| 1980 United States Grand Prix West | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 4 of 14 in the1980 Formula One season | |||
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| Race details | |||
| Date | March 30, 1980 | ||
| Official name | Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach | ||
| Location | Long Beach, California | ||
| Course | Temporary street course | ||
| Course length | 3.251 km (2.02 miles) | ||
| Distance | 80 laps, 260.08 km (161.60 miles) | ||
| Weather | Sunny and warm with temperatures reaching up to 81 °F (27 °C); wind speeds up to 10.9 miles per hour (17.5 km/h)[1] | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | Brabham-Ford | ||
| Time | 1:17.694 | ||
| Fastest lap | |||
| Driver |  Nelson Piquet | Brabham-Ford | |
| Time | 1:19.83 on lap 38 | ||
| Podium | |||
| First | Brabham-Ford | ||
| Second | Arrows-Ford | ||
| Third | Fittipaldi-Ford | ||
Lap leaders | |||
The1980 United States Grand Prix West (officially theToyotaGrand Prix of Long Beach[2]) was aFormula One motor race held on March 30, 1980, atLong Beach, California. It was the fourth round of the1980 Formula One season. The race was the fifthUnited States Grand Prix West and the sixth street race to be held at Long Beach. The race was held over 80 laps of the 3.251-kilometre circuit for a total race distance of 260 kilometres.
The race was won by Brazilian driverNelson Piquet driving aBrabham BT49. It was Piquet's debut World Championship victory in just his fourth points finish and announced his emergence as a championship contender. Piquet won by 49 seconds over Italian driverRiccardo Patrese driving anArrows A3. It was the best result for both Arrows and Patrese in two years after Patrese finished second at the1978 Swedish Grand Prix. Third was Brazilian driver, twice-World ChampionEmerson Fittipaldi driving aFittipaldi F7. It was Fittipaldi's best result since finishing second at the1978 Brazilian Grand Prix. The race would also see defending championJody Scheckter ofFerrari score his only points of the 1980 season with the South African scoring two points by finishing the race in fifth place.
Nelson Piquet took pole, fastest lap and his first career race win to dominate the weekend in his gleaming blue and whiteBrabham. The Brazilian's qualifying time was a full second ahead of the rest of the field, and he led all 80 laps of the race to win by 49 seconds and grab a share of the lead in the Drivers' Championship. The race would be the last in Formula One for Swiss driverClay Regazzoni, who suffered spinal damage when he lost the brakes in hisEnsign approaching the Queen’s Hairpin, and struck a parked Brabham in the run-off followed by a concrete barrier and tires head on at 150 mph (240 km/h).
In Friday qualifying, FrenchmanDidier Pironi recorded the fastest time, but getting a good lap on Saturday was a matter of using the soft qualifying tires at the right time and slotting in a good time before the track became too oily. Piquet was easily the fastest man on the circuit, usingGoodyear tires, but Championship leaderRené Arnoux grabbed second place in hisRenault with an early run on softMichelins. The big surprise, however, wasJan Lammers, who put hisATS in fourth position while subbing for the injuredMarc Surer.James Hunt nearly made a comeback withMcLaren, asking for $1 million for the race. This opportunity came about when French rookie driverAlain Prost broke his wrist during practice for theSouth African Grand Prix, and was not fully fit to drive at Long Beach. The team's main sponsor, Marlboro, offered half the figure but negotiations ended after Hunt broke his leg while skiing.Stephen South substituted but South failed to qualify. Pironi slipped to ninth by the end of the session, while theFerraris ofGilles Villeneuve andJody Scheckter, so dominant here the year before, struggled to 10th and 16th, andEmerson Fittipaldi just managed to scramble onto the grid in the 24th and final spot. AmericansMario Andretti (Lotus) andEddie Cheever (Osella), in his first full F1 season, were 15th and 19th.
The only mis-step of Piquet's weekend came in the Sunday morning warmup when he andDerek Daly collided entering the corner after the pits. The Brabham was vaulted into the air and landed heavily on all four tires, while Daly'sTyrrell went down the escape road. After careful examination, the Brabham crew decided that the car was fine and ready to race.
Entering the first cornerRicardo Zunino, Andretti,Jochen Mass andJean-Pierre Jarier all made contact under braking. Zunino's Brabham and Andretti's Lotus were unable to continue. After one lap, Piquet ledPatrick Depailler, who had gotten by René Arnoux in the hairpin. They were followed byAlan Jones,Bruno Giacomelli,Riccardo Patrese,Carlos Reutemann, Villeneuve and Daly.
