The 1980 British Grand Prix (formally the XXXIII Marlboro British Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held at Brands Hatch on 13 July 1980. It was the eighth round of the 1980 Formula One season. The race was held over 76 laps of the 4.207-km (2.614-mile) circuit for a total race distance of 319.73 km (198.67 miles).
The race was won by Australian driver, Alan Jones driving a Williams FW07B. The win was Jones' eighth Formula One Grand Prix victory and his fourth of the year. Including the non-championship Spanish Grand Prix it was Jones' third victory in a row as he built his charge towards becoming the 1980 World Drivers' Champion. Jones won by eleven seconds over the man becoming his arch-rival, Brazilian driver Nelson Piquet driving a Brabham BT49. Third, and the only other car to finish on the lead lap, was Jones' Williams Grand Prix Engineering teammate, Argentine driver Carlos Reutemann.
Report Background In the two weeks between the French and British Grands Prix, Brabham decided to replace Ricardo Zunino with Mexican driver Héctor Rebaque, while the Shadow team closed down. There were still 27 cars on the entry list, as RAM Racing entered year-old Williams FW07s for Rupert Keegan and South African female racer Desiré Wilson.
Qualifying For the third consecutive race, a Ligier driver took pole position, Didier Pironi setting a time some 5.8 seconds faster than the pole time set by Ronnie Peterson at the previous Grand Prix at Brands Hatch two years before. Pironi's teammate Jacques Laffite was alongside on the front row, while the works Williams filled the second row with championship leader Alan Jones ahead of Carlos Reutemann. On the third row were Nelson Piquet in the Brabham and Bruno Giacomelli in the Alfa Romeo, and on the fourth were Alain Prost in the McLaren and Patrick Depailler in the second Alfa Romeo. Mario Andretti in the Lotus and Derek Daly in the Tyrrell completed the top ten.
The Renaults and Ferraris had issues with their Michelin tyres, and Jean-Pierre Jabouille and René Arnoux could only manage 13th and 16th respectively for the French team, while Gilles Villeneuve and reigning champion Jody Scheckter struggled to 19th and 23rd respectively for the Italian outfit, and were both out-qualified by Keegan's private Williams. Wilson failed to qualify in the other private Williams.
Race At the start, Pironi led with Laffite holding off Jones and Piquet passing Reutemann for fourth. Pironi held a comfortable lead until lap 19, when he suffered a deflating front tyre followed by a long pit stop to replace it. Laffite led until he too suffered a deflating tyre, causing him to spin off into catch fencing at Hawthorn Bend on lap 31. Thereafter, Jones retained a comfortable advantage over Piquet and Reutemann, while Pironi made a charge from the back of the field, reaching fifth before suffering another tyre failure on lap 64. It was later established that the Ligiers' problems were caused by their wheel rims cracking.
Jones eventually took the chequered flag 11 seconds ahead of Piquet, for his fourth victory of the season and his third in succession (including the Spanish Grand Prix, which was subsequently stripped of its World Championship status). Reutemann, the last man on the lead lap, finished 2.2 seconds behind Piquet, with the minor points going to Daly, his Tyrrell teammate Jean-Pierre Jarier, and Prost.
In the Drivers' Championship, Jones doubled his lead over Piquet to six points, while in the Constructors' Championship Williams moved 18 points clear of Ligier.
This race turned out to be the last for Depailler, who died three weeks later while testing at Hockenheim ahead of the German Grand Prix.
