Belgian GP 1984

Belgian GP, 1984

There was one extra car at Zolder with Spirit having joined the World Championship with driver Mauro Baldi. The only other change was the arrival of the new BMW-engined Arrows A7 chassis (given to Thierry Boutsen for the weekend) while Piercarlo Ghinzani was back in action having recovered from his burns in the three weeks since the South African GP.

The tire war between Goodyear, Michelin and Pirelli was an important element in the competitiveness of the teams and in Belgium it was Goodyear which had the better tires. Pole position went to Michele Alboreto's Ferrari with his teammate Rene Arnoux alongside. Then came another Goodyear man, Keke Rosberg in the Williams-Honda. The first Michelin runner was Derek Warwick (Renault) but then came another three Goodyear users: Elio de Angelis (Lotus-Renault), Manfred Winkelhock (ATS-BMW) and Riccardo Patrese (Alfa Romeo). The top 10 was completed by Michelin men Alain Prost (McLaren-TAG), Nelson Piquet (Brabham-BMW) and Nigel Mansell's Lotus-Renault.

Alboreto went into the lead at the start while Rosberg made a poor start which allowed Warwick to get ahead of both him and Arnoux. Winkelhock, de Angelis and Patrese followed although the Alfa Romeo driver disappeared quickly with an ignition failure. Prost charged ahead of de Angelis but went out with an electrical problem almost immediately and on lap eight Piquet moved ahead of de Angelis to claim fifth. The order then remained stable until Piquet overtook Winkelhock on lap 23. The mid-race stops did little to change the order and when they were completed Alboreto led Warwick again with Piquet (going nonstop on this occasion) third. Winkelhock had disappeared with an electrical problem and Rosberg was struggling with tires and so de Angelis was back up to fourth. In the closing laps Piquet faded and fell behind Arnoux and Rosberg. Nelson then suffered a huge engine failure. Arnoux was briefly third but then Rosberg passed him and looked to be on his way to that position until his fuel ran out on the penultimate lap. He was classified fourth ahead of de Angelis and Stefan Bellof (Tyrrell).

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
1 27 Michele Alboreto Ferrari  70 1h36m32.048s  1 
2 16 Derek Warwick Renault  70 1h37m14.434s  4 
3 28 Rene Arnoux Ferrari  70 1h37m41.851s  2 
4r 6 Keke Rosberg Williams-Honda  69 Out Of Fuel 3 
5 11 Elio de Angelis Lotus-Renault  69  5 
6 4 Stefan Bellof Tyrrell-Cosworth  69 (1) 21 
7 19 Ayrton Senna Toleman-Hart  68  19 
8 15 Patrick Tambay Renault  68  12 
9r 17 Marc Surer Arrows-Cosworth  68  24 
10 1 Nelson Piquet Brabham-BMW  66 Engine 9 
r 10 Jonathan Palmer RAM-Hart  64  26 
dq 21 Mauro Baldi Spirit-Hart  53 Suspension 25 
r 3 Martin Brundle Tyrrell-Cosworth  51 Wheel Lost/(1) 22 
r 2 Teo Fabi Brabham-BMW  42 Spin 18 
r 26 Andrea de Cesaris Ligier-Renault  42 Accident 13 
r 14 Manfred Winkelhock ATS-BMW  39 Exhaust/electrics 6 
r 8 Niki Lauda McLaren-TAG Porsche  35 Water Pump 14 
r 23 Eddie Cheever Alfa Romeo  28 Engine 11 
r 5 Jacques Laffite Williams-Honda  15 Electrics 15 
r 25 Francois Hesnault Ligier-Renault  15 Radiator 23 
r 18 Thierry Boutsen Arrows-Cosworth  15 Wire Loose/misfire 17 
r 24 Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Alfa Romeo  14 Transmission 20 
r 12 Nigel Mansell Lotus-Renault  14 Clutch 10 
r 7 Alain Prost McLaren-TAG Porsche  5 Distributor 8 
r 22 Riccardo Patrese Alfa Romeo  2 Ignition 7 
r 20 Johnny Cecotto Toleman-Hart  1 Clutch 16 
nq 9 Philippe Alliot RAM-Hart    27