1980 Brazilian Grand Prix
Brazil, São Paulo, Interlagos. It was the track to host the second grand prix of the 1980 season. Ferrari had dominated in the season opener but the competition would surely be tougher here. Tyrrell had finished work on their 010 chassis and made the decision to ship the chassis to Brazil.
In other news, Wolf had made a decision to sack Stefan Johansson in favour of another rookie, Ricardo Zunino. In their official announcement Wolf boss admitted that the team's tight financial situation was the primary reason for the driver change.
Pre-qualifying
Brabhams and Jacky Ickx were again the dominant team in pre-qualifying, defeating Ensign's Bobby Rahal in third by almost two seconds. One could argue that Brabhams don't belong in pre-qualifying but unfortunately for the smaller teams the pre-qualifying cut-off isn't until after the Spanish GP.
Bobby Rahal's decent third and Jabouille's fifth place were enough for Ensign to advance to qualifying for the second time in a row. Rookie Zunino made an impression by setting the fourth fastest time which was two seconds faster than teammate Hunt's best lap. ATS's Michael Bleekemolen had technical issues the whole morning and wasn't able to take his car to the track at all.
Qualifying
To call the qualifying session crazy would be an understatement. Alan Jones on pole isn't surprising at all but who wil start besides him? McLaren's Nigel Mansell - in only the second race of his career! Similar surprise was another rookie, Alain Prost, in third. Williams's were the next two before another surprise names of Binder and Mass. Championship leader Reutemann could only manage a time 1,5 seconds slower than his teammate and was to start his race from 8th position. Laffite and Lauda rounded out the unexpected top-10.
Brabham's good qualifying performance (12th & 13th) raised their hopes of scoring ever-so-important points. Behind them was the better of Tyrrell drivers - Jody Scheckter. The new Tyrrell chassis was by no means a spectacular sight in its first outing but only time will tell what it's true performance is. Renaults and Lotuses were another big teams surprisingly deep in the grid.
Race
Mansell missed the start completely and dropped immediately to fourth as Prost and de Angelis got past him. Jones took the lead and beagan extending his lead right away. Binder passed Piquet in the start dropping the crowd-favourite to sixth. Mass, Reutemann, Laffite and Lauda followed and searched for opportunities. Laffite was pressuring Reutemann which forced the Argentinean to run wide in the last corner. Lauda capitalised the mistake and passed both of them and took 8th. Reutemann dropped to 10th and got Rosberg on his tail.
Mansell in fourth was struggling for grip and cars started to gather behind him. Piquet was the first to make it through after first dispatching Binder easily. The Austrian Arrows driver soon lost more ground as Mass et co. overtook him. Reason came clear on lap 4 when the Arrows shut off forcing him to retire.
Reutemann was also struggling massively and had already dropped to 12th as both Brabhams had gone past.
On lap 12 the running order was: Jones in commanding lead over Prost and Piquet. The battle for fourth was really heating up between de Angelis and Mass who swapped positions a few times. Lauda and Mansell were fifth and sixth ahead of Laffite. Brabhams had got into top-10 too. By this time a number of runners down the order had retired, most notably Daly and Depailler who had made contact and crashed.
A crazy weekend is nothing without crashes and there were more to come. Next one out was Reutemann and soon after Pironi who had caught Lauda following the Austrian's pit stop made an overenthusiastic move on the Fittipaldi driver. As Eddie Cheever retired around the same time following suspension problems the field was down to 14 cars after 22 laps.
In the coming laps the race saw more high-profile retirees. Arnoux's turbo exploded on lap 24. Prost's brilliant race ended in a puncture on lap 28. Scheckter had got up to 9th place now but he too had to retire after the new chassis' suspension couldn't handle the track's bumps. De Angelis' retirement from third place on L30 meant only 10 cars were now scattered around the 7,8km circuit. Jones lead from Mansell, Mass, Piquet, Ickx and Rosberg. Patrese, Laffite, Takahara and Jabouille were the other still remaining.
In the end only eight drivers saw the chequered flag as Takahara and Piquet had to pull over before finish. A deserving winner, leading the race from start to finish in difficult conditions was Alan Jones. Nigel Mansell had a consistent race and was delighted to bring his car home second. Riccardo Patrese in third was probably the driver who profitted the most from the high attrition. Young Italian was ecstatic to return to podium after a difficutl 1979 season. Jochen Mass took Shadow's first points of the season in fourth and Jacky Ickx in fifth completed Brabham's great day. McLaren got two drivers to points too following Rosberg's fine drive to sixth.
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The development market for the third race is open! You have until Tuesday 20:00 EEST to make/modify your investments.
