1980 British Grand Prix

The 1980 British Grand Prix was the eighth round of the 1980 world championship, being held at Brands Hatch. It was won by Alan Jones ahead of Nelson Piquet and Carlos Reutemann.
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==Background==
Heading into Britain, the entry list notably lacked the presence of the team. The team had an appaling season, qualifying for only one race in the non-championship Spanish Grand Prix. The new team owners under Teddy Yip had decided to shut the team down after six years of competing, hoping to relaunch the team under the new guise for in a much more competitive state. 
Ricardo Zunino had failed to live up to expectations in , whilst his teammate Nelson Piquet was competing at the front of the field, Zunino struggled to even compete in the mid-field leading him to be sacked. Brabham replaced him with another firm number two driver to Piquet, Mexican driver Héctor Rebaque. Rebaque had previously competed in F1 with his own team, however he had failed to produce any decent race results leading many to believe Rebaque was signed on by Bernie Ecclestone purely as a pay driver and number two like Zunino was. 
With the loss of Shadow, the field was bolstered by the entry of the team who entered privately owned Williams cars. RAM was the leading team in the British Formula One series, entering Rupert Keegan and female racing star Desiré Wilson.
 had arrived in Britain with a new car for team leader Emerson Fittipaldi, the double world champion would be racing the new Fittipaldi F8. Teammate Keke Rosberg would have to wait until Germany for the new car.
In the driver's championship, Alan Jones led with 28 points, three points ahead of Piquet and five points ahead of French drivers René Arnoux and Didier Pironi.
==Entry List==
The full entry list for the is outlined below:
No.	Driver 	Entrant 	Constructor	Chassis	Engine	Model 	Tyre
1 	Jody Scheckter 	Scuderia Ferrari SpA SEFAC 	 	312T5 	 	015 3.0 F12 	
2 	Gilles Villeneuve 	Scuderia Ferrari SpA SEFAC 	 	312T5 	 	015 3.0 F12 	
3 	Jean-Pierre Jarier 	Candy Team Tyrrell 	 	010 	 	DFV 3.0 V8 	
4 	Derek Daly 	Candy Team Tyrrell 	 	010 	 	DFV 3.0 V8 	
5 	Nelson Piquet 	Parmalat Racing Team 	 	BT49 	 	DFV 3.0 V8 	
6 	Héctor Rebaque 	Parmalat Racing Team 	 	BT49 	 	DFV 3.0 V8 	
7 	John Watson 	Marlboro Team McLaren 	 	M29 	 	DFV 3.0 V8 	
8 	Alain Prost 	Marlboro Team McLaren 	 	M29 	 	DFV 3.0 V8 	
9 	Marc Surer 	Team ATS 	 	D4 	 	DFV 3.0 V8 	
11 	Mario Andretti 	Team Essex Lotus 	 	81 	 	DFV 3.0 V8 	
12 	Elio de Angelis 	Team Essex Lotus 	 	81 	 	DFV 3.0 V8 	
14 	Jan Lammers 	Unipart Racing Team 	 	N180 	 	DFV 3.0 V8 	
15 	Jean-Pierre Jabouille	Equipe Renault Elf 	 	RE20 	 	EF1 3.0 V6t 	
16 	René Arnoux 	Equipe Renault Elf 	 	RE20 	 	EF1 3.0 V6t 	
17 	Geoff Lees 	Theodore Shadow 	 	DN12 	 	DFV 3.0 V8 	
18 	David Kennedy 	Theodore Shadow 	 	DN12 	 	DFV 3.0 V8 	
20 	Emerson Fittipaldi 	Skol Fittipaldi Team 	 	F8 	 	DFV 3.0 V8 	
21 	Keke Rosberg 	Skol Fittipaldi Team 	 	F7 	 	DFV 3.0 V8 	
22 	Patrick Depailler 	Marlboro Team Alfa Romeo 	 	179 	 	1260 3.0 V12	
23 	Bruno Giacomelli 	Marlboro Team Alfa Romeo 	 	179 	 	1260 3.0 V12	
