1982 Canadian Grand Prix

The **1982 Canadian Grand Prix**was a Formula One motor race held at the Île Notre-Dame Circuit on 13th June 1982. It was the sixth race in both the 1982 Drivers' Championship and the 1982 Constructors' Championship.

## Background

Lotus and Nino Tempestini entered legal proceedings after Tempestini announced his absence from the race, with Lotus arguing that Tempestini had broken his contract. A settlement was reached, with Tempestini set to attend the remaining races of the 1982 season, but he will depart from the British team at the end of the season.

## Qualifying

Ferrari had struggled to find pace in Friday and Saturday practice, with Fabiano Margheriti lacking confidence in the 126C. The fight for pole was between Chuck Dingley and Sid Donnelly, with Dingley eventually going on to take pole position. Van Damme qualified 3rd, six tenths off the top time, with his teammate Fabiano Margheriti qualifying 4th. Bruce Kerrigan impressed by qualifying 6th.

## Race Summary

The front four got away cleanly, with Dingley maintaining the lead over Donnelly, Van Damme, and Margheriti. 5th placed qualifier Strip Weathers locked up at turn one and went wide before rejoining the circuit and having a small collision with his teammate Danilo Koren, who was making his debut for Renault. Doryo Yuri, a Japanese driver who was starting his first race in the sport for Ligier, also locked up into the first corner and collected the Williams of William O'Conner. Both continued into the race with minimal damage. Yuri's inexperience was clearly evident and he went on to cause another incident when he forced off the ATS of Gyozo Szel at turn three. Szel was forced to travel across the grass but continued into the race.

There was a small pileup near the end of the first lap at the fast Casino chicane. Szel ran wide onto the grass before colliding with the outside barrier. William O'Conner and James McLean were unable to avoid the ATS driver and collided with him. All three drivers were forced to retire. Pietro Martins was also caught up in the incident but continued into the race. Moments later there was yet another crash as Connor Burns ran into the back of Veikko Nyquist before the final chicane. Nyquist had struggled to bring his brakes up to temperature and broke cautiously into the chicane, catching out Burns in the process. As Burns' destroyed car sat still on the entrance to the pitlane, Doryo Yuri had a brake failure and ran into the Brabham car at almost full speed. Despite the speed of Yuri's car, both drivers were unharmed in the incident. By the end of the first lap, six drivers had retired from the race and attrition continued to take it's toll on the remaining drivers throughout the rest of the race.

Dingley maintained a lead of around two seconds over Donnelly in the first laps, with Van Damme and Margheriti dropping back slightly. On lap four, Dingley ran slightly wide onto the grass at Casino. The loss of momentum allowed Donnelly to take the lead and he maintained a small gap over Dingley for several laps until the pit window. By lap 14, Dingley had closed the gap to Donnelly before Donnelly's engine started cutting out due to a lack of fuel. The English driver was forced to coast into the pits on fumes but made his scheduled stop before returning to the race in 5th behind Mick Ashcroft. Following this, Dingley lost his only challenger as both Ferrari's were unable to keep up with his pace, and he went on to take his 19th Grand Prix victory. Donnelly was able to pass Fabiano Margheriti to deny him of a podium, due to the Italian pitting twice on consecutive laps after a pitstop error by Ferrari. Santiago Reyes and Danilo Koren were duelling for much of the race and Reyes eventually won out, finishing just under half a second in front of the rookie Koren. Despite starting from the pitlane, Nate O'Brien recovered to finish in 7th.

## Championship Standings

 2
 3
 4
 5

 2
 3
 4
 5

## Lap Leaders

Chuck Dingley (Laps 1-3, 17-27)

Sid Donnelly (Laps 4-13)

Stefan Van Damme (Laps 14-16)