On lap 4, Giacomelli lost control of hisAlfa Romeo under braking for the hairpin at the beginning of Shoreline Drive, and slid sideways across the racing line. Reutemann, following directly behind, was the first to be collected andJody Scheckter,Elio de Angelis, Cheever, Mass and Jarier also became involved. According to Reutemann, while Giacomelli's Alfa was facing the inside wall, he let 6th-placed Patrese pass, and then immediately put his car in reverse, and backed onto the racing line, and the approaching 7th-placed Reutemann had to come to a dead stop to avoid hitting the Italian's Alfa head on, while Villeneuve and Daly, who were behind Reutemann were both able to avoid hitting the Williams and the Alfa. Giacomelli, realizing he had made a mistake, went back to where he was, and this then caused Scheckter, de Angelis, Cheever, Jarier and Mass- all the cars that had been behind Daly to have a motorway-accordion-style accident where they crashed into the front and back of each other in order. By the time Giacomelli had realized what had happened, the 6 other aforementioned cars including Reutemann were already at a dead stop, although he and Scheckter, who had both stalled had not hit anything, de Angelis (who was injured), Cheever and Jarier had crashed, the latter most seriously; a wheel ripped off Jarier's Tyrrell when he hit de Angelis’s Lotus and he went into the run-off area. Mass was the luckiest, although he had not stalled he would end up losing several positions. The marshals decided to move forward Giacomelli, Reutemann and Cheever, all were able to continue for the time being, though Giacomelli and Cheever retired later in the race, and Reutemann had retired soon afterwards with gearbox problems. Mass was able to get going again, and he, Jabouille, Laffite, Rosberg, Regazzoni, Fittipaldi and Watson just managed to squeeze through the carnage, and the marshals somehow got the track cleared before the leaders came around, avoiding a red flag to stop the race.
While Piquet continued to run unchallenged in front, Depailler was struggling with fading brakes on his Alfa Romeo. On lap 18, Jones caught and passed him on the outside of the hairpin to take second place. Meanwhile, Giacomelli was working his way back up through the field ahead of an extended battle between Regazzoni, Fittipaldi and John Watson.Gilles Villeneuve had managed to get the ill handling Ferrari into a good fourth place but his transmission failed on lap 46 and he was out of the race.
After pitting for tires on lap 47, Giacomelli rejoined in 12th place, just ahead of Jones, but about to be lapped by theWilliams for the second time, and he continued his reckless on-track conduct. As Jones moved inside to pass the Italian entering the hairpin at the end of the straight, Giacomelli turned in and Jones struck the Alfa Romeo's rear wheel, bending the steering arm on the Williams and putting Jones out of the race. This left Piquet with a lead of more than a minute over Patrese and Arnoux, and he began to ease off, allowing some cars to unlap themselves.
Lap 50 saw an horrific accident which would ultimately end the career ofClay Regazzoni, the brakes on his Ensign N180 car failed on the long start finish straight, unable to reduce speed, he hit the stationary Brabham of Ricardo Zunino which had been left at the run off of the Queen’s hairpin since lap 1, and then head on into a concrete wall. The accident left him paralyzed from the waist down. Regazzoni later sued the race organisers, but lost the case.[3]
On lap 63, Arnoux had his right rear tire go completely flat, and by the time he was able to make it back to the pits for a replacement, he had dropped all the way to ninth place. Watson now began to challenge Fittipaldi for third, and even get around him briefly, but gearbox troubles allowed the Brazilian to retake the position and then pull away. Watson, in fact, came under fire from Scheckter's Ferrari. Braking into the hairpin, Scheckter tried to go around the outside, as Watson defended the inside line. He slid wide on the dirt and marbles, however, and thereafter, decided to settle for 5th place and his final points in Formula One.
For Piquet, it was the first of 23 career wins and pulled him even with Arnoux in the Drivers' Championship. For Fittipaldi, who finished third behind a steady Patrese in theArrows, it was his first podium in more than two years, and the last of his F1 career (both as a driver and as aconstructor). The torch was passed from one Brazilian multiple World Champion to another.
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| Preceded by | Grand Prix of Long Beach | Succeeded by |
