1982 Austrian Grand Prix

  1982 Austrian Grand Prix
Race details
Race 13 of 16 in the 1982 Formula One season

The Österreichring (last modified in 1977)
Date 15 August 1982
Official name XX Holiday Großer Preis von Osterreich
Location Österreichring, Spielberg, Styria, Austria
Course Permanent racing facility
5.942 km (3.692 mi)
Distance 53 laps, 314.926 km (195.686 mi)
Weather Sunny, hot
Pole position
Driver Nelson Piquet Brabham-BMW
Time 1:27.612
Fastest lap
Driver Nelson Piquet Brabham-BMW
Time 1:33.699 on lap 5
Podium
First Elio de Angelis Lotus-Ford
Second Keke Rosberg Williams-Ford
Third Jacques Laffite Ligier-Matra

The 1982 Austrian Grand Prix was a Formula One World Championship race held on 15 August 1982 at the Österreichring in Spielberg, Styria, Austria. The race was won by Lotus' Elio de Angelis, who held off Keke Rosberg's Williams to win by just 0.050 seconds, or less than half a car length.

Contents

Report

A chicane had been added at the entrance to the pits earlier in the year. Nelson Piquet's Brabham led into the first corner from pole position, while Renault's Alain Prost passed Piquet's team mate Riccardo Patrese for second. Further back, there was a collison which eliminated the two Alfa Romeos of Andrea de Cesaris and Bruno Giacomelli. Prost's advantage over Patrese lasted only a few corners before the Italian re-passed him. On lap 2, Patrese took the lead from Piquet and the two Brabham's immediately began to pull away on their half-full tanks.

Shortly before half distance, Piquet made the first planned mid-race fuel and tyre pit stop in modern F1 history. He rejoined in 4th place, just ahead of Keke Rosberg, having lost position to Prost and Elio de Angelis. Several laps after Piquet, Patrese made his stop. In that time, he had built up a sufficient to lead to rejoin the race still in 1st, albeit now only a few seconds ahead of Prost. The Brabham and Renault appeared evenly matched after the stop, with the gap from Patrese to Prost remaining relatively stable. However, only a few laps after his stop, Patrese suffered an engine failure, causing him to spin off. Prost inherited a comfortable lead from de Angelis with Piquet promoted to 3rd.

However, the reigning world champion had struggled since his pit stop, unable to make any inroads into the leaders, he was instead struggling to stay ahead of Rosberg. Only a few laps after his team mate's exit, Piquet retired with an electrical failure. Free of the Brabham, Rosberg began closing in on de Angelis, slowling but surely reducing the 10 second gap. Prost, meanwhile, looked serene with his half-minute lead only to suffer a mechanical failure just 5 laps from the end.

This left de Angelis leading, poised for his maiden victory, but Rosberg, who by now had reduced de Angelis' advantage to only a few seconds, seemed to step up a gear now that his maiden win was in sight, and the Finn began closing more rapidly. By the last lap, Rosberg had reduced to the gap to just 1.6 seconds. He closed rapidly on the final tour, de Angelis apparently succumbing to the pressure, and was right on the Lotus' gearbox heading into the final corner. De Angelis calmly defended the inside line, and Rosberg was unable to go the long way round. His tight entry to the corner caused de Angelis to slide wide on the exit, allowing Rosberg to dive inside on the home straight, only to miss out by just 0.050 seconds, or less than half a car length.

De Angelis joyfully celebrated his maiden win, while Rosberg had boosted his championship chances despite missing out on his maiden win by such an agonizingly small margin, moving ahead of John Watson into second place in the championship, which was effectively the lead as the official championship leader Didier Pironi was out for the rest of the season with leg injuries. Ligier's Jacques Laffite completed the podium, coming home a distant third, while Ferrari's Patrick Tambay, who recovered from a puncture early in the race, McLaren's Niki Lauda and the Arrows of Mauro Baldi rounded off the points scorers.

