On lap 17, battling over seventh place as they approached the last left-hander before the pits, Piquet's Brabham was nearly touching the back of Reutemann's Williams. Piquet got around Reutemann on the inside when Reutemann, fighting for the championship, braked early. On the next lap, Andretti also went by Reutemann. Piquet put himself in a position to score points when he took over sixth place from John Watson on lap 22. Reutemann continued to slip backwards with gearbox trouble, having lost fourth gear as early as lap two. Reutemann finished the race in eighth, a lap down, and the title went to Piquet. Meanwhile, if that year's season opener, the 1981 South African Grand Prix, which had been run as a Formula Libre race and one which Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, Renault, and Ligier didn't attend, had been a race with World Championship points awarded, Reutemann would have been World Champion with 58 points against Piquet's 56. He returned with Williams for 1982, finishing second in the South Africa, the only Cosworth-engined runner able to take the fight to the much more powerful turbo-engined Renaults. The Falklands War, however, generated a tense political period between Argentina and the United Kingdom, and Reutemann chose to distance himself from the team and retire after the Brazilian race. In light of the further developments that took place in Reutemann's life, many felt that his decision to terminate his racing career was made with an eye to his future in politics. This is disputed by Williams's Chief Designer Patrick Head, who felt that the Falklands War was only an excuse and that Reutemann had simply retired because "his heart wasn't in it anymore".