1980 Canadian Grand Prix

1980 Canadian Grand Prix
Race 13 of 14 in the 1980 Formula One season
Race details
Date September 28, 1980
Official name XIX Grand Prix Labatt du Canada
Location Circuit Île Notre-Dame, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 4.410 km (2.740 miles)
Distance 70 laps, 308.700 km (191.817 miles)
Weather Cold and dry with temperatures reaching up to 11 °C (52 °F); wind speeds up to 15.9 kilometres per hour (9.9 mph)[1]
Pole position
Driver Brabham-Ford
Time 1:27.328
Fastest lap
Driver France Didier Pironi Ligier-Ford
Time 1:28.769 on lap 62
Podium
First Williams-Ford
Second Williams-Ford
Third Ligier-Ford
Lap leaders

The 1980 Canadian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 28 September 1980, at the Circuit Île Notre-Dame in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.[2] It was the thirteenth and penultimate race of the 1980 Formula One season. The race was the 19th Canadian Grand Prix and the third to be held in Montreal. The race was held over 70 laps of the 4.41-kilometre circuit for a total race distance of 309 kilometres.

Australian driver Alan Jones, driving a Williams FW07B, won his second consecutive Canadian Grand Prix, and coupled with the retirement of the Brabham BT49 of Brazilian driver Nelson Piquet due to the failure of its Cosworth DFV engine, this allowed Jones to secure the 1980 World Drivers' Championship. Jones became only the second Australian to claim the world championship, a title last won by Jack Brabham in 1966. It was also the first World Drivers' Championship for Williams Grand Prix Engineering, adding to their first Constructors' Championship, achieved two weeks earlier at the Italian Grand Prix. The race featured a controversial first start where Piquet and Jones raced side by side to the first corner and touched, causing Piquet to hit the wall, sparking off other accidents behind. Piquet was forced to restart in his more fragile qualifying car, which ultimately led to his retirement and the end of the title battle. Some commentators thought Jones had forced Piquet into the wall, but the Brazilian shrugged it off as a racing incident.

The brief comeback of Vittorio Brambilla had come to an end with the Italian veteran retiring from Formula One. Alfa Romeo replaced him with someone younger and Andrea de Cesaris made his Grand Prix debut, as did teenage New Zealander Mike Thackwell. Thackwell stepped aboard a third Tyrrell 010 breaking the record as the youngest ever driver to start a Grand Prix, a record held for 19 years by the late Mexican teenager Ricardo Rodríguez. The record would stand for 29 years until broken by Jaime Alguersuari in 2009.

First and second in the championship were decided with the 1980 United States Grand Prix still to come. Jones led Piquet by 8 points but Piquet had already had five points-scoring finishes in the second half of the season. If Piquet won at Watkins Glen he would have to drop the two points from his fifth-place finish in Austria, leaving him one point behind Jones even if Jones failed to finish. Third place in the championship was theoretically open with Laffite eight points behind Reutemann. Second place in the constructors' championship was still open with Brabham just five points behind Ligier.

Qualifying

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Qualifying classification

[edit]
Pos No. Driver Team Time Gap
1 5 Brazil Nelson Piquet Brabham-Ford 1:27.328 -
2 27 Australia Alan Jones Williams-Ford 1:28.164 + 0.836
3 25 France Didier Pironi Ligier-Ford 1:28.322 + 0.994
4 23 Italy Bruno Giacomelli Alfa Romeo 1:28.575 + 1.247
5 28 Argentina Carlos Reutemann Williams-Ford 1:28.663 + 1.335
6 21 Finland Keke Rosberg Fittipaldi-Ford 1:28.702 + 1.374
7 7 United Kingdom John Watson McLaren-Ford 1:28.755 + 1.427
8 22 Italy Andrea de Cesaris Alfa Romeo 1:29.026 + 1.698
9 26 France Jacques Laffite Ligier-Ford 1:29.130 + 1.802
10 6 Mexico Héctor Rebaque Brabham-Ford 1:29.377 + 2.049
11 29 Italy Riccardo Patrese Arrows-Ford 1:29.400 + 2.072
12 8 France Alain Prost McLaren-Ford 1:29.804 + 2.476
13 15 France Jean-Pierre Jabouille Renault 1:29.932 + 2.604
14 31 United States Eddie Cheever Osella-Ford 1:29.937 + 2.609
15 3 France Jean-Pierre Jarier Tyrrell-Ford 1:30.070 + 2.742
16 20 Brazil Emerson Fittipaldi Fittipaldi-Ford 1:30.294 + 2.966
17 12 Italy Elio de Angelis Lotus-Ford 1:30.316 + 2.988
18 11 United States Mario Andretti Lotus-Ford 1:30.559 + 3.231
19 14 Netherlands Jan Lammers Ensign-Ford 1:30.668 + 3.340
20 4 Republic of Ireland Derek Daly Tyrrell-Ford 1:30.791 + 3.463
21 30 West Germany Jochen Mass Arrows-Ford 1:30.831 + 3.503
22 2 Canada Gilles Villeneuve Ferrari 1:30.855 + 3.527
23 16 France René Arnoux Renault 1:30.912 + 3.584
24 43 New Zealand Mike Thackwell Tyrrell-Ford 1:31.036 + 3.708
25 9 Switzerland Marc Surer ATS-Ford 1:31.169 + 3.841
26 1 South Africa Jody Scheckter Ferrari 1:31.688 + 4.360
27 50 United Kingdom Rupert Keegan Williams-Ford 1:32.638 + 5.310
28 51 United States Kevin Cogan Williams-Ford 1:32.745 + 5.417
Source:[3]

Race

[edit]