Classification
Qualifying Pos No. Driver Constructor Time Gap 1 25 Didier Pironi Ligier-Ford 1:11.004 - 2 26 Jacques Laffite Ligier-Ford 1:11.395 + 0.391 3 27 Alan Jones Williams-Ford 1:11.609 + 0.605 4 28 Carlos Reutemann Williams-Ford 1:11.629 + 0.625 5 5 Nelson Piquet Brabham-Ford 1:11.634 + 0.630 6 23 Bruno Giacomelli Alfa Romeo 1:12.128 + 1.124 7 8 Alain Prost McLaren-Ford 1:12.634 + 1.630 8 22 Patrick Depailler Alfa Romeo 1:13.189 + 2.185 9 11 Mario Andretti Lotus-Ford 1:13.400 + 2.396 10 4 Derek Daly Tyrrell-Ford 1:13.469 + 2.465 11 3 Jean-Pierre Jarier Tyrrell-Ford 1:13.666 + 2.662 12 7 John Watson McLaren-Ford 1:13.717 + 2.713 13 15 Jean-Pierre Jabouille Renault 1:13.749 + 2.745 14 12 Elio de Angelis Lotus-Ford 1:13.859 + 2.855 15 9 Marc Surer ATS-Ford 1:13.953 + 2.949 16 16 René Arnoux Renault 1:13.967 + 2.963 17 6 Héctor Rebaque Brabham-Ford 1:14.226 + 3.222 18 50 Rupert Keegan Williams-Ford 1:14.236 + 3.232 19 2 Gilles Villeneuve Ferrari 1:14.296 + 3.292 20 31 Eddie Cheever Osella-Ford 1:14.517 + 3.513 21 29 Riccardo Patrese Arrows-Ford 1:14.560 + 3.556 22 20 Emerson Fittipaldi Fittipaldi-Ford 1:14.580 + 3.576 23 1 Jody Scheckter Ferrari 1:15.370 + 4.366 24 30 Jochen Mass Arrows-Ford 1:15.423 + 4.419 25 14 Jan Lammers Ensign-Ford 1:15.596 + 4.592 26 21 Keke Rosberg Fittipaldi-Ford 1:15.845 + 4.841 27 43 Desiré Wilson Williams-Ford 1:16.315 + 5.311Source:
Race Pos No Driver Constructor Tyre Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 27 Alan Jones Williams-Ford 76 1:34:49.228 3 9 2 5 Nelson Piquet Brabham-Ford 76 + 11.007 5 6 3 28 Carlos Reutemann Williams-Ford 76 + 13.285 4 4 4 4 Derek Daly Tyrrell-Ford 75 + 1 lap 10 3 5 3 Jean-Pierre Jarier Tyrrell-Ford 75 + 1 lap 11 2 6 8 Alain Prost McLaren-Ford 75 + 1 lap 7 1 7 6 Héctor Rebaque Brabham-Ford 74 + 2 laps 17 8 7 John Watson McLaren-Ford 74 Engine 12 9 29 Riccardo Patrese Arrows-Ford 73 + 3 laps 21 10 1 Jody Scheckter Ferrari 73 + 3 laps 23 11 50 Rupert Keegan Williams-Ford 73 + 3 laps 18 12 20 Emerson Fittipaldi Fittipaldi-Ford 72 + 4 laps 22 13 30 Jochen Mass Arrows-Ford 69 + 7 laps 24 16 René Arnoux Renault 67 + 9 laps 16 25 Didier Pironi Ligier-Ford 63 Tyre 1 9 Marc Surer ATS-Ford 59 Engine 15 11 Mario Andretti Lotus-Ford 57 Gearbox 9 23 Bruno Giacomelli Alfa Romeo 42 Spun off 6 2 Gilles Villeneuve Ferrari 35 Engine 19 26 Jacques Laffite Ligier-Ford 30 Tyre 2 22 Patrick Depailler Alfa Romeo 27 Engine 8 31 Eddie Cheever Osella-Ford 17 Suspension 20 12 Elio de Angelis Lotus-Ford 16 Suspension 14 15 Jean-Pierre Jabouille Renault 4 Engine 13 14 Jan Lammers Ensign-Ford 21 Keke Rosberg Fittipaldi-Ford 43 Desiré Wilson Williams-Ford
Notes
This was the Formula One World Championship debut for South African driver Desiré Wilson - the fourth woman to enter into Formula One after Maria Teresa de Filippis, Lella Lombardi and Divina Galica.
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Alan Jones 37 2 Nelson Piquet 31 3 René Arnoux 23 4 Didier Pironi 23 5 Carlos Reutemann 20Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Williams-Ford 57 2 Ligier-Ford 39 3 Brabham-Ford 31 4 Renault 23 5 Arrows-Ford 11Source:
Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
References