The 1981 Spanish Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 21 June 1981 at the Circuito Permanente del Jarama, Jarama, Spain. It was the seventh race of the 1981 Formula One World Championship.
Summary The 1981 Spanish Grand Prix featured the second closest finish ever of a Formula One race: after Gilles Villeneuve's Ferrari, the four following cars finished in just 1.24 seconds. This was Villeneuve's last victory, often regarded as his tactical masterpiece.Gerald Donaldson. Gilles Villeneuve: The Life of the Legendary Racing Driver (London: Motor Racing Publications, 1996)
There were some changes for this race: Eliseo Salazar had left March to join Ensign, replacing Marc Surer. Also, John Player Special sponsorship and livery returned to Team Lotus after a 2-year hiatus.
The pole went to Jacques Laffite on his Ligier-Matra with the two Williams-Cosworth of Alan Jones and Carlos Reutemann second and third ahead of John Watson's McLaren, Alain Prost's Renault and the Alfa Romeo of Bruno Giacomelli. Gilles Villeneuve was seventh.
Race day was unusually hot. At the beginning of the race Jones and Reutemann went into the lead, as Laffite made a poor start. Villeneuve jumped into third place at the first corner, damaging Prost's front wing as he took the position. At the end of the first lap Villeneuve pulled out of Reutemann's slipstream and took second place. Jones began to build a lead but on lap 14 he went off the track, when he was 10 seconds ahead of the Canadian.
This left Villeneuve with Reutemann on his tail. Behind them Watson, Laffite and Elio de Angelis began to close on the dueling leaders. Reutemann was having some trouble with his gearbox and when Laffite arrived behind him there was little the Argentine could do to stop him from overtaking. Reutemann would later drop behind Watson. The five front-runners became a train of cars, packed together for the remaining laps of the race.
Villeneuve used the power of his Ferrari engine on the straight to gain a little margin and not get overtaken by his rivals, but in the corners they were all over him. Many times Laffite pulled alongside the Canadian as they went out a corner but the Ferrari would stay ahead as the horsepower kicked in. The five remained locked together right to the flag, crossing the line covered by just 1.24 seconds to record the second-closest race in the history of Formula One.
This would be the last Spanish Grand Prix at Jarama, owing to criticism of the track being very short and sinuous for modern Formula One, the unpleasant conditions and the small crowd (the small turn-out was probably due to the backlash of the previous year's race not being counted as a World Championship race, the announcement was made on the weekend itself); the last Formula One race in Madrid until 2026, and the last Spanish Grand Prix until the season, when it would be held at the newly built Jerez circuit in the south of the country. At this Grand Prix the Equipe Banco Occidental team became the last privateer team to have entered a car for a race alongside a works team when they entered a Williams car alongside the Williams works team, but eventually withdrew before the practice and qualifying.
