1984 South African Grand Prix

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1984 South African Grand Prix
Race 2 of 16 in the 1984 Formula One World Championship
Kyalami 1961 - 1988 Layout.png
Race details
Date7 April 1984
Official name XVIII National Panasonic Grand Prix of South Africa
Location Kyalami
Midrand, Transvaal Province, South Africa
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 4.104 km (2.550 miles)
Distance 75 laps, 307.800 km (191.258 miles)
Weather Dry
Pole position
Driver Brabham-BMW
Time 1:04.871
Fastest lap
Driver Flag of France.svg Patrick Tambay Renault
Time 1:08.877 on lap 64
Podium
First McLaren-TAG
Second McLaren-TAG
Third Renault
Lap leaders
  • 1984 South African Grand Prix

The 1984 South African Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Kyalami on 7 April 1984. It was race 2 of 16 in the 1984 Formula One World Championship. The 75-lap race was won by Niki Lauda, driving a McLaren-TAG, with teammate Alain Prost second and Derek Warwick third in a Renault.

Contents

Report

Qualifying

Qualifying saw reigning World Champion Nelson Piquet take the first of an eventual nine pole positions for 1984 in his Brabham-BMW (which was clocked at 325 km/h (202 mph) on the circuit's long front straight), [1] with Keke Rosberg alongside him on the front row in his Williams-Honda. On the second row were Nigel Mansell in the Lotus and Patrick Tambay in the factory Renault, while on the third row were Alain Prost in the McLaren and Teo Fabi in the second Brabham. The top ten was completed by Elio de Angelis in the second Lotus, Niki Lauda in the second McLaren, Derek Warwick in the second Renault and Michele Alboreto in the Ferrari. The Cosworth-powered Tyrrells and Arrows struggled, with Thierry Boutsen coming 27th and last in his Arrows and thus failing to qualify.

Race

In the Sunday morning warm-up session Piercarlo Ghinzani, who had qualified 20th in his Osella, crashed heavily at the fast left-hand Jukskei Sweep, the car bursting into flames. Ghinzani escaped with minor burns on his hands, and subsequently withdrew from the race, thus promoting Boutsen to the last grid spot.

Before the start of the race, Prost's McLaren refused to fire up thanks to a fuel pump failure and his McLaren was pushed to the side of the road and he started from the pitlane in the spare car. [2] In fact, Ghinzani's accident and the subsequent 30 minutes delay before the start was extremely fortunate for Prost. During the warmup, Lauda had a chronic misfire in his TAG-Porsche race engine. It took the McLaren team until 13 minutes into the extra 30 to completely change the electrical system in Lauda's car, which cured the low-end misfire but one still remained intermittent between 7,500 and 8,500 rpm, but it was driveable and allowed Lauda to be 2nd fastest in the warmup to Piquet. In truth however, without Ghinzani's accident and the extra 30 minutes, the McLaren team wouldn't have fixed Lauda's car on time and the former dual World Champion would have been forced to race the spare car, meaning Prost would not have even started. [3]

At the start, Piquet almost stalled on the grid and was passed by Rosberg and Mansell. The Lotus then faltered and Mansell fell down the order, putting Piquet back up to second by the first corner. At the end of lap 1, Piquet passed Rosberg for the lead, before teammate Fabi moved into second on lap 2. Lauda had made a good start to run fourth; he then overtook Rosberg on lap 4 and Fabi on lap 10. Both Brabhams then hit trouble, needing new tyres before retiring with turbo failures, Fabi on lap 19 and Piquet on lap 30.

From there, Lauda controlled the race and went on to win easily, with Prost over a minute behind in second and the only other driver on the lead lap. Warwick gained his first Formula One podium by finishing third, while completing the top six were Riccardo Patrese (Alfa Romeo, its second points finish in a row giving more, somewhat false, hope that the 890T V8 would be competitive), Andrea de Cesaris (Ligier-Renault) and, gaining his first ever World Championship point, Ayrton Senna in his Toleman-Hart.

