United States GP 1984

United States GP, 1984

Patrick Tambay was back in action after his Monaco accident, Jonathan Palmer had returned to RAM (having missed Canada because of the Le Mans 24 Hours) and Teo Fabi was back in place of Corrado in the second Brabham. After Nelson Piquet's dominant win in Canada it was expected that the Brabham-BMW would be very competitive in Detroit. And so he proved to be, taking pole position by a large margin ahead of Alain Prost's World Championship-leading McLaren-TAG, Nigel Mansell's Lotus-Renault, Michele Alboreto (Ferrari), Elio de Angelis (Lotus-Renault), Derek Warwick (Renault), Ayrton Senna (Toleman-Hart), Eddie Cheever (Alfa Romeo), Tambay and Niki Lauda (McLaren-TAG).

At the start Piquet was slow away and Prost was alongside him. Mansell, going faster than both men ahead of him, tried to get between them and nudged Piquet into the wall. The Brazilian was then hit at high speed by the Arrows of Marc Surer. Piquet's front wheel bounced across the road and destroyed Senna's suspension. The race was stopped. Piquet and Senna went into spare cars but there was no T-car for Surer and so he could not take the restart.

At the second attempt Piquet went away well with Prost and Mansell chasing followed by Alboreto, Cheever, Warwick and the rest. As had happened in Canada Piquet led from flag to flag. The stars of the show proved to be Martin Brundle and Stefan Bellof who drove their Tyrrells up through the field to run fifth and sixth by the time they stopped in the mid-race. Bellof then crashed out but Brundle went on to finish second as Warwick and Alboreto dropped out and de Angelis fell back to third. There were only three other finishers with Teo Fabi fourth, Prost fifth after a troubled race which included a spin and a second pit stop as a result and Jacques Laffite (Williams-Honda).

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
Nelson Piquet Brabham-BMW  63 1h55m41.842s  
dq Martin Brundle Tyrrell-Cosworth  63 1h55m42.679s (1) 11 
11 Elio de Angelis Lotus-Renault  63 1h56m14.480s  
Teo Fabi Brabham-BMW  63 1h57m08.370  23 
Alain Prost McLaren-TAG Porsche  63 1h57m37.100s  
Jacques Laffite Williams-Honda  62  19 
27 Michele Alboreto Ferrari  49 Engine 
Keke Rosberg Williams-Honda  47 Exhaust/turbo 21 
16 Derek Warwick Renault  40 Gearbox 
dq Stefan Bellof Tyrrell-Cosworth  33 Accident 16 
15 Patrick Tambay Renault  33 Transmission 
Philippe Alliot RAM-Hart  33 Brakes/accident 20 
Niki Lauda McLaren-TAG Porsche  33 Electronics 10 
12 Nigel Mansell Lotus-Renault  27 Gearbox 
18 Thierry Boutsen Arrows-Cosworth  27 Engine 13 
26 Andrea de Cesaris Ligier-Renault  24 Engine Overheating 12 
20 Johnny Cecotto Toleman-Hart  23 Clutch 17 
23 Eddie Cheever Alfa Romeo  21 Engine 
19 Ayrton Senna Toleman-Hart  21 Accident 
22 Riccardo Patrese Alfa Romeo  20 Spin 25 
25 Francois Hesnault Ligier-Renault  Accident  18 
24 Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Alfa Romeo  Accident  26 
28 Rene Arnoux Ferrari  Accident  15 
10 Jonathan Palmer RAM-Hart  Tire Burst/accident 24 
14 Manfred Winkelhock ATS-BMW  Accident 14 
17 Marc Surer Arrows-Cosworth  Accident 22 
nq 21 Huub Rothengatter Spirit-Hart    27