1982 San Marino Grand Prix

The **1982 San Marino Grand Prix**was a Formula One motor race held at Imola on 25th April 1982. It was the third race in both the 1982 Drivers' Championship and the 1982 Constructors' Championship.

## Background

After their double retirement, neither the Arrows team nor their drivers were in the paddock in the lead-up to the race. This angered their primary sponsor, the Italian ceramic tile makers Ragno, as this was effectively a second home race for them.

## Qualifying

Vivaldo Margheriti took a surprise pole position after trading fastest laps with Chuck Dingley throughout practice, outpacing the McLaren by two tenths of a second. The Ferrari duo of Stefan Van Damme and Fabiano Margheriti locked out the second row of the grid, but both were over a second slower than the time set by Vivaldo.

Veikko Nyquist and Ronnie Anderson both suffered engine failures in the pre-race warmup session, and their teams were unable to prepare their cars in time for the race.

## Race Summary

The grid got away cleanly, with pole-man Vivaldo Margheriti and Chuck Dingley going wheel to wheel on the run down to Tosa. The two remained side by side through Tosa, with Dingley finally gaining the advantage heading into Acque Minerale. The two would swap the lead multiple times in the following laps, slipstreaming past one another down the main straight and on the run to Tosa.

While the top two were battling lap after lap, they were consistently pulling away from the Ferrari duo of Stefan Van Damme and Fabiano Margheriti by over half a second a lap, showing that the Ferrari 126C2 was still suffering from the same lack of ultimate pace they had been since the season opener in South Africa.

Most of the grid opted to pit around the halfway point to fit a new set of soft tyres, with Vivaldo Margheriti, Mick Ashcroft, and Santiago Reyes all pulling into the pits at the start of lap 12. Race leader Dingley and third place Stefan Van Damme both attempted an overcut, hopeful that their lighter cars would offset the pace deficit of their worn soft tyres. Dingley pit at the start of lap 13, and rejoined the race some 3 seconds ahead of Vivaldo, but Vivaldo quickly closed the gap and re-overtook the McLaren, as Dingley struggled to get temperature into his tyres. Van Damme pit a lap later and merged a lonely third, comfortably ahead of his teammate but over 20 seconds behind Dingley and Vivaldo.

On lap 16 Dingley attempted to follow Vivaldo around the lapped Tyrrell of Jurg Scheller and outbroke himself into the Variante Alta chicane, losing 3 seconds to Vivaldo in the process. The following laps Dingley set times over a second quicker than his previous best in the race, and on lap 19 he overtook Vivaldo and immediately started building a gap.

Further back Fabiano Margheriti and Mick Ashcroft were in a tense battle for 4th position, when on lap 23 Ashcroft had a snap of oversteer on the apex of Tosa. Ashcroft successfully caught the slide, but smashed into Margheriti, spinning him around. The Ferrari driver over-revved his engine attempting to get going again and his engine promptly blew, forcing him to retire.

When the checkered flag flew, Chuck Dingley took his third win in as many races, while Vivaldo Margheriti was once again forced to settle for second. Stefan Van Damme completed the podium, while Mick Ashcroft, Santiago Reyes, and William W-S completed the points.

## Post-Race

Mick Ashcroft was handed a 10 second penalty for the incident between himself and Fabiano Margheriti, which Ferrari immediately protested, claiming that the penalty wasn't enough when it resulted in Fabiano's DNF. The FIA acknowledged the protest, but decided that the initial 10 second penalty was sufficient, much to Ferrari and Fabiano's displeasure.

## Championship Standings

 2
 3
 4
 5

 2
 3
 4
 5

## Lap Leaders

Chuck Dingley (Laps 1, 6-8, 10-12, 14-15, 19-24)

Vivaldo Margheriti (Laps 2-5, 9, 13, 16-18)