Classification

Qualifying

PosNoDriverConstructorQ1Q2Gap
11 Flag of Brazil (1968-1992).svg Nelson Piquet Brabham-BMW 1:05.2801:04.871
26 Flag of Finland.svg Keke Rosberg Williams-Honda 1:05.1271:05.058+0.187
312 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Nigel Mansell Lotus-Renault 1:05.7921:05.125+0.254
415 Flag of France.svg Patrick Tambay Renault 1:05.5881:05.339+0.468
57 Flag of France.svg Alain Prost McLaren-TAG 1:06.5761:05.354+0.483
62 Flag of Italy.svg Teo Fabi Brabham-BMW 1:05.9231:07.236+1.052
711 Flag of Italy.svg Elio de Angelis Lotus-Renault 1:06.3051:05.953+1.082
88 Flag of Austria.svg Niki Lauda McLaren-TAG 1:06.2381:06.043+1.172
916 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Derek Warwick Renault 1:06.0561:06.491+1.185
1027 Flag of Italy.svg Michele Alboreto Ferrari 1:07.4041:06.323+1.452
115 Flag of France.svg Jacques Laffite Williams-Honda 1:07.1421:06.762+1.891
1214 Flag of Germany.svg Manfred Winkelhock ATS-BMW 1:06.9741:07.417+2.103
1319 Flag of Brazil (1968-1992).svg Ayrton Senna Toleman-Hart 1:07.6571:06.981+2.110
1426 Flag of Italy.svg Andrea de Cesaris Ligier-Renault 1:09.1321:07.245+2.374
1528 Flag of France.svg René Arnoux Ferrari 1:07.5141:07.345+2.474
1623 Flag of the United States.svg Eddie Cheever Alfa Romeo 1:07.7041:07.993+2.833
1725 Flag of France.svg François Hesnault Ligier-Renault 1:09.9091:07.787+2.916
1822 Flag of Italy.svg Riccardo Patrese Alfa Romeo 1:08.3991:08.042+3.171
1920 Flag of Venezuela (1930-1954).svg Johnny Cecotto Toleman-Hart 1:09.8921:08.298+3.427
2024 Flag of Italy.svg Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Alfa Romeo 1:10.8291:09.609+4.738
2121 Flag of Italy.svg Mauro Baldi Spirit-Hart 1:10.4501:09.923+5.052
2210 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Jonathan Palmer RAM-Hart no time1:10.383+5.512
239 Flag of France.svg Philippe Alliot RAM-Hart no time1:10.619+5.748
2417 Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg Marc Surer Arrows-Ford 1:12.2271:11.808+6.937
254 Flag of Germany.svg Stefan Bellof Tyrrell-Ford 1:12.3221:12.022+7.151
263 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Martin Brundle Tyrrell-Ford 1:12.2331:12.453+7.362
2718 Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Thierry Boutsen Arrows-Ford 1:12.3261:12.274+7.403
Source: [4] [5] [6]

Race

PosNoDriverConstructorLapsTime/RetiredGridPoints
18 Flag of Austria.svg Niki Lauda McLaren-TAG 751:29:23.43089
27 Flag of France.svg Alain Prost McLaren-TAG 75+ 1:05.95056
316 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Derek Warwick Renault 74+ 1 Lap94
422 Flag of Italy.svg Riccardo Patrese Alfa Romeo 73+ 2 Laps183
526 Flag of Italy.svg Andrea de Cesaris Ligier-Renault 73+ 2 Laps142
619 Flag of Brazil (1968-1992).svg Ayrton Senna Toleman-Hart 72+ 3 Laps131
711 Flag of Italy.svg Elio de Angelis Lotus-Renault 71+ 4 Laps7 
821 Flag of Italy.svg Mauro Baldi Spirit-Hart 71+ 4 Laps20 
917 Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg Marc Surer Arrows-Ford 71+ 4 Laps23 
1025 Flag of France.svg François Hesnault Ligier-Renault 71+ 4 Laps17 
1127 Flag of Italy.svg Michele Alboreto Ferrari 70Ignition10 
1218 Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Thierry Boutsen Arrows-Ford 70+ 5 Laps26 
DSQ3 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Martin Brundle Tyrrell-Ford 71Disqualified25 
Ret15 Flag of France.svg Patrick Tambay Renault 66Out of Fuel4 
DSQ4 Flag of Germany.svg Stefan Bellof Tyrrell-Ford 60Disqualified24 
Ret5 Flag of France.svg Jacques Laffite Williams-Honda 60Transmission11 
Ret14 Flag of Germany.svg Manfred Winkelhock ATS-BMW 53Engine12 
Ret6 Flag of Finland.svg Keke Rosberg Williams-Honda 51Wheel2 
Ret12 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Nigel Mansell Lotus-Renault 51Turbo3 
Ret28 Flag of France.svg René Arnoux Ferrari 40Injection15 
Ret1 Flag of Brazil (1968-1992).svg Nelson Piquet Brabham-BMW 29Turbo1 
Ret20 Flag of Venezuela (1930-1954).svg Johnny Cecotto Toleman-Hart 26Tyre19 
Ret9 Flag of France.svg Philippe Alliot RAM-Hart 24Engine22 
Ret10 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Jonathan Palmer RAM-Hart 22Gearbox21 
Ret2 Flag of Italy.svg Teo Fabi Brabham-BMW 18Turbo6 
Ret23 Flag of the United States.svg Eddie Cheever Alfa Romeo 4Radiator16 
DNS24 Flag of Italy.svg Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Alfa Romeo Practice Accident 
Source: [7]

Championship standings after the race

References

  1. Australian Motor Racing Year 1984/85 (1st ed.). Killara, NSW, Australia: Berghouse Publishing Group Pty Ltd. 1985. p. 126.
  2. "South African GP, 1984". grandprix.com. Retrieved 16 July 2023.
  3. Australian Motor Racing Year 1984/85. Killara, NSW, Australia: Berghouse Publishing Group Pty Ltd. 1985. pp. 127–128.
  4. "National Panasonic Grand Prix - QUALIFYING 1". formula1.com. Retrieved 13 September 2019.
  5. "National Panasonic Grand Prix - QUALIFYING 2". formula1.com. Retrieved 13 September 2019.
  6. "National Panasonic Grand Prix - OVERALL QUALIFYING". formula1.com. Retrieved 13 September 2019.
  7. "1984 South African Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 4 November 2014. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  8. 1 2 "South Africa 1984 - Championship • STATS F1". statsf1.com. Retrieved 20 March 2019.
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FIA Formula One World Championship
1984 season
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