1980 British Grand Prix
As usual, it's Brands Hatch's turn to host the British Grand Prix. Last year around at Silverstone Ferrari dominated the weekend as eventual champion
Carlos Reutemann started his 4-race winning streak. This season the Argentinean is yet to find similar form although he has three wins to his name already. Arrows are expected to bounce back after a rather miserable French Grand Prix.
There has been one driver change too as Osella has decided to sack
Beppe Gabbiani in favour of
Jan Lammers who competed for Wolf Racing last season. The team is yet to cite a reason for the decision but ruomur have it that Gabbiani's sponsor would have run out of money.
Pre-qualifying
Experienced drivers stole the spotlight on the challenging Brands Hatch circuit in Friday morning pre-qualifying. Ligier's
Tambay was fastest, leaving Rebaque's
Jean-Pierre Jarier half a second and third placed
James Hunt a full second behind. Jarier's second fastest time gave Rebaque a chance to return to qualifying after failing to advance in France.
Héctor Rebaque capitalised on the chance and defeated
Ricardo Zunino, ending Wolf Racing's weekend short. The highlight of the session however was Osella's
Lammers who was fifth fastest only 1,2 seconds behind Tambay.
Qualifying
One trend was very evident in qualifying: Michelin rules. All six Michelin teams got into the top-8 of the qualifying leaving Goodyear teams, including Ferrari and McLaren, way down the ranks. Ferrari in particular were in big trouble after qualifying in 5th row. This would certainly open the door for
Jacques Laffite who returned to form and front row. He was second, just shy of pole sitter
Piquet. Williams' great start for their home grand prix was backed by
de Angelis' third place. Fourth was the best of the Goodyear drivers but a hugely surprising one:
Derek Daly had his best qualifying effort of the season by putting his Lotus in P4. Teammate
Cheever was down in 19th... Tyrrell improved also, they were in 5th and 8th,
Binder and
Lauda in between them.
As stated, Ferrari were disappointing in 5th row but McLaren had it even more difficult.
Rosberg was 14th and
Mansell only 18th fastest on his home track. There was no joy in Renault or Brabham garages either. Renault's
Gilles Villeneuve, who has mostly qualified well this season was only in 17th while Brabham's
Patrese failed to qualify all together. The other sorry loser was Ensign's
Bobby Rahal who is not looking to live up to his promise.
Race
Williamses got a brilliant start as Piquet and de Angelis were leading coming into Druids.
Schcekter had got up tp third. Arrowses were behind him with Binder in front. Will he let his teammate through this time? Lauda, Daly,
Jones,
Pironi and
Reutemann completed the top-10.
Ferraris were eager to prove the poor qualifying pace wasn't their true speed. On lap 2 Reutemann got past Pironi into 8th. Meanwhile Laffite was still stuck behind Binder but finally got past on lap 4. He had however already lost afew second to Scheckter but the pursuit would now be on! On lap 7 Laffite caught Scheckter and overtook him quite easily. Ferraris however were now stuck behind a slower car - Daly's Lotus - in 8th and 9th. This was helping Lauda in P6 get away, the double world champion is still yet to score a point this season but has a golden opportunity today.
Although Laffite got past easily, Scheckter was not giving up. The two swapped positions few times in the next laps but the battle was to end too soon as Laffite's gearbox failed the Frenchman. It was only his second retirement of the season. Three laps later another top driver had to abandon the race as de Angelis' suspension gave up from P2. Running order on lap 20 of 76: Piquet leading by 8 seconds over Scheckter. Binder and Lauda had a gret battle for third. Jones had gotten past Daly and was closing in on the two. Daly, Pironi, Reutemann and Depailler were having a four-way battle for sixth. Alfa Romeo's
Regazzoni had sneaked into top-10 but was over seven seconds behind.
Next 20 laps were rather quiet. Jones caught Binder and Lauda but couldn't get through. Daly dropped a few positions to the faster Reutemann, Pironi and Depailler but would get a few places back shortly as the drivers started going down. First victim was Pironi whose engine temperatures rocketed on lap 43. Jones retired ten laps later and a further ten laps later Binder, Lauda and Piquet were out too. Four of the top six had retired which had promoted unexpected drivers to unexpectedly high.
Scheckter now lead comfortably over Reutemann who had a comfortable gap to Fittipaldi's Depailler! The Frenchman was having a solid race and was hoping to return to podium for the first time since Austria 1978. Daly, Ickx and Regazzoni were the other drivers on points but there were still some 10 laps later. No major drama followed though which meant the first victory of the seaon for Tyrrell and Jody Scheckter. Lotus had a decent day too although Daly wasn't able to match his qualifying pace. Fourth place, backed up by Cheever's 7th was a nice result nevertheless. Rookies
Mansell and
Prost had unspectacular drives to 8th and 9th while Ligier's
Takahara was 10th, defeating his 14th placed teammate.
Reutemann's second place finish promotes the defending world champion to championship lead while Scheckter's win helps Tyrrell leapfrog Arrows
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