| 1981 Italian Grand Prix | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 13 of 15 in the1981 Formula One World Championship | |||
 | |||
| Race details | |||
| Date | 13 September 1981 | ||
| Official name | LII Gran Premio d'Italia | ||
| Location | Autodromo Nazionale di Monza Monza,Lombardy, Italy | ||
| Course | Permanent racing facility | ||
| Course length | 5.8 km (3.604 miles) | ||
| Distance | 52 laps, 301.6 km (187.406 miles) | ||
| Weather | Dry and sunny | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | Renault | ||
| Time | 1:33.467 | ||
| Fastest lap | |||
| Driver |  Carlos Reutemann | Williams-Ford | |
| Time | 1:37.528 on lap 48 | ||
| Podium | |||
| First | Renault | ||
| Second | Williams-Ford | ||
| Third | Williams-Ford | ||
Lap leaders | |||
The1981 Italian Grand Prix was aFormula Onemotor race held atMonza on 13 September 1981.[1] It was the thirteenth race of the1981 Formula One World Championship.
Formula One returned to Monza after theprevious year's Italian Grand Prix had been held atImola. The 52-lap race was won by FrenchmanAlain Prost, who led every lap in hisRenault after starting from third position. AustralianAlan Jones finished second in aWilliams-Ford, some 22 seconds behind, with Argentine teammateCarlos Reutemann third.
Reutemann came into the race tied on points at the top of the Drivers' Championship with BrazilianNelson Piquet, driving aBrabham-Ford. Piquet suffered a last-lap engine failure which dropped him from third to sixth, giving Reutemann a three-point lead in the championship with two races remaining.
Qualifying sawRené Arnoux takepole position in hisRenault by 0.67 seconds fromCarlos Reutemann'sWilliams. It was Arnoux's fourth pole position of the season and the sixth in succession for the Renault team.Alain Prost was third in the other Renault, withJacques Laffite in theLigier alongside him on the second row of the grid.Alan Jones in the other Williams andNelson Piquet in theBrabham made up the third row, and the top ten was completed byJohn Watson in theMcLaren,Didier Pironi andGilles Villeneuve in the twoFerraris, andBruno Giacomelli in theAlfa Romeo.
For the first time, theToleman team qualified for a race, withBrian Henton taking 23rd. TeammateDerek Warwick failed to qualify along withMarc Surer in theTheodore,Beppe Gabbiani in theOsella,Siegfried Stohr in theArrows, andKeke Rosberg andChico Serra in the twoFittipaldis. Stohr crashed heavily during the qualifying session; already haunted by the trauma of nearly killing mechanic Dave Luckett in Belgium earlier in the season, he ultimately decided to stop racing and start a successful motor racing academy.
| Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Q1 | Q2 | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 16 |  René Arnoux | Renault | 1:34.042 | 1:33.467 | |
| 2 | 2 | Carlos Reutemann | Williams-Ford | 1:35.153 | 1:34.140 | +0.673 |
| 3 | 15 | Alain Prost | Renault | 1:34.492 | 1:34.374 | +0.907 |
| 4 | 26 | Jacques Laffite | Ligier-Matra | 1:36.529 | 1:35.062 | +1.575 |
| 5 | 1 |  Alan Jones | Williams-Ford | 1:35.983 | 1:35.359 | +1.892 |
| 6 | 5 |  Nelson Piquet | Brabham-Ford | 1:35.449 | 1:35.484 | +1.982 |
| 7 | 7 |  John Watson | McLaren-Ford | 1:35.795 | 1:35.557 | +2.090 |
| 8 | 28 | Didier Pironi | Ferrari | 1:35.977 | 1:35.596 | +2.129 |
| 9 | 27 |  Gilles Villeneuve | Ferrari | 1:35.627 | 1:55.012 | +2.160 |
| 10 | 23 |  Bruno Giacomelli | Alfa Romeo | 1:38.617 | 1:35.946 | +2.479 |
| 11 | 11 | Elio de Angelis | Lotus-Ford | 1:36.158 | 1:36.309 | +2.691 |
| 12 | 12 | Nigel Mansell | Lotus-Ford | 1:38.100 | 1:36.210 | +2.743 |
| 13 | 22 |  Mario Andretti | Alfa Romeo | 1:37.166 | 1:36.296 | +2.829 |
| 14 | 6 |  Héctor Rebaque | Brabham-Ford | 1:37.131 | 1:36.472 | +3.005 |
| 15 | 25 | Patrick Tambay | Ligier-Matra | 1:36.515 | 1:36.545 | +3.048 |
