| 1984 South African Grand Prix | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 2 of 16 in the1984 Formula One World Championship | |||
 | |||
| Race details | |||
| Date | 7 April 1984 | ||
| Official name | XVIIINational PanasonicGrand Prix of South Africa | ||
| Location | Kyalami Midrand,Transvaal Province,South Africa | ||
| Course | Permanent racing facility | ||
| Course length | 4.104 km (2.550 miles) | ||
| Distance | 75 laps, 307.800 km (191.258 miles) | ||
| Weather | Dry | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | Brabham-BMW | ||
| Time | 1:04.871 | ||
| Fastest lap | |||
| Driver |  Patrick Tambay | Renault | |
| Time | 1:08.877 on lap 64 | ||
| Podium | |||
| First | McLaren-TAG | ||
| Second | McLaren-TAG | ||
| Third | Renault | ||
Lap leaders | |||
The1984 South African Grand Prix was aFormula Onemotor race held atKyalami on 7 April 1984. It was race 2 of 16 in the1984 Formula One World Championship. The 75-lap race was won byNiki Lauda, driving aMcLaren-TAG, with teammateAlain Prost second andDerek Warwick third in aRenault.
Qualifying saw reigning World ChampionNelson Piquet take the first of an eventual ninepole positions for 1984 in hisBrabham-BMW (which was clocked at 325 km/h (202 mph) on the circuit's long front straight),[1] withKeke Rosberg alongside him on the front row in hisWilliams-Honda. On the second row wereNigel Mansell in theLotus andPatrick Tambay in the factoryRenault, while on the third row wereAlain Prost in theMcLaren andTeo Fabi in the second Brabham. The top ten was completed byElio de Angelis in the second Lotus,Niki Lauda in the second McLaren,Derek Warwick in the second Renault andMichele Alboreto in theFerrari. TheCosworth-poweredTyrrells andArrows struggled, withThierry Boutsen coming 27th and last in his Arrows and thus failing to qualify.
In the Sunday morning warm-up sessionPiercarlo Ghinzani, who had qualified 20th in hisOsella, crashed heavily at the fast left-hand Jukskei Sweep, the car bursting into flames. Ghinzani escaped with minor burns on his hands, and subsequently withdrew from the race, thus promoting Boutsen to the last grid spot.
Before the start of the race, Prost's McLaren refused to fire up thanks to a fuel pump failure and hisMcLaren was pushed to the side of the road and he started from the pitlane in the spare car.[2] In fact, Ghinzani's accident and the subsequent 30 minutes delay before the start was extremely fortunate for Prost. During the warmup, Lauda had a chronic misfire in hisTAG-Porsche race engine. It took the McLaren team until 13 minutes into the extra 30 to completely change the electrical system in Lauda's car, which cured the low-end misfire but one still remained intermittent between 7,500 and 8,500 rpm, but it was driveable and allowed Lauda to be 2nd fastest in the warmup to Piquet. In truth however, without Ghinzani's accident and the extra 30 minutes, the McLaren team wouldn't have fixed Lauda's car on time and the former dual World Champion would have been forced to race the spare car, meaning Prost would not have even started.[3]
At the start, Piquet almost stalled on the grid and was passed by Rosberg and Mansell. The Lotus then faltered and Mansell fell down the order, putting Piquet back up to second by the first corner. At the end of lap 1, Piquet passed Rosberg for the lead, before teammate Fabi moved into second on lap 2. Lauda had made a good start to run fourth; he then overtook Rosberg on lap 4 and Fabi on lap 10. Both Brabhams then hit trouble, needing new tyres before retiring withturbo failures, Fabi on lap 19 and Piquet on lap 30.
