United States GP, 1984

There was a fortnight between the Detroit and Dallas Grands Prix and with Nelson Piquet having won both Canada and Detroit he arrived in Texas as the favorite, although Alain Prost remained well ahead in the World Championship as Piquet's victories were his only scores of the season. The entry was unchanged except that Arrows finally had enough BMW engines to run two of the new A7s. The Lotus-Renaults were at the peak of performance in qualifying with pole position going to Nigel Mansell and second position to Elio de Angelis. Then came Derek Warwick (Renault), Rene Arnoux (Ferrari), Niki Lauda (McLaren-TAG), Ayrton Senna (Toleman-Hart), Prost (McLaren-TAG) and Keke Rosberg (Williams-Honda). The top 10 was completed by the Ferrari if Michele Alboreto and Patrick Tambay's Renault. The heat took its toll on the BMWs with the two Brabhams off the pace with Corrado Fabi (Teo racing in CART once again) in 11th, Piquet 12th and Manfred Winkelhock 13th.

There was a nasty accident in practice when Martin Brundle's Tyrrell bounced off one concrete barrier and went into another. Brundle suffered serious fractures to both feet at the second impact.

The weather was very hot on race day and as a precaution Rosberg decided to try a new cool helmetwhich helped to keep him call. The Honda engines had been so unreliable that he did not expect to finish but it was worth trying. At the start Mansell went into the lead with de Angelis and Warwick chasing with a fast-starting Senna up to to fourth. Arnoux's Ferrari had failed to fire up on the pre-grid and so started from the back.

Senna looked very strong but on the second lap he hit a wall and had to pit for new tires. Warwick moved ahead of de Angelis on the fourth lap but six laps later, while challenging for the lead, he crashed out. By then Rosberg had got ahead of de Angelis and was second but cars were falling fast as drivers got tired and made mistakes. The first of the big names to go was Tambay who crashed out of sixth place on lap 25. The two McLaren-TAGs came through the field was was usual with Prost getting up to second on lap 33 but he then made a mistake and dropped back behind Rosberg. Three laps later Keke took the lead. Mansell dropped quickly back and pitted for new tires. Prost then harried Rosberg and on lap 49 he finally got ahead. Lauda was fourth with Arnoux fourth after a remarkable drive up through the field. This continued when he took third on lap 51. Six laps later Prost hit the wall and so Rosberg led Arnoux and de Angelis to the finish. Jacques Laffite was two laps down but fourth in the second Williams with Piercarlo Ghinzani bringing the Osella home fifth and Mansell getting the last point having run out of fuel while running fifth. He pushed his Lotus to the line and then collapsed from exhaustion.