The win by De Angelis was the last hailed by Colin Chapman's famous act of throwing his cloth cap into the air after a Lotus victory. It would also be the last win by a Chapman-built Lotus, and the last victory by a Lotus until the 1985 Portuguese Grand Prix.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos No Driver Constructor Time Gap
1 1 Nelson Piquet Brabham-BMW 1:27.612
2 2 Riccardo Patrese Brabham-BMW 1:27.971 +0.359
3 15 Alain Prost Renault 1:28.864 +1.252
4 27 Patrick Tambay Ferrari 1:29.522 +1.910
5 16 René Arnoux Renault 1:30.261 +2.649
6 6 Keke Rosberg Williams-Ford 1:30.300 +2.688
7 11 Elio de Angelis Lotus-Ford 1:31.626 +4.014
8 3 Michele Alboreto Tyrrell-Ford 1:31.814 +4.202
9 5 Derek Daly Williams-Ford 1:32.062 +4.450
10 8 Niki Lauda McLaren-Ford 1:32.131 +4.519
11 22 Andrea de Cesaris Alfa Romeo 1:32.308 +4.696
12 12 Nigel Mansell Lotus-Ford 1:32.881 +5.269
13 23 Bruno Giacomelli Alfa Romeo 1:32.950 +5.338
14 26 Jacques Laffite Ligier-Matra 1:32.957 +5.345
15 35 Derek Warwick Toleman-Hart 1:33.208 +5.596
16 14 Roberto Guerrero Ensign-Ford 1:33.555 +5.943
17 36 Teo Fabi Toleman-Hart 1:33.971 +6.359
18 7 John Watson McLaren-Ford 1:34.164 +6.554
19 4 Brian Henton Tyrrell-Ford 1:34.184 +6.572
20 20 Chico Serra Fittipaldi-Ford 1:34.187 +6.575
21 29 Marc Surer Arrows-Ford 1:34.422 +6.810
22 25 Eddie Cheever Ligier-Matra 1:34.620 +7.008
23 30 Mauro Baldi Arrows-Ford 1:34.715 +7.103
24 17 Rupert Keegan March-Ford 1:34.770 +7.158
25 9 Manfred Winkelhock ATS-Ford 1:34.984 +7.372
26 33 Tommy Byrne Theodore-Ford 1:34.985 +7.373
DNQ 18 Raul Boesel March-Ford 1:35.149 +7.537
DNQ 31 Jean-Pierre Jarier Osella-Ford 1:35.206 +7.594
DNQ 10 Eliseo Salazar ATS-Ford 1:35.271 +7.659

Race

Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 11 Elio de Angelis Lotus-Ford 53 1:25:02.212 7 9
2 6 Keke Rosberg Williams-Ford 53 + 0.050 6 6
3 26 Jacques Laffite Ligier-Matra 52 + 1 Lap 14 4
4 27 Patrick Tambay Ferrari 52 + 1 Lap 4 3
5 8 Niki Lauda McLaren-Ford 52 +1 Lap 10 2
6 30 Mauro Baldi Arrows-Ford 52 +1 Lap 23 1
7 20 Chico Serra Fittipaldi-Ford 51 +2 Laps 20  
8 15 Alain Prost Renault 48 Injection 3  
9 7 John Watson McLaren-Ford 44 Engine 18  
Ret 4 Brian Henton Tyrrell-Ford 32 Engine 19  
Ret 1 Nelson Piquet Brabham-BMW 31 Electrical 1  
Ret 33 Tommy Byrne Theodore-Ford 28 Spun Off 26  
Ret 29 Marc Surer Arrows-Ford 28 Engine 21  
Ret 2 Riccardo Patrese Brabham-BMW 27 Engine 2  
Ret 25 Eddie Cheever Ligier-Matra 22 Engine 22  
Ret 12 Nigel Mansell Lotus-Ford 17 Engine 12  
Ret 16 René Arnoux Renault 16 Injection 5  
Ret 9 Manfred Winkelhock ATS-Ford 15 Spun Off 25  
Ret 35 Derek Warwick Toleman-Hart 7 Suspension 15  
Ret 36 Teo Fabi Toleman-Hart 7 Transmission 17  
Ret 14 Roberto Guerrero Ensign-Ford 6 Spun Off 16  
Ret 3 Michele Alboreto Tyrrell-Ford 1 Spun Off 8  
Ret 17 Rupert Keegan March-Ford 1 Steering 24  
Ret 5 Derek Daly Williams-Ford 0 Collision 9  
Ret 22 Andrea de Cesaris Alfa Romeo 0 Collision 11  
Ret 23 Bruno Giacomelli Alfa Romeo 0 Collision 13  
DNQ 18 Raul Boesel March-Ford        
DNQ 31 Jean-Pierre Jarier Osella-Ford        
DNQ 10 Eliseo Salazar ATS-Ford        

Notes

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings
Pos Driver Points
1 Didier Pironi 39
2 Keke Rosberg 33
3 John Watson 30
4 Niki Lauda 26
5 Alain Prost 25
Constructors' Championship standings
Pos Constructor Points
1 Ferrari 64
2 McLaren-Ford 56
3 Williams-Ford 46
4 Renault 44
5 Lotus-Ford 29

References

Unless otherwise indicated, all race results are taken from "The Official Formula 1 website". http://www.formula1.com/results/season/1982/354/. Retrieved 2007-06-17. 

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1982 German Grand Prix
FIA Formula One World Championship
1982 season
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1982 Swiss Grand Prix
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1981 Austrian Grand Prix
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