1980 Dutch Grand Prix
Jacques Laffite comes into the Netherlands as the championshup leader following his marvellous victory in Austria. With just four races to go this season, Laffite is now considered the favourite for the title. His main contender
Alan Jones is sitting third in the standings after only one point to his name after the mid-season cut-off.
Carlos Reutemann is between them in second but has already collected 19 of the possible 45 in this half of the season, in comparison to Laffite's nine.
Ferrari is dominating in the constructor's standings with a 34 point cushion to second placed teams Arrows and Tyrrell. Laffite has shown this season that Arrows has the speed but unfortunately
Hans Binder has been largely disappointing in the #30 car and has only scored two points. He is 18th in the standings.
Pre-qualifying
Friday morning pre-qualifying was an interesting one for once! Wolf Racing's
James Hunt couldn't make the track at all after encountering technical issues with his car. Rumours told that the team hadn't had enough time to rebuild the chassis after Hunt's massive crash at Österreichring. Hunt's absence meant that rookie
Ricardo Zunino had huge pressure on his shoulders. In order for Wolves to progress, Zunino had to win the session.
With massive 29 thousands of a second to spare, Zunino duly delivered, earning his team a place in qualifying. Ligier's
Patrick Tambay was struggling too, only managing 7th fastest time which opened the door slightly for Rebaque, ATS and Osella. Each of them had at least one driver outperform Tambay but unfortunately for them Ligier's
Noritake Takahara carried the French outfit setting the second-fastest time.
Jan Lammers gave a solid effort once again in his home grand prix. Not often do you see Osella in top-4 of pre-qualifying! The other "flying" Dutchman,
Michael Bleekemolen, wasn't as convincing - he was the slowest of all.
Qualifying
Qualifying session was a Ferrari show. Determined to show their true pace after a few weaker race weekends, they locked the front row.
Laffite followed his opponents in the title battle in third.
Jody Scheckter had the best qualifying effort of his season in fourth. Next rows were made up of McLarens, Williamses and
Villeneuve.
Patrick Tambay improved his time from pre-qualifying for over two seconds earning himself an excellent 8th position in the grid.
Alain Prost in 11th was again stronger than his experienced teammate
Mass who would start behind them. Between them in 12th was Fittipaldi's
Lauda who was looking to add to his great fifth place finish from Austria.
Jacky Ickx was 14th fastest and behind him in the 8th row were two unfamiliar cars. Tyrrell's
Didier Pironi and Arrows'
Hans Binder would require some driving if they were to get
Race
Front row starting positions meant very little at the start to the Dutch Grand Prix. Ferraris didn't get particularly bad starts but still it was Arrows' Laffite who lead the pack into turn 1.
Reutemann hold on to second but
Jones dropped down to fifth as
Scheckter and
Rosberg passed him. Williamses, Villeneuve,
Mansell and Tambay completed the top-10 after first lap. Biggest movers in the start were Binder (up to 12th) and Ickx (down to 18th).
Reutemann wasn't going to worry his loss but overtook Laffite on lap 3 and regained the lead. Rosberg had passed Scheckter for third and Villeneuve passed
Piquet for seventh and was now chasing
de Angelis. On lap 10 they would get company after Reutemann dropped between them to 7th after a mistake. Piquet meanwhile was badly out of sorts, he had dropped to 11th behind Tambay and Prost but Binder in 12th was still some distance away.
Again Reutemann was unscathed after his struggles and began his ascend up the ranks quickly. Laffite's blown up Cosworth made his job even easier. Following the Arrows driver's retirement the running order on lap 20 of 72 was: Scheckter leading from Jones. Reutemann around 10 seconds behind, ahead of the McLarens (Rosberg had pitted and returned behind Mansell). Tambay in sixth and fighting with de Angelis, Lauda, Villeneuve, Prost and Piquet.
Mass, Binder and
Depailler were five seconds behind them.
Leader of the race encountered problems on lap 24 also as Scheckter joined teammate Pironi in the pits. Pironi's terrible weekend had ended 10 laps earlier. South African's retirement promoted Ferrari back into 1-2 lead which they had lost 20 meters into the race. Rosberg was 13 seconds behind after Mansell had pitted and rejoined in P10 behind Depailler.
Next eight laps were somewhat calmer. Pit stops cycled through and the tightest battle on track was for fourth place. Laps 32 to 36 however were anything but calm. The chaos started when Reutemann's suspension failed, forcing another title contender out of the race. Moments later
Giacomelli crashed his Alfa Romeo in to barriers and a lap later de Angelis and Lauda let out a big cloud of smoke almost simulteanously. Finally on lap 36 Alan Jones joined the long list of retirements after puncturing his Goodyear tyre. Five retirements in a matter of minutes!
After a handful of drivers had dropped, McLaren suddenly had a 1-2 lead on lap 40. Rosberg was 22 seconds up on Mansell who was defending from Tambay. Piquet, Binder, Prost, Depailler and Mass were battling it out for P4 but they were almost ten seconds behind Tambay. Somehow the poor pre-qualifying effort had turned into the Frenchman's best drive of the season!
Did Tambay settle for third? Of course not! The Ligier driver had a great flow in his driving, passed Mansell on lap 49 and crossed the finish line second on lap 72. Despite Tambay's great race, he wasn't the hero of the day. Instead, it was Finland's Keke Rosberg who got his first win of the season after a brilliantly composed drive. Teammate Nigel Mansell came home in third, a result that will certainly please the team manager. Piquet was catching up to the Englishman but couldn't quite do it and had to settle for fourth. Hans Binder got Arrows important two points and Jochen Mass got the last point after teammate Prost had retired from P5 four laps earlier.
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