Classification Qualifying Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap 1 26 Jacques Laffite Ligier-Matra 1:14.822 1:13.754 — 2 1 Alan Jones Williams-Ford 1:14.424 1:14.024 +0.270 3 2 Carlos Reutemann Williams-Ford 1:14.808 1:14.342 +0.588 4 7 John Watson McLaren-Ford 1:15.094 1:14.657 +0.903 5 15 Alain Prost Renault 1:14.980 1:14.669 +0.915 6 23 Bruno Giacomelli Alfa Romeo 1:16.807 1:14.897 +1.143 7 27 Gilles Villeneuve Ferrari 1:16.548 1:14.987 +1.233 8 22 Mario Andretti Alfa Romeo 1:15.576 1:15.159 +1.405 9 5 Nelson Piquet Brabham-Ford 1:16.861 1:15.355 +1.601 10 11 Elio de Angelis Lotus-Ford 1:15.399 1:15.449 +1.645 11 12 Nigel Mansell Lotus-Ford 1:16.226 1:15.562 +1.808 12 29 Riccardo Patrese Arrows-Ford 1:16.038 1:15.627 +1.873 13 28 Didier Pironi Ferrari 1:16.522 1:15.715 +1.961 14 8 Andrea de Cesaris McLaren-Ford 1:16.119 1:15.850 +2.096 15 20 Keke Rosberg Fittipaldi-Ford 1:16.040 1:15.924 +2.170 16 33 Patrick Tambay Theodore-Ford 1:17.347 1:16.355 +2.601 17 16 René Arnoux Renault 1:17.132 1:16.406 +2.652 18 6 Héctor Rebaque Brabham-Ford 1:16.722 1:16.527 +2.773 19 25 Jean-Pierre Jabouille Ligier-Matra 1:16.559 1:16.794 +2.805 20 3 Eddie Cheever Tyrrell-Ford 1:17.459 1:16.641 +2.887 21 21 Chico Serra Fittipaldi-Ford 1:18.705 1:16.782 +3.028 22 17 Derek Daly March-Ford 1:17.416 1:16.979 +3.225 23 30 Siegfried Stohr Arrows-Ford 1:18.331 1:17.294 +3.540 24 14 Eliseo Salazar Ensign-Ford 1:18.769 1:17.822 +4.068 25 4 Michele Alboreto Tyrrell-Ford 1:18.859 1:17.943 +4.189 26 31 Beppe Gabbiani Osella-Ford no time 1:18.169 +4.415 27 9 Slim Borgudd ATS-Ford 1:20.028 1:18.263 +4.509 28 35 Brian Henton Toleman-Hart 1:19.815 1:18.340 +4.586 29 36 Derek Warwick Toleman-Hart 1:20.342 1:18.872 +5.118 30 32 Giorgio Francia Osella-Ford 1:19.586 8:22.382 +5.832 37 Emilio de Villota Williams-Ford — — —Source:
Race Pos No Driver Constructor Tyre Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 27 Gilles Villeneuve Ferrari 80 1:46:35.01 7 9 2 26 Jacques Laffite Ligier-Matra 80 + 0.22 1 6 3 7 John Watson McLaren-Ford 80 + 0.58 4 4 4 2 Carlos Reutemann Williams-Ford 80 + 1.01 3 3 5 11 Elio de Angelis Lotus-Ford 80 + 1.24 10 2 6 12 Nigel Mansell Lotus-Ford 80 + 28.58 11 1 7 1 Alan Jones Williams-Ford 80 + 56.58 2 8 22 Mario Andretti Alfa Romeo 80 + 1:00.80 8 9 16 René Arnoux Renault 80 + 1:07.08 17 10 23 Bruno Giacomelli Alfa Romeo 80 + 1:13.65 6 11 21 Chico Serra Fittipaldi-Ford 79 + 1 lap 21 12 20 Keke Rosberg Fittipaldi-Ford 78 + 2 laps 15 13 33 Patrick Tambay Theodore-Ford 78 + 2 laps 16 14 14 Eliseo Salazar Ensign-Ford 77 + 3 laps 24 15 28 Didier Pironi Ferrari 76 + 4 laps 13 16 17 Derek Daly March-Ford 75 + 5 laps 22 3 Eddie Cheever Tyrrell-Ford 62 + 18 laps 20 25 Jean-Pierre Jabouille Ligier-Matra 51 Brakes 19 6 Héctor Rebaque Brabham-Ford 46 Gearbox 18 30 Siegfried Stohr Arrows-Ford 43 Ignition 23 5 Nelson Piquet Brabham-Ford 43 Accident 9 15 Alain Prost Renault 28 Spun off 5 29 Riccardo Patrese Arrows-Ford 21 Brakes 12 8 Andrea de Cesaris McLaren-Ford 9 Accident 14 4 Michele Alboreto Tyrrell-Ford 31 Beppe Gabbiani Osella-Ford 9 Slim Borgudd ATS-Ford 35 Brian Henton Toleman-Hart 36 Derek Warwick Toleman-Hart 32 Giorgio Francia Osella-Ford Source:
Notes
This was the 300th Grand Prix in which a Frenchman participated. In those 300 races, French drivers had won 15 Grands Prix, achieved 106 podium finishes, 24 pole positions, 29 fastest laps and 2 Grand Slams.
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Carlos Reutemann 37 2 Alan Jones 24 3 Nelson Piquet 22 4 Gilles Villeneuve 21 5 Jacques Laffite 17Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Williams-Ford 61 2 Ferrari 26 3 Brabham-Ford 25 4 Ligier-Matra 17 5 Lotus-Ford 12Source:
Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
References