From there, Lauda controlled the race and went on to win easily, with Prost over a minute behind in second and the only other driver on the lead lap. Warwick gained his first Formula One podium by finishing third, while completing the top six wereRiccardo Patrese (Alfa Romeo, its second points finish in a row giving more, somewhat false, hope that the890TV8 would be competitive),Andrea de Cesaris (Ligier-Renault) and, gaining his first ever World Championship point, Ayrton Senna in hisToleman-Hart.
| Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Q1 | Q2 | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 |  Nelson Piquet | Brabham-BMW | 1:05.280 | 1:04.871 | — |
| 2 | 6 |  Keke Rosberg | Williams-Honda | 1:05.127 | 1:05.058 | +0.187 |
| 3 | 12 |  Nigel Mansell | Lotus-Renault | 1:05.792 | 1:05.125 | +0.254 |
| 4 | 15 | Patrick Tambay | Renault | 1:05.588 | 1:05.339 | +0.468 |
| 5 | 7 | Alain Prost | McLaren-TAG | 1:06.576 | 1:05.354 | +0.483 |
| 6 | 2 |  Teo Fabi | Brabham-BMW | 1:05.923 | 1:07.236 | +1.052 |
| 7 | 11 | Elio de Angelis | Lotus-Renault | 1:06.305 | 1:05.953 | +1.082 |
| 8 | 8 |  Niki Lauda | McLaren-TAG | 1:06.238 | 1:06.043 | +1.172 |
| 9 | 16 | Derek Warwick | Renault | 1:06.056 | 1:06.491 | +1.185 |
| 10 | 27 | Michele Alboreto | Ferrari | 1:07.404 | 1:06.323 | +1.452 |
| 11 | 5 | Jacques Laffite | Williams-Honda | 1:07.142 | 1:06.762 | +1.891 |
| 12 | 14 |  Manfred Winkelhock | ATS-BMW | 1:06.974 | 1:07.417 | +2.103 |
| 13 | 19 | Ayrton Senna | Toleman-Hart | 1:07.657 | 1:06.981 | +2.110 |
| 14 | 26 | Andrea de Cesaris | Ligier-Renault | 1:09.132 | 1:07.245 | +2.374 |
| 15 | 28 | René Arnoux | Ferrari | 1:07.514 | 1:07.345 | +2.474 |
| 16 | 23 |  Eddie Cheever | Alfa Romeo | 1:07.704 | 1:07.993 | +2.833 |
| 17 | 25 | François Hesnault | Ligier-Renault | 1:09.909 | 1:07.787 | +2.916 |
| 18 | 22 | Riccardo Patrese | Alfa Romeo | 1:08.399 | 1:08.042 | +3.171 |
| 19 | 20 |  Johnny Cecotto | Toleman-Hart | 1:09.892 | 1:08.298 | +3.427 |
| 20 | 24 | Piercarlo Ghinzani | Osella-Alfa Romeo | 1:10.829 | 1:09.609 | +4.738 |
| 21 | 21 | Mauro Baldi | Spirit-Hart | 1:10.450 | 1:09.923 | +5.052 |
| 22 | 10 | Jonathan Palmer | RAM-Hart | no time | 1:10.383 | +5.512 |
| 23 | 9 | Philippe Alliot | RAM-Hart | no time | 1:10.619 | +5.748 |
| 24 | 17 |  Marc Surer | Arrows-Ford | 1:12.227 | 1:11.808 | +6.937 |
| 25 | 4 | Stefan Bellof | Tyrrell-Ford | 1:12.322 | 1:12.022 | +7.151 |
| 26 | 3 | Martin Brundle | Tyrrell-Ford | 1:12.233 | 1:12.453 | +7.362 |
| 27 | 18 |  Thierry Boutsen | Arrows-Ford | 1:12.326 | 1:12.274 | +7.403 |
| Source:[4][5][6] | ||||||
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| Previous race: 1984 Brazilian Grand Prix | FIA Formula One World Championship 1984 season | Next race: 1984 Belgian Grand Prix |
| Previous race: 1983 South African Grand Prix | South African Grand Prix | Next race: 1985 South African Grand Prix |
