The 1980 Monaco Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Monaco on 18 May 1980. It was the sixth round of the 1980 Formula One season. The race was the 38th Monaco Grand Prix. The race was held over 76 laps of the 3.34-kilometre circuit for a total race distance of 254 kilometres.
It was won by Carlos Reutemann driving a Williams FW07B after polesitter Didier Pironi crashed at the Casino corner on lap 55. The win was the Argentine Reutemann's tenth Formula One victory and his first since the 1978 United States Grand Prix. He also became the fifth winner in six races of the 1980 season. Reutemann won by 1 minute and 13 seconds over French driver Jacques Laffite driving Ligier JS11/15. Third was Brazilian driver Nelson Piquet driving a Brabham BT49. Piquet's third place moved him past René Arnoux and Alan Jones into the lead of the world championship for the first time.
The race however is remembered for a memorable and spectacular crash at the start of the race when Derek Daly collided with Bruno Giacomelli's Alfa Romeo 179, which sent Daly's Tyrrell 010 flying over Giacomelli and landing between teammate Jean-Pierre Jarier and Alain Prost's McLaren M29. All four drivers were out on the spot, but none suffered any serious injury. Jan Lammers also collected damage in his ATS D4 but was able to continue. The accident was particularly disappointing for McLaren after John Watson failed to qualify for Monaco's shortened 20 car grid.
Fourth was West German driver Jochen Mass driving an Arrows A3 one lap down on Reutemann ahead of Canadian Gilles Villeneuve in a Ferrari 312T5. A further lap down in sixth was dual-World Champion Emerson Fittipaldi in a Fittipaldi F7. For Mass and Fittipaldi it would be last world championship points they would collect.
Reutemann's win put Williams in the lead of the constructor's points race by five points over Ligier.
Qualifying classification Pos No. Driver Constructor Time Gap 1 25 Didier Pironi Ligier-Ford 1:24.813 - 2 28 Carlos Reutemann Williams-Ford 1:24.882 + 0.069 3 27 Alan Jones Williams-Ford 1:25.202 + 1.019 4 5 Nelson Piquet Brabham-Ford 1:25.358 + 1.175 5 26 Jacques Laffite Ligier-Ford 1:25.510 + 1.327 6 2 Gilles Villeneuve Ferrari 1:26.104 + 1.921 7 22 Patrick Depailler Alfa Romeo 1:26.210 + 2.027 8 23 Bruno Giacomelli Alfa Romeo 1:26.227 + 2.044 9 3 Jean-Pierre Jarier Tyrrell-Ford 1:26.369 + 2.186 10 8 Alain Prost McLaren-Ford 1:26.826 + 2.643 11 29 Riccardo Patrese Arrows-Ford 1:26.828 + 2.645 12 4 Derek Daly Tyrrell-Ford 1:26.838 + 2.655 13 9 Jan Lammers ATS-Ford 1:26.883 + 2.700 14 12 Elio de Angelis Lotus-Ford 1:26.930 + 2.747 15 30 Jochen Mass Arrows-Ford 1:26.956 + 2.773 16 15 Jean-Pierre Jabouille Renault 1:27.099 + 2.916 17 1 Jody Scheckter Ferrari 1:27.182 + 2.999 18 20 Emerson Fittipaldi Fittipaldi-Ford 1:27.495 + 3.312 19 11 Mario Andretti Lotus-Ford 1:27.514 + 3.331 20 16 René Arnoux Renault 1:27.524 + 3.341 21 7 John Watson McLaren-Ford 1:27.731 + 3.548 22 31 Eddie Cheever Osella-Ford 1:27.808 + 3.625 23 17 Geoff Lees Shadow-Ford 1:27.842 + 3.659 24 21 Keke Rosberg Fittipaldi-Ford 1:28.381 + 4.198 25 6 Ricardo Zunino Brabham-Ford 1:28.384 + 4.201 26 14 Tiff NeedellEnsign-Ford 1:29.188 + 5.005 27 18 David Kennedy Shadow-Ford 1:39.986 + 15.803Source:
Race classification Pos No Driver Constructor Tyre Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 28 Carlos Reutemann Williams-Ford 76 1:55:34.365 2 9 2 26 Jacques Laffite Ligier-Ford 76 + 1:13.629 5 6 3 5 Nelson Piquet Brabham-Ford 76 + 1:17.726 4 4 4 30 Jochen Mass Arrows-Ford 75 + 1 lap 15 3 5 2 Gilles Villeneuve Ferrari 75 + 1 lap 6 2 6 20 Emerson Fittipaldi Fittipaldi-Ford 74 + 2 laps 18 1 7 11 Mario Andretti Lotus-Ford 73 + 3 laps 19 8 29 Riccardo Patrese Arrows-Ford 73 + 3 laps 11 9 12 Elio de Angelis Lotus-Ford 68 Accident 14 9 Jan Lammers ATS-Ford 64 + 12 laps 13 25 Didier Pironi Ligier-Ford 54 Accident 1 16 René Arnoux Renault 53 Accident 20 22 Patrick Depailler Alfa Romeo 50 Engine 7 1 Jody Scheckter Ferrari 27 Handling 17 15 Jean-Pierre Jabouille Renault 25 Gearbox 16 27 Alan Jones Williams-Ford 24 Differential 3 23 Bruno Giacomelli Alfa Romeo 0 Collision 8 3 Jean-Pierre Jarier Tyrrell-Ford 0 Collision 9 8 Alain Prost McLaren-Ford 0 Collision 10 4 Derek Daly Tyrrell-Ford 0 Collision 12 7 John Watson McLaren-Ford 31 Eddie Cheever Osella-Ford 17 Geoff Lees Shadow-Ford 21 Keke Rosberg Fittipaldi-Ford 6 Ricardo Zunino Brabham-Ford 14 Tiff Needell Ensign-Ford 18 David Kennedy Shadow-Ford
Notes
This was the 100th Grand Prix start for an Alfa Romeo-powered car. In those 100 races, an Alfa Romeo-powered car had won 12 Grands Prix, achieved 35 podium finishes, 13 pole positions, 17 fastest laps, 9 Grand Slams and had won 2 Driver's Championships.
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 2 1 Nelson Piquet 22 1 2 René Arnoux 21 1 3 Alan Jones 19 4 Didier Pironi 17 1 5 Carlos Reutemann 15Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Williams-Ford 34 2 Ligier-Ford 29 1 3 Brabham-Ford 22 1 4 Renault 21 5 Arrows-Ford 11Source:
Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
References