25 	Didier Pironi 	Equipe Ligier Gitanes 	 	JS11/15	 	DFV 3.0 V8 	
26 	Jacques Laffite 	Equipe Ligier Gitanes 	 	JS11/15	 	DFV 3.0 V8 	
27 	Alan Jones 	Albilad-Williams Racing Team 	 	FW07B 	 	DFV 3.0 V8 	
28 	Carlos Reutemann 	Albilad-Williams Racing Team 	 	FW07B 	 	DFV 3.0 V8 	
29 	Riccardo Patrese 	Warsteiner Arrows Racing Team 	 	A3 	 	DFV 3.0 V8 	
30 	Jochen Mass 	Warsteiner Arrows Racing Team 	 	A3 	 	DFV 3.0 V8 	
31 	Eddie Cheever 	Osella Squadra Corse 	 	FA1 	 	DFV 3.0 V8 	
43 	Desiré Wilson 	Brands Hatch Racing 	 	FW07 	 	DFV 3.0 V8 	
50 	Rupert Keegan 	RAM – Williams Grand Prix Engineering	 	FW07 	 	DFV 3.0 V8 	
==Practice Overview==
==Qualifying==
Once again qualifying was a battle between the and cars. The Ligier's came out on top, Didier Pironi took pole position and in doing so shattered the previous lap record that was set in by Carlos Reutemann. Jacques Laffite was second while the two Williams cars of Alan Jones and Reutemann were third and fourth.
Rupert Keegan had an enormous accident during the session, wrecking his entered . Luckily for him, his car was rebuilt in time for the race.
===Qualifying Results===
The full qualifying results for the are outlined below:
Pos.	No.	Driver 	Constructor	Time 	Time 	Gap
Pos.	No.	Driver 	Constructor	Q1 	Q2 	Gap
1 	25 	Didier Pironi 	 	1:11.004 	1:11.017 	—
2 	26 	Jacques Laffite 	 	1:11.749 	1:11.395 	+0.391s
3 	27 	Alan Jones 	 	1:11.609 	1:11.630 	+0.605s
4 	28 	Carlos Reutemann 	 	1:11.839 	1:11.629 	+0.625s
5 	5 	Nelson Piquet 	 	1:13.089 	1:11.634 	+0.630s
6 	23 	Bruno Giacomelli 	 	1:15.208 	1:12.128 	+1.124s
7 	8 	Alain Prost 	 	1:12.759 	1:12.634 	+1.630s
8 	22 	Patrick Depailler 	 	1:13.189 	1:14.038 	+2.185s
9 	11 	Mario Andretti 	 	1:14.780 	1:13.400 	+2.396s
10 	4 	Derek Daly 	 	1:14.011 	1:13.469 	+2.465s
11 	3 	Jean-Pierre Jarier 	 	1:14.926 	1:13.666 	+2.662s
12 	7 	John Watson 	 	1:13.717 	1:13.916 	+2.713s
13 	15 	Jean-Pierre Jabouille	 	1:14.278 	1:13.749 	+2.745s
14 	12 	Elio de Angelis 	 	1:14.617 	1:13.859 	+2.855s
15 	9 	Marc Surer 	 	1:14.948 	1:13.953 	+2.949s
16 	16 	René Arnoux 	 	1:14.170 	1:13.967 	+2.963s
17 	6 	Héctor Rebaque 	 	1:15.307 	1:14.226 	+3.222s
18 	50 	Rupert Keegan 	 	1:15.259 	1:14.236 	+3.232s
19 	2 	Gilles Villeneuve 	 	1:14.754 	1:14.296 	+3.292s
20 	31 	Eddie Cheever 	 	1:15.233 	1:14.517 	+3.513s
21 	29 	Riccardo Patrese 	 	1:16.942 	1:14.560 	+3.556s
22 	20 	Emerson Fittipaldi 	 	6:39.105 	1:14.580 	+3.576s
23 	1 	Jody Scheckter 	 	1:15.370 	1:15.430 	+4.366s
24 	30 	Jochen Mass 	 	1:17.416 	1:15.423 	+4.419s
DNQ 	14 	Jan Lammers 	 	1:17.274 	1:15.596 	+4.592s
DNQ 	21 	Keke Rosberg 	 	1:17.198 	1:15.845 	+4.841s
DNQ 	43 	Desiré Wilson 	 	1:17.624 	1:16.315 	+5.311s
WD 	17 	Geoff Lees 	 	Withdrawn	Withdrawn	Withdrawn
WD 	18 	David Kennedy 	 	Withdrawn	Withdrawn	Withdrawn
===Grid===
==Race==
===Report===
Didier Pironi immediately began to open up a lead in the race, the order behind him remained much the same, however Nelson Piquet was able to get ahead of Carlos Reutemann for fourth place. Patrick Depailler had also managed to move ahead of Alain Prost for seventh position.
