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FULL RACE REPORT. Monaco, Monte Carlo, May 23, 1982. For most of the afternoon a Renault victory had seemed assured. Monaco, Monte Carlo, June 3, 1984
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FULL RACE REPORT
1980s
Monaco, Monte Carlo, May 23, 1982
For most of the afternoon a Renault victory had seemed assured. Alain Prost led after team-mate René Arnoux crashed, only to be caught out by a late rain shower that caused him to clobber the barriers on lap 74 of 76. Advantage Riccardo Patrese… until he spun and stalled his Brabham at the hairpin. Over to Didier Pironi, who promptly ran out of fuel… as did Andrea de Cesaris, before he’d so much as passed the stricken Pironi. Derek Daly might have profited, had he not also gone off. Having managed to bump-start, Patrese eventually took the spoils after all.
FULL RACE REPORT
Monaco, Monte Carlo, June 3, 1984
Stefan Bellof: the deserving winner of Monaco in 1984?
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Teeming rain, turbo lag, absence of run-off… You could understand why leader Alain Prost felt the race should be red-flagged well short of its full distance. With hindsight, had it run its course – and had he held on to at least second – a full helping of points would have enabled him to outscore McLaren team-mate Niki Lauda at the year’s end, rather than losing out by a sliver. Prost’s pace had been expected. Less so was the brio of Ayrton Senna (Toleman-Hart) or Stefan Bellof, in the tractable Tyrrell-Cosworth. Senna probably wouldn’t have lasted the full distance, because of suspension damage, but Bellof?
FULL RACE REPORT
Portugal, Estoril, April 21, 1985
Lotus’s fortunes had dipped after founder Colin Chapman’s death, but it was still the first team to offer Ayrton Senna a properly quick car. Having taken pole in the dry, he waltzed off into the distance on a sodden Sunday and lapped all bar Michele Alboreto. Talking that evening to late, great F1 writer Alan Henry, Senna said, “Everyone claimed I made no mistakes, but that’s not true. On one occasion I had four wheels on the grass, but the car came back onto the circuit. Everyone thought that was fantastic car control. No way! It was just luck. ” Some luck, perhaps, but mostly it had been genius.
FULL RACE REPORT
Australia, Adelaide, October 26, 1986
It might be one of the great cliché s in terms of memorable grands prix, but that shouldn’t diminish its significance. Williams-Honda drivers Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet had been closely matched for much of the season, scoring four wins apiece… and regularly taking points off each other. Mansell led the standings by six points ahead of the seasonal finale – and third place would be enough to complete the job. That’s where he was lying when his left-rear Goodyear exploded. Williams brought Piquet in for a precautionary tyre stop… and Prost swept through to his fourth win of the year and a second straight title.
FULL RACE REPORT
1990s
Europe, Donington Park, April 11, 1993
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Senna in a class of his own at Donington
To the architect, this wasn’t as special as his maiden F1 victory in Portugal eight years earlier. Now he had traction control, a privilege not available to all… but then nor was it his exclusive preserve. After a modest getaway, Ayrton Senna had been squabbling for fifth place as he turned into Redgate for the first time – yet he was well ahead at the same point one lap later. What followed was a lesson in decisive racecraft through fluctuating conditions, the Brazilian making many peers look pedestrian in terms of both race pace and speed of thought. But then he’d long since made a habit of the extraordinary.
FULL RACE REPORT
Monaco, Monte Carlo, May 19, 1996
It might have been Michael Schumacher’s race, but having been beaten off the line by Damon Hill the pole-sitter subsequently crashed during the opening lap at Mirabeau Infé rieur. It should have been Hill’s race, but his engine blew while he led by about a fortnight. Jean Alesi inherited first place, but there was a sense of inevitability when his suspension failed, simply because he was Jean Alesi. And there, from 14th on the grid, was Olivier Panis, who had proved that passing was possible – if a little forcibly at times. It was his first and only GP win, Ligier’s ninth and last.
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