1981 French Grand Prix
The Grand Prix of France 1981 took place on 5 July at the Stade Automobile de Dijon -Prenois near Dijon instead and was the eighth race of the Formula 1 season 1981.
- 3.1 qualifying
- 3.2 race
- 4.1 Drivers' Championship
- 4.2 Constructors' Championship
Reports
Background
Two weeks after Gilles Villeneuve's remarkable victory at the Grand Prix of Spain joined the Formula 1 World Championship at the eighth round of the year in Dijon -Prenois.
As Jean -Pierre Jabouille stated that he no longer found its way back after a serious accident at the Grand Prix of Canada in 1980 to his old form, he decided to end his Formula 1 career. His place at Ligier then took a fellow countryman Patrick Tambay, who had recently been replaced by Marc Surer at Theodore Racing.
Goodyear returned to the rates announced early season exit from the Grand Prix scene surprisingly for the eighth race back and paid initially Williams and Brabham with tires. Toleman continued to receive exclusive Pirelli tires. The small teams March Ensign and Theodore switched to Avon. The tires of this British manufacturer had previously been the Fittipaldi team once with two and partially tested with only one of the two vehicles. As a result, the Brazilian team was, however, returned to Michelin and thus reestablished the tires, which were still used in the majority of teams.
Training
Between the pole sitter René Arnoux and his teammate Alain Prost, who could exploit the increased performance of their turbo engines on the liquid and equipped with relatively high gradient racetrack during training, John Watson qualified surprising in the McLaren MP4 / 1 for the second starting position. Behind Nelson Piquet followed by Andrea de Cesaris and Jacques Laffite.
Race
During the first round Piquet took the lead before Watson, Prost, de Cesaris and Villeneuve, who had gone from eleventh place on the grid into the race. Pole sitter Arnoux, however, fell back to ninth. In the third round, Watson was overtaken by Prost and de Cesaris of Villeneuve. Meanwhile, Carlos Reutemann and René Arnoux were on a steady path forward.
Due to a downpour the race in the 58th round was interrupted. It was then restarted in the order that had existed at the time of the crash. Cheers to overtake Piquet succeeded. He was followed by Watson and Arnoux even during the first round of the re- started race.
Prost scored his first Grand Prix victory in front of Watson, Piquet and Arnoux and Didier Pironi and Elio de Angelis.
Message list
Classifications
Qualifying
Race
WM stands after the race
The first six of the race were 9, 6, 4, 3, 2 and 1 point (s).