As Pironi began to pull away in the lead, teammate Jacques Laffite had began to hold up Alan Jones and Nelson Piquet behind him. Reutemann had meanwhile began to drop back into the clutches of the two 's of Bruno Giacomelli and Depailler.
After a few laps, Laffite began to pull away as Jones fell into the clutches of Piquet. Lap six saw, Jean-Pierre Jabouille once again pull off the circuit to retire his . 
By lap 12, Depailler had managed to make his way past teammate Giacomelli to move into sixth position. On lap 17, Giacomelli would come into the pits requiring new tyres. Two laps later disaster had struck for Pironi once again. His front left tyre went flat, forcing him into the pits. Pironi would rejoin the race at the back of the field.
The following lap, Gilles Villeneuve pitted to fit a new monocoque onto his car. Patrick Depailler, who was running in fifth was forced into the pits with tyre degradation putting him out of competitive running in the race. He would soon retire with engine failure.
Pironi had then began a strong comeback drive through the midfield. Despite being a long way down on the leaders, Pironi remained the fastest car on track and began to overtake car after car through the midfield. 
Teammate Laffite was comfortably leading the race, until he too like Pironi began to suffer from a deflating tyre. Unlike Pironi however, he opted to stay out. This resulted in full on tyre blowout at Hawthorn Bend, Laffite spun off the circuit through the catchfencing and into the tyre barriers. Laffite was out, and once again Alan Jones and Williams inherited the lead due to Ligier misfortune. 
With Jones leading, Piquet was trailing him in his Brabham with Reutemann a long way down in third. Derek Daly was doing well in fourth whilst behind him came Mario Andretti and Jean-Pierre Jarier. 
However it wasn't long before Pironi had made his way past both Jarier and Andretti to move back into fifth place.
In eighth position the two cars were dicing. Alain Prost put a move on teammate John Watson to take eighth position. 
On lap 57, Mario Andretti pulled into the pits to retire with a gearbox failure. A disappointing result considering he was running in the points in fifth place. Watson then had to pit from seventh due to tyre wear. He exited behind Hector Rebaque's Brabham.
Pironi was lapping the fastest of all the driver's on track until he then began to slow with tyre troubles once again. Pironi's tyre then suddenly burst and Pironi had to pull off the circuit. Tyre troubles proving the downfall of the two Ligier cars in Britain. 
Jones would go on to coast home to take the win, Piquet was second with the second Williams of Reutemann in third. did well to get points with Daly in fourth and Jarier in fifth. Prost managed to bring home one point for McLaren.