| 16 | 8 | Andrea de Cesaris | McLaren-Ford | no time | 1:37.019 | +3.552 |
| 17 | 3 | Eddie Cheever | Tyrrell-Ford | 1:38.736 | 1:37.160 | +3.693 |
| 18 | 32 | Jean-Pierre Jarier | Osella-Ford | 1:38.167 | 1:37.264 | +3.797 |
| 19 | 17 |  Derek Daly | March-Ford | 1:38.852 | 1:37.303 | +3.836 |
| 20 | 29 | Riccardo Patrese | Arrows-Ford | 1:37.355 | 1:37.552 | +3.888 |
| 21 | 9 |  Slim Borgudd | ATS-Ford | 1:39.106 | 1:37.807 | +4.340 |
| 22 | 4 | Michele Alboreto | Tyrrell-Ford | 1:38.411 | 1:37.912 | +4.445 |
| 23 | 35 | Brian Henton | Toleman-Hart | 1:41.369 | 1:38.012 | +4.545 |
| 24 | 14 |  Eliseo Salazar | Ensign-Ford | 1:39.033 | 1:38.053 | +4.586 |
| DNQ | 33 |  Marc Surer | Theodore-Ford | 1:38.778 | 1:38.114 | +4.647 |
| DNQ | 31 | Beppe Gabbiani | Osella-Ford | 1:40.930 | 1:38.474 | +5.007 |
| DNQ | 36 | Derek Warwick | Toleman-Hart | 1:39.936 | 1:39.279 | +5.812 |
| DNQ | 30 | Siegfried Stohr | Arrows-Ford | 1:39.713 | 1:39.776 | +6.246 |
| DNQ | 20 |  Keke Rosberg | Fittipaldi-Ford | 1:42.229 | 1:40.345 | +6.878 |
| DNQ | 21 | Chico Serra | Fittipaldi-Ford | 1:41.185 | 1:40.437 | +6.970 |
| Source:[2] | ||||||
On the run-up to the first chicane, Prost passed both Reutemann and teammate Arnoux to take the lead, while Pironi jumped from eighth to fourth. Reutemann then overtook Arnoux at the Curva Grande, before Pironi overtook both to run second by the end of the lap. As Prost opened up a lead, Arnoux re-passed Reutemann on lap 2 and Pironi on lap 5. Laffite, having already passed Reutemann, then overtook Pironi for third on lap 6, as Villeneuve retired with an engine failure.
On lap 12, Laffite dropped out with a puncture, by which point Pironi had dropped back behind Reutemann and Jones. As rain started to fall, Jones passed teammate Reutemann for third. At the end of the lap,Eddie Cheever spun hisTyrrell out at the Parabolica; on the next lap, Arnoux himself spun out after swerving to avoid Cheever's abandoned car, leaving Prost comfortably clear of Jones. Reutemann, struggling as the track started to dry again, soon fell to eighth behind Giacomelli,Patrick Tambay in the second Ligier (who had only started 15th), Piquet, Pironi and Watson.
On lap 20, Watson lost control exiting the second Lesmo bend and smashed into the barriers at high speed. The McLaren was torn in two, with the gearbox and rear wheels going across the track and clipping the second Tyrrell ofMichele Alboreto, who also retired. Watson escaped unharmed.[3][4]
On lap 23 Tambay, like teammate Laffite, retired with a puncture, before Giacomelli pulled into the pits with a jammed gearbox on lap 26. Piquet was thus promoted to third with Pironi fourth and Reutemann fifth, followed byMario Andretti in the second Alfa Romeo,Elio de Angelis in theLotus andAndrea de Cesaris in the second McLaren. Reutemann soon passed Pironi again, before Andretti suffered an engine failure on lap 41.
As Prost cruised to victory, ultimately finishing some 22 seconds ahead of Jones, Piquet looked set to hold off championship rival Reutemann for third, until his engine blew on the last lap. Reutemann duly went past, as did de Angelis and Pironi. Piquet was classified sixth ahead of de Cesaris, who himself suffered a puncture on the last lap. The only other finishers were Giacomelli,Jean-Pierre Jarier in the second Osella, and Henton.
Reutemann thus led the Drivers' Championship by three points from Piquet with two races remaining, with Prost, Jones and Laffite all retaining outside chances of the title. The Williams team, meanwhile, needed just two more points to secure their second consecutive Constructors' Championship.
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| Previous race: 1981 Dutch Grand Prix | FIA Formula One World Championship 1981 season | Next race: 1981 Canadian Grand Prix |
| Previous race: 1980 Italian Grand Prix | Italian Grand Prix | Next race: 1982 Italian Grand Prix |