Brazil, São Paulo, Interlagos. It was the track to host the second grand prix of the 1980 season. Ferrari had dominated in the season opener but the competition would surely be tougher here. Tyrrell had finished work on their 010 chassis and made the decision to ship the chassis to Brazil.
In other news, Wolf had made a decision to sack Stefan Johansson in favour of another rookie, Ricardo Zunino. In their official announcement Wolf boss admitted that the team's tight financial situation was the primary reason for the driver change.
Pre-qualifying
Brabhams and Jacky Ickx were again the dominant team in pre-qualifying, defeating Ensign's Bobby Rahal in third by almost two seconds. One could argue that Brabhams don't belong in pre-qualifying but unfortunately for the smaller teams the pre-qualifying cut-off isn't until after the Spanish GP.
Bobby Rahal's decent third and Jabouille's fifth place were enough for Ensign to advance to qualifying for the second time in a row. Rookie Zunino made an impression by setting the fourth fastest time which was two seconds faster than teammate Hunt's best lap. ATS's Michael Bleekemolen had technical issues the whole morning and wasn't able to take his car to the track at all.
Qualifying
To call the qualifying session crazy would be an understatement. Alan Jones on pole isn't surprising at all but who wil start besides him? McLaren's Nigel Mansell - in only the second race of his career! Similar surprise was another rookie, Alain Prost, in third. Williams's were the next two before another surprise names of Binder and Mass. Championship leader Reutemann could only manage a time 1,5 seconds slower than his teammate and was to start his race from 8th position. Laffite and Lauda rounded out the unexpected top-10.
Brabham's good qualifying performance (12th & 13th) raised their hopes of scoring ever-so-important points. Behind them was the better of Tyrrell drivers - Jody Scheckter. The new Tyrrell chassis was by no means a spectacular sight in its first outing but only time will tell what it's true performance is. Renaults and Lotuses were another big teams surprisingly deep in the grid.
Race
Mansell missed the start completely and dropped immediately to fourth as Prost and de Angelis got past him. Jones took the lead and beagan extending his lead right away. Binder passed Piquet in the start dropping the crowd-favourite to sixth. Mass, Reutemann, Laffite and Lauda followed and searched for opportunities. Laffite was pressuring Reutemann which forced the Argentinean to run wide in the last corner. Lauda capitalised the mistake and passed both of them and took 8th. Reutemann dropped to 10th and got Rosberg on his tail.
Mansell in fourth was struggling for grip and cars started to gather behind him. Piquet was the first to make it through after first dispatching Binder easily. The Austrian Arrows driver soon lost more ground as Mass et co. overtook him. Reason came clear on lap 4 when the Arrows shut off forcing him to retire.
Reutemann was also struggling massively and had already dropped to 12th as both Brabhams had gone past.
On lap 12 the running order was: Jones in commanding lead over Prost and Piquet. The battle for fourth was really heating up between de Angelis and Mass who swapped positions a few times. Lauda and Mansell were fifth and sixth ahead of Laffite. Brabhams had got into top-10 too. By this time a number of runners down the order had retired, most notably Daly and Depailler who had made contact and crashed.
A crazy weekend is nothing without crashes and there were more to come. Next one out was Reutemann and soon after Pironi who had caught Lauda following the Austrian's pit stop made an overenthusiastic move on the Fittipaldi driver. As Eddie Cheever retired around the same time following suspension problems the field was down to 14 cars after 22 laps.
In the coming laps the race saw more high-profile retirees. Arnoux's turbo exploded on lap 24. Prost's brilliant race ended in a puncture on lap 28. Scheckter had got up to 9th place now but he too had to retire after the new chassis' suspension couldn't handle the track's bumps. De Angelis' retirement from third place on L30 meant only 10 cars were now scattered around the 7,8km circuit. Jones lead from Mansell, Mass, Piquet, Ickx and Rosberg. Patrese, Laffite, Takahara and Jabouille were the other still remaining.
In the end only eight drivers saw the chequered flag as Takahara and Piquet had to pull over before finish. A deserving winner, leading the race from start to finish in difficult conditions was Alan Jones. Nigel Mansell had a consistent race and was delighted to bring his car home second. Riccardo Patrese in third was probably the driver who profitted the most from the high attrition. Young Italian was ecstatic to return to podium after a difficutl 1979 season. Jochen Mass took Shadow's first points of the season in fourth and Jacky Ickx in fifth completed Brabham's great day. McLaren got two drivers to points too following Rosberg's fine drive to sixth.
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The development market for the third race is open! You have until Tuesday 20:00 EEST to make/modify your investments.