===Results===
The full results for the are outlined below:
Pos.	No.	Driver 	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1 	27 	Alan Jones 	 	76 	1:34:49.228 	3 	9
2 	5 	Nelson Piquet 	 	76 	+11.007s 	5 	6
3 	28 	Carlos Reutemann 	 	76 	+13.285s 	4 	4
4 	4 	Derek Daly 	 	75 	+1 lap 	10 	3
5 	3 	Jean-Pierre Jarier 	 	75 	+1 lap 	11 	2
6 	8 	Alain Prost 	 	75 	+1 lap 	7 	1
7 	6 	Héctor Rebaque 	 	74 	+2 laps 	17 	
8 	7 	John Watson 	 	74 	+2 laps 	12 	
9 	29 	Riccardo Patrese 	 	73 	+3 laps 	21 	
10 	1 	Jody Scheckter 	 	73 	+3 laps 	23 	
11 	50 	Rupert Keegan 	 	73 	+3 laps 	18 	
12 	20 	Emerson Fittipaldi 	 	72 	+4 laps 	22 	
13 	30 	Jochen Mass 	 	69 	+7 laps 	24 	
NC* 	16 	René Arnoux 	 	67 	+9 laps 	16 	
Ret 	25 	Didier Pironi 	 	63 	Tyre 	1 	
Ret 	9 	Marc Surer 	 	59 	Engine 	15 	
Ret 	11 	Mario Andretti 	 	57 	Gearbox 	9 	
Ret 	23 	Bruno Giacomelli 	 	42 	Accident 	6 	
Ret 	2 	Gilles Villeneuve 	 	35 	Engine 	19 	
Ret 	26 	Jacques Laffite 	 	30 	Tyre 	2 	
Ret 	22 	Patrick Depailler 	 	27 	Engine 	8 	
Ret 	31 	Eddie Cheever 	 	17 	Suspension 	20 	
Ret 	12 	Elio de Angelis 	 	16 	Suspension 	14 	
Ret 	15 	Jean-Pierre Jabouille	 	6 	Engine 	13 	
DNQ 	14 	Jan Lammers 	 	 	 	 	
DNQ 	21 	Keke Rosberg 	 	 	 	 	
DNQ 	43 	Desiré Wilson 	 	 	 	 	
WD 	17 	Geoff Lees 	 	 	 	 	
WD 	18 	David Kennedy 	 	 	 	 	
** Arnoux would not be classified as he had failed to complete 90% of the race distance.
==Trivia==
* Before the race began, Nelson Piquet had held a sign up whilst sitting in his car on the grid saying "Hello, Mum" pointing it at the television cameras whilst live on air. 
==Milestones==
* Final race for Patrick Depailler, who was killed in unofficial testing at Hockenheimring a couple of weeks later.
==Standings after race==
  
Drivers' World Championship	Drivers' World Championship	Drivers' World Championship	Drivers' World Championship
Pos. 	Driver 	Pts 	+/-
1 	Alan Jones 	37 	
2 	Nelson Piquet 	31 	
3 	René Arnoux 	23 	
4 	Didier Pironi 	23 	
5 	Carlos Reutemann 	20 	
6 	Jacques Laffite 	16 	
7 	Riccardo Patrese 	7 	
8 	Elio de Angelis 	6 	
9 	Derek Daly 	6 	4
10 	Emerson Fittipaldi 	5 	1
11 	Keke Rosberg 	4 	1
12 	Jochen Mass 	4 	1
13 	Alain Prost 	4 	1
14 	Jean-Pierre Jarier 	4 	4
15 	John Watson 	3 	1
16 	Gilles Villeneuve 	3 	1
17 	Bruno Giacomelli 	2 	1
18 	Jody Scheckter 	2 	1
Constructors' World Championship	Constructors' World Championship	Constructors' World Championship	Constructors' World Championship
Pos. 	Team 	Pts 	+/-
1 	 	57 	
2 	 	39 	
3 	 	31 	
4 	 	23 	
5 	 	11 	
6 	 	10 	3
7 	 	9 	1
8 	 	7 	1
9 	 	6 	1
10 	 	5 	
11 	 	2 	
==External Links==
Category:Grand Prix articles
Category:1980 Grands Prix
Category:British Grand Prix
Category:Formula One races in the United Kingdom