Belgian GP 1983

Belgian GP, 1983

There was only a week between Monaco (where Keke Rosberg had scored a memorable victory for Williams) and the Belgian GP but no-one was complaining because the race was being held at the revived Spa track, shortened but retaining a flavor of the famous old track. There was one change to the driver lineup with F1 debutante Thierry Boutsen joining the Arrows team in place of Chico Serra, bringing the team much-needed sponsorship from a variety of sponsors.

Qualifying resulted in pole position going to World Championship leader Alain Prost (Renault) with Patrick Tambay (Ferrari) just one-hundredths of a second behind him. Andrea de Cesaris was third in his Marlboro-sponsored Alfa Romeo with Nelson Piquet fourth in his Brabham-BMW. Then came Rene Arnoux (Ferrari), Riccardo Patrese (Brabham-BMW), Manfred Winkelhock (ATS-BMW), Eddie Cheever (Renault) and Keke Rosberg (the fastest of the normally-aspirated cars again). Marc Surer again showed that the Arrows was a good car with 10th place.

At the start there was confusion as the starter decided to abort the departure because the grid was not lined up well. Several drivers (notably de Cesaris) took off as if it was a normal start. Everyone returned to the grid but rather than following the rules and simply restarting immediately the field returned, mechanics were out on the grid and cars were being topped up with fuel (which was not allowed). The mess was finally sorted out and a new start took place with de Cesaris making a fine start to grab the lead from Prost, Tambay, Piquet, Winkelhock and the rest. Patrese disappeared almost immediately with an engine failure.

De Cesaris continued to lead until the mid-race pit stops but the stop was a long one and so Prost went into the lead when all the refueling had been completed and any threat from de Cesaris disappeared soon afterwards when his engine failed. This left Piquet second with Tambay third Arnoux fourth and then the two Williams's with Rosberg ahead of Jacques Laffite.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
1 15 Alain Prost Renault  40 1h27m11.502s  1 
2 27 Patrick Tambay Ferrari  40 1h27m34.684s  2 
3 16 Eddie Cheever Renault  40 1h27m51.371s  8 
4 5 Nelson Piquet Brabham-BMW  40 1h27m53.797  4 
5 1 Keke Rosberg Williams-Cosworth  40 1h28m01.982s  9 
6 2 Jacques Laffite Williams-Cosworth  40 1h28m44.609s  11 
7 35 Derek Warwick Toleman-Hart  40 1h29m10.041s  22 
8 36 Bruno Giacomelli Toleman-Hart  40 1h29m49.775s  16 
9 11 Elio de Angelis Lotus-Cosworth  39  13 
10 34 Johnny Cecotto Theodore-Cosworth  39  25 
11 29 Marc Surer Arrows-Cosworth  39  10 
12 4 Danny Sullivan Tyrrell-Cosworth  39  23 
13 26 Raul Boesel Ligier-Cosworth  39  26 
14 3 Michele Alboreto Tyrrell-Cosworth  38  17 
r 8 Niki Lauda McLaren-Cosworth  33 Engine 15 
r 12 Nigel Mansell Lotus-Cosworth  30 Gearbox 19 
r 22 Andrea de Cesaris Alfa Romeo  25 Engine 3 
r 33 Roberto Guerrero Theodore-Cosworth  23 Engine 14 
r 28 Rene Arnoux Ferrari  22 Engine 5 
r 31 Corrado Fabi Osella-Cosworth  19 Rear Suspension 24 
r 9 Manfred Winkelhock ATS-BMW  18 Rear Wheel Lost/accident 7 
r 7 John Watson McLaren-Cosworth  8 Accident 20 
r 25 Jean-Pierre Jarier Ligier-Cosworth  8 Accident 21 
r 30 Thierry Boutsen Arrows-Cosworth  4 Rear Suspension 18 
r 23 Mauro Baldi Alfa Romeo  3 Throttle Linkage 12 
r 6 Riccardo Patrese Brabham-BMW  0 Engine 6 
nq 32 Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Cosworth    27 
nq 17 Eliseo Salazar RAM March-Cosworth    28