Piquet qualified on pole from Jones but used a car in fragile qualifying specification to do it. At the start Jones outlaunched Piquet but the pair refused to compromise at the first turn and the two touched,[4][5] triggering a multi-car pile-up. The collision involved Jean-Pierre Jarier (Tyrrell 010), Derek Daly (Tyrrell 010), Emerson Fittipaldi (Fittipaldi F8), Keke Rosberg (Fittipaldi F8), Mario Andretti (Lotus 81), Gilles Villeneuve (Ferrari 312T5) and Jochen Mass (Arrows A3). Piquet, Fittipaldi, Villeneuve, Andretti and Mass restarted in spare cars, in Piquet's case his fragile qualifying car and Rosberg had his car repaired. Daly was out as was Thackwell as Jarier commandeered his Tyrrell 010. At the restart Jones led before a storming Piquet took the lead until his qualifying specification Cosworth DFV inevitably failed.[6] Two laps later and Jean-Pierre Jabouille crashed his Renault RE20 heavily, seriously injuring his legs. Jabouille had to be cut from the car.

Jones took up the lead again until Pironi forced his way into a lead which was clouded over a jumped start for which he was eventually assigned a 60-second penalty. Pironi took the chequer but would be classified third behind Jones and Reutemann. Alain Prost could have been third or even second until a suspension failure saw his McLaren M30 crash. Watson was ahead of Reutemann as well when he spun and finished fourth in his McLaren. Local hero Villeneuve claimed fifth for Ferrari on a dismal weekend that saw outgoing World Champion Jody Scheckter fail to qualify his Ferrari 312T5. The final point was claimed by Héctor Rebaque in his Brabham BT49 as Jacques Laffite ran out of fuel in his Ligier JS11/15 in the closing stages.[4]

Race classification

[edit]
Pos No Driver Constructor Tyre Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 27 Australia Alan Jones Williams-Ford G 70 1:46:45.53 2 9
2 28 Argentina Carlos Reutemann Williams-Ford G 70 +15.54 secs 5 6
3 25 France Didier Pironi Ligier-Ford G 70 +19.07 secs 3 4
4 7 United Kingdom John Watson McLaren-Ford G 70 +30.98 secs 7 3
5 2 Canada Gilles Villeneuve Ferrari M 70 +55.23 secs 22 2
6 6 Mexico Héctor Rebaque Brabham-Ford G 69 +1 Lap 10 1
7 3 France Jean-Pierre Jarier Tyrrell-Ford G 69 +1 Lap 15
8 26 France Jacques Laffite Ligier-Ford G 68 Out of fuel 9
9 21 Finland Keke Rosberg Fittipaldi-Ford G 68 +2 Laps 6
10 12 Italy Elio de Angelis Lotus-Ford G 68 +2 Laps 17
11 30 West Germany Jochen Mass Arrows-Ford G 67 +3 Laps 21
12 14 Netherlands Jan Lammers Ensign-Ford G 66 +4 Laps 19
Ret 8 France Alain Prost McLaren-Ford G 41 Suspension 12
Ret 16 France René Arnoux Renault M 39 Brakes 23
Ret 15 France Jean-Pierre Jabouille Renault M 25 Suspension/Accident 13
Ret 5 Brazil Nelson Piquet Brabham-Ford G 23 Engine 1
Ret 11 United States Mario Andretti Lotus-Ford G 11 Engine 18
Ret 22 Italy Andrea de Cesaris Alfa Romeo G 8 Engine 8
Ret 31 United States Eddie Cheever Osella-Ford G 8 Fuel system 14
Ret 20 Brazil Emerson Fittipaldi Fittipaldi-Ford G 8 Gearbox 16
Ret 23 Italy Bruno Giacomelli Alfa Romeo G 7 Chassis 4
Ret 29 Italy Riccardo Patrese Arrows-Ford G 6 Accident 11
Ret 4 Republic of Ireland Derek Daly Tyrrell-Ford G 0 Accident 20
Ret 43 New Zealand Mike Thackwell Tyrrell-Ford G 0 Car commandeered by Jarier 24
DNQ 9 Switzerland Marc Surer ATS-Ford G
DNQ 1 South Africa Jody Scheckter Ferrari M
DNQ 50 United Kingdom Rupert Keegan Williams-Ford G
DNQ 51 United States Kevin Cogan Williams-Ford G
Source:[7][8]

Notes

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Championship standings after the race

[edit]
  • Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. Only the best 5 results from the first 7 races and the best 5 results from the last 7 races counted towards the Drivers' Championship. If different to Championship points, total points scored are shown in parentheses.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Weather information for the "1980 Canadian Grand Prix"". The Old Farmers' Almanac. Retrieved 2015-05-20.
  2. ^ "1980 Canadian Grand Prix Entry list".
  3. ^ "1980 Canadian Grand Prix | Motor Sport Magazine Database". Motor Sport Magazine. 2017-06-12. Retrieved 2018-11-07.
  4. ^ a b "Grand Prix Results: Canadian GP, 1980". GP Encyclopedia. Inside F1, Inc. Retrieved 2012-04-28.
  5. ^ YouTube, a Google company. YouTube. Archived from the original on 2014-03-15.
  6. ^ Jones, Bruce (1998). "The 1980s". The Complete Encyclopedia of Formula One (First ed.). London: Carlton Books. p. 52. ISBN 1-85868-515-X.
  7. ^ "1980 Canadian Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 19 February 2014. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  8. ^ "1980 Canadian Grand Prix - Race Results & History - GP Archive". GPArchive.com. 28 September 1980. Retrieved 1 November 2021.
  9. ^ a b "Canada 1980 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 14 March 2019.


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1980 Italian Grand Prix
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