| 1981 Spanish Grand Prix | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 7 of 15 in the1981 Formula One World Championship | |||
 | |||
| Race details | |||
| Date | 21 June 1981 | ||
| Official name | XXVII Gran Premio de España | ||
| Location | Circuito Permanente Del Jarama,Jarama,Spain | ||
| Course | Permanent racing facility | ||
| Course length | 3.312 km (2.06 miles) | ||
| Distance | 80 laps, 264.96 km (164.70 miles) | ||
| Weather | Sunny, hot | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | Ligier-Matra | ||
| Time | 1:13.754[1] | ||
| Fastest lap | |||
| Driver |  Alan Jones | Williams-Ford | |
| Time | 1:17.818 on lap 5[2] | ||
| Podium | |||
| First | Ferrari | ||
| Second | Ligier-Matra | ||
| Third | McLaren-Ford | ||
Lap leaders | |||
The1981 Spanish Grand Prix was aFormula One motor race held on 21 June 1981 at theCircuito Permanente del Jarama,Jarama,Spain. It was the seventh race of the1981 Formula One World Championship.
The 1981 Spanish Grand Prix featured the second closest finish ever of a Formula One race: afterGilles Villeneuve'sFerrari, the four following cars finished in just 1.24 seconds. This was Villeneuve's last victory, often regarded as his tactical masterpiece.[3]
There were some changes for this race:Eliseo Salazar had leftMarch to joinEnsign, replacingMarc Surer. Also,John Player Special sponsorship and livery returned toTeam Lotus after a 2-year hiatus.
The pole went toJacques Laffite on hisLigier-Matra with the twoWilliams-Cosworth ofAlan Jones andCarlos Reutemann second and third ahead ofJohn Watson'sMcLaren,Alain Prost'sRenault and theAlfa Romeo ofBruno Giacomelli. Gilles Villeneuve was seventh.
Race day was unusually hot. At the beginning of the race Jones and Reutemann went into the lead, as Laffite made a poor start. Villeneuve jumped into third place at the first corner, damaging Prost's front wing as he took the position. At the end of the first lap Villeneuve pulled out of Reutemann's slipstream and took second place. Jones began to build a lead but on lap 14 he went off the track, when he was 10 seconds ahead of the Canadian.
This left Villeneuve with Reutemann on his tail. Behind them Watson, Laffite andElio de Angelis began to close on the dueling leaders. Reutemann was having some trouble with his gearbox and when Laffite arrived behind him there