1981 British Grand Prix
Silverstone continues the streak of flat-out circuits started by Dijon before the series heads to Hockenheimring and Österreichring. Last year Williams, especially
Nelson Piquet was on form here before retiring from the lead. Piquet, who is of course driving for Ferrari this season, won the previous round in France so it's fair to assume that the Brazilian will be fast this weekend.
Pre-qualifying
Like in France, March was again the fastest on Friday morning. This time it was
Stuck's turn to top the charts. Osella's
Serra and Alfa Romeo's
Stohr were very close but had to settle to fight for the second qualifying place. With the gap between the two being only 0,087 seconds, it was down to their teammates. That battle was extremely tight too as
Gabbiani was just barely faster than
Giacomelli, meaning that Osella was progressing for the fourth time in a row.
Qualifying
No major surprises in qualifying as the McLaren's conquered the first row of the grid. Tyrrells were the next fastest with Williams, Arrows, Ferrari and Shadow completing the first six rows.
Wolf Racing has had one driver in top-10 lately but today their best driver was
Jacques Villeneuve only in 13th.
Arnoux and
Cogan put in decent performances in 14th and 15th before Fittipaldis that were largely disappointed with their speed. Lotus, Toleman and Osella completed the grid which meant that Osella's
Beppe Gabbiani would get his first race start of the season! March's
Rahal and
Stuck were the unfortunate two to be disqualified.
Race
Pironi had a great start and took the lead into turn 1.
Mansell,
Rosberg,
Piquet,
Laffite,
Jody,
Hoffmann,
Prost,
Reutemann and Arnoux slotted in behind him. Williamses had a terrible start as
de Angelis was down in 11th and
Alboreto in 15th.
Fast straights saw plenty of overtaking and especially Scheckter was in fine form overtaking Laffite and Rosberg. There some contacts too as Prost and Arnoux were battling it out for P9. It wasn't long until the first retirements either as Hoffmann and
Jarier were out by lap 10.
Piquet and de Angelis had lighter cars and had made their way into fourth and sixth before pitting on lap 15 of 68. Villeneuve, Cheever and Surer were others to pit on the same lap. Reutemaan on the other hand retired on the same lap. Within the next five laps both Tyrrells and Piquet had made their pit stops of the top drivers too. This allowed McLarens to take the lead with Mansell leading Rosberg by ten seconds. Laffite was third, already stopped Tyrrells in 4-5 and Alboreto in 6th. Arnoux in 7th was holding back Piquet and the two even made a slight contact!
Mansell had a long pit stop from the lead on lap 26 and dropped behind the Tyrrells. Rosberg followed a lap later with another long stop. McLarens were perhaps trying a one stop strategy? Rosberg had dropped to 8th during his stop but got one position back soon as Scheckter was forced to pit and repair an electrical problem. Laffite and Alboreto pitted too so the order on lap 30 was: Pironi leading with eight seconds from Mansell. Piquet and de Angelis were fighting for third while Rosberg, Laffite, Scheckter, Prost, Villeneuve and Alboreto rounded out the top-10. Mansell's race however was to end on lap 35 and became the fourth Cosworth user to blow his engine today.
Pironi made his final pit stop with 30 laps to on lap 38 along with de Angelis. Piquet inherited the lead briefly before making his last stop a lap later. Scheckter went in too for refuel. Rosberg was now leading the race but the gap to Pironi who was on a lot fresher tyres was only six seconds. Laffite in third was eight seconds behind and Piquet further ten behind the Arrows driver. Williams drivers Alboreto and de Angelis were four seconds behind the Brazilian battling it out for fifth position. Scheckter had already pitted three times but was only 4 seconds behind. Prost, Villeneuve and Arnoux completed the top-10 and were the last drivers still on the lead lap.
Arnoux, Prost and Villeneuve retired however on laps 46, 47 and 48 respectively, allowing
Thackwell,
Depailler and
Tambay into top 10. By that time Alboreto had dropped to seventh after de Angelis' and Scheckter's passes but was soon back on points as Laffite's Cosworth gave up on lap 50.
Pironi was catching Rosberg gradually but the battle never got going as Rosberg was the next victim of the poor Cosworth camp on lap 55. Thackwell was now on points while Ligiers had entered the top 10.
Depailler would retire too, along with Gabbiani while Cogan made his way up to seventh. Not much else happened during the last laps which meant a third win of the season for Tyrrell's Didier Pironi who also retakes the championship lead. Piquet backed up his win from France with a great second-place finish while de Angelis got Williams their first podium since Brazil.
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