RETROSPECTIVE - 1982 Monaco Grand Prix

In my review of the 1982 F1 season, i missed this race out of my talking, very good reason for that as this race would go down in Grand Prix folklore as one of the most dramatic races ever in any form of motorsport in living memory, in the closing stages there were no less than FOUR leaders in the final 3 laps with as many as SEVEN drivers all in with a chance of winning. It was so hectic that when the eventual winner, Riccardo Patrese crossed the line, he never knew he won until he saw his competitors parked on the side of the road, it would be his first of 6 race wins in a career that spanned 16 years and 256 race starts, a record surpassed only recently by Rubens Barrichello.

The Monaco weekend though ran under a cloud, this was just 2 weeks since the tragic Belgian Grand Prix which saw the tragic death of the great Gilles Villeneuve, as a mark of respect, Ferrari entered only a single car for Didier Pironi before his replacement in the number 27 ferrari would take his place for the next race in Detroit.

STARTING GRID
ROW 1: 1. Rene Arnoux (Renault), 2. Riccardo Patrese (Brabham)
ROW 2: 3. Bruno Giacomelli (Alfa Romeo), 4. Alain Prost (Renault)
ROW 3: 5. Didier Pironi (Ferrari), 6. Keke Rosberg (Williams)
ROW 4: 7. Andrea De Cesaris (Alfa Romeo), 8. Derek Daly (Williams)
ROW 5: 9. Michele Alboreto (Tyrrell), 10. John Watson (McLaren)
ROW 6: 11. Nigel Mansell (Lotus), 12. Niki Lauda (McLaren)
ROW 7: 13. Nelson Piquet (Brabham), 14. Manfred Winkelhock (ATS)
ROW 8: 15. Elio De Angelis (Lotus), 16. Eddie Cheever (Talbot Ligier)
ROW 9: 17. Brian Henton (Tyrrell), 18. Jacques Laffite (Talbot Ligier)
ROW 10: 19. Marc Surer (Arrows), 20. Eliseo Salazar (ATS)
DID NOT QUALIFY: Mauro Baldi (Arrows), Jan Lammers (Theodore), Jochen Mass (March), Derek Warwick (Toleman), Jean Pierre Jarier (Osella), Roberto Guerrero (Ensign)
DID NOT PRE QUALIFY: Teo Fabi (Toleman), Riccardo Paletti (Osella), Raul Boesel (March), Chico Serra (Fittipaldi), Emilio de Villota (March)

This was back in the day when Monaco starting grids were limited in size to just 20 entrants so 3 days and 3 sessions of qualifying were needed to weed out 11 drivers, one of the unlucky drivers was former race winner Jochen Mass and Mauro Baldi was desperately unlucky as less than 2 tenths of a second separated him from the last place of the grid taken by Chile's Eliseo Salazar.

As the race started Arnoux took the early initiative from pole position until on lap 14, he messed up his exit to the swimming pool complex and spun out, from there Alain Prost took up the lead and the race took on a precession with Prost under constant pressure from Patrese.

But the real action began with just 6 laps to go when there was reports of rain falling, the rain that was predicted to fall during the race. It was a small shower but enough to make the drivers feel very uncomfortable and make them take a cautious approach. Except in Prost's case, with 3 laps to go while trying to lap the Arrows of Marc Surer, he lost it on the exit of the chicane exiting the tunnel and crashed out injuring his feet in the process. Riccardo Patrese gleefully drove past and took the lead presumably now coasting to a first race win...

...or so it seemed, on the very next lap (2 laps to go) while trying to lap the same car as Prost did (Surer) he lost it at the Loews hairpin and stalled the car, this allowed Didier Pironi to take the lead for the first time, Patrese would eventually be restarted by the marshals in 4th spot a lap down behind Pironi and De Cesaris but on the same lap as 3rd placed Daly but ahead of the 2 Lotuses of Mansell and De Angelis. Now it was Pironi seemingly on his way to record an emotional win 2 weeks after the death of his teammate.

Coasting through to begin his final lap he slowed down with his enging hardly revving at all, everyone seemed that he was just easing off the throttle and nursing his car home. But it was far serious than just that, his engine's electrical system had suffered a catastrophic failure and he had no drive, so as he drove out of the Loews hairpin and he downhill section was over, he coasted to a stop in the middle of the tunnel, he then pleaded with the marshals to give him a push start, but his engine was dead. This would mean De Cesaris in his Alfa Romeo would take the lead, could he give the famous Italian marque their first race win in nearly 31 years, no was the answer, he had stopped earlier on at the casino hairpin on the final lap with no fuel, when De Cesaris heard of Pironi's downfall, he was inconsolable.

That would mean Daly (despite a lap down) was the new leader of the cars still running, Could he become Ireland's first ever Grand Prix winner, again the answer was no as he coasted to a stop before he began his final lap with a seized gearbox, this occured because several laps earlier he had spun at Tabac which had knocked off his rear wing and split his gearbox casing, with oil trickling out of it the gearbox eventually seized up and he too was also out.

So this allowed an amazingly fortunate Riccardo Patrese to come through and take an unbelieveable win that nobody would have thought possible after his spin, his reaction crossing the line was plain normal as if he was releived to have got out of there at least as a finisher, but when he drove round, he saw De Cesaris's car being craned up and Pironi's car stationery in the tunnel, and then he was directed to the winners enclosure, he could hardly believe his luck.

Despite their woes, Pironi, de Cesaris and Daly were still classified in the points on distance covered, only 10 drivers were classified as finishers

RACE RESULT
1. Riccardo Patrese - Brabham ................ 1h 54m 11.259
2. Didier Pironi - Ferrari ................ + 1 Lap (Engine Electrics)
3. Andrea de Cesaris - Alfa Romeo ................ + 1 Lap (No Fuel)
4. Nigel Mansell - Lotus ................ + 1 Lap
5. Elio de Angelis - Lotus ................ + 1 Lap
6. Derek Daly - Williams ................ + 2 Laps (Gearbox Seizure)
7. Alain Prost - Renault ................ +3 Laps (Accident)
8. Brian Henton - Tyrrell ................ + 4 Laps
9. Marc Surer - Arrows ................ + 6 Laps
10. Michele Alboreto - Tyrrell ................ + 7 Laps (Front Suspension)

Credit goes to kezzaf1 for the Youtube video