1981 San Marino Grand Prix
A return to European soil at Imola marked a chance for several teams to unveil their 1980 cars. A total of four teams did so, most notably the reigning World champions Ferrari who had had a difficult start to the season. Fittipaldi, Renault and Wolf were the other three teams hoping to close the gap to the top teams.
Last september
Nelson Piquet was victorious here with Williams. Just eight months later both Piquet (now of course at Ferrari) and Williams have had rather difficult first three races. Can either of them reclaim the Imola crown this time?
Pre-qualifying
Friday morning pre-qualifyings have been very tight affairs this season but nothing compares to what we saw this time. Matra's
Hans-Joachim Stuck and Toleman's
Derek Warwick were the fastest two but behind them it really was anyone's game as the next six fastest drivers were within 0,067 seconds!
Theodore's
David Kennedy was again in fine form but like in previous races was just unable to progress. Rebaque's
Derek Daly suffered similar fate, thanks to
Stefan Johansson's abysmal pace. Osellas had good speed too but it wasn't quite enough.
Qualifying
Tyrrell's
Didier Pironi is quickly establishing himself as a qualifying specialist with his third pole in four races this season. Pole sitter in the previous race in Argentina,
Nigel Mansell was second fastest this time. Arrows'
Ingo Hoffmann had the best performance of his career in third, beating teammate
Laffite for the second time this season.
De Angelis split the two Arrows drivers.
Everyone was expecting Ferrari to challenge for top positions with their new 126C chassis but to the surprise of everyone, Fittipaldi's new FP-L7 car proved to be the best of the new cars.
Patrick Depailler in sixth and
Tambay in ninth also werethe best goodyear users. Even the Wolf WR9 looked better than Ferrari.
Reutemann was 12th fastest but
Piquet, podium-finisher in Argentina, was only 17th - Ferrari's worst qualifying position since 1973 Canadian GP when
Arturo Merzario started from 20th in the grid.
Renault's new chassis didn't look paticularly impressive either:
Arnoux in 14th and
Surer in 19th would have a lot to do in the race. Shadows, Lotuses and Ligiers were the other teams in the lower midfield. Alfa Romeo's
Siegfried Stohr and Toleman's
Hans Binder were the unlucky two who couldn't qualify. Remarkably, both March-Matra cars made the race, on reasonable positions too as
Stuck and
Rahal were 22nd and 24th fastest respectively.
Race
Front row got away nicely and held their position until Acque Minerali when Mansell made a move on Pironi two move ahead. Depailler had had a stellar start from P6 and was in 3rd with Hoffmann, de Angelis,
Rosberg, Laffite and
Alboreto right behind. Championship leader
Scheckter had lost two positions and was in 9th ahead of Tambay and Reutemann. Piquet meanwhile had been unable to improve his position.
Extremely fast straights offered plenty of slipstreaming chances - followed by plenty of overtaking. First 10 laps saw almost every position barring Mansell's lead swap at some point. Notable names being Michele Alboreto who was battling with Rosberg for 6th and
Villeneuve whose new Wolf was working great - the Canadian rookie passed Reutemann and Laffite on his way to ninth before pitting on lap 12 of 60. Laffite joined him in the pit lane and was able to pass him thanks pit crew's lightning fast work.
Most of the top drivers pitted within the next five laps. Having rejoined the track in between the Shadows, Lotuses and Ligiers, they were unable to use the fresh tyres to their advantage. Mansell, Hoffmann, de Angelis and Rosberg opted not to pit until around lap 25. De Angelis however threw his advantage away after spinning out on lap 16 and rejoining behind Jarier (yet to pit) on P10. Laffite, Alboreto, Scheckter,
Thackwell, Tambay, Villeneuve and Reutemann were behind him.
Mansell was the last to pit on lap 27 and couldn't hold on to his lead after all as Pironi breezed past. The Frenchman would however still need to stop once and the gap was only three seconds. Depailler was still third, Hoffmann 4th and Rosberg was now 5th. Tightest battle on track was for P6: Scheckter lead the train which consisted of Laffite, Alboreto, Reutemann, Tambay and Villeneuve.
Prost,
Cheever and struggling de Angelis were over 18 seconds behind on P12-14. Further back Nelson Piquet was still in 17th and both Marches were still in the race, on last two positions though.
Pironi made his second stop on lap 35 and dropped to second. Gap to Mansell was only 10 seconds and with 25 laps to go, everything was still possible. Rosberg was now third after catching and overtaking Depailler. Hoffmann was in 5th but Scheckter and teammate Laffite were catching him constantly. Alboreto's engine had already failed by now. Following the pits Alain Prost had somehow sneaked into top-10 again but Reutemann, de Angelis, Tambay and Villeneuve were very close.
There were a couple of nice battles forming in the last 20 laps. Pironi caught Mansell slowly and on lap 46 was right behind him. Unfortunately an oil leak ended the race of arguably the fastest guy of the weekend. Pironi's retirement and Depailler's little spin meant McLaren had a 1-2 lead suddenly. Hoffmann and Scheckter were however closing the gap in the last 10 laps. Laffite was unable to mount a serious challenge as he was having to defend from charging Depailler.
In the end Mansell cruised to finish as a clear winner. Rosberg, despite coming under huge pressure from Hoffmann and Scheckter, held on to second rather easily. Yet another 1-2 finish for McLaren! Hoffmann took the first points of his career with a brilliand third place. Scheckter had largely average race but a solid fourth place means he will remain in the championship lead tied with Keke Rosberg.
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The development market for the fifth race is open! You have until Monday 18:00 EET to make/modify your investments.
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