cosworth    29 
nq 20 Chico Serra Fittipaldi-Cosworth    30 
nq 19 Emilio de Villota March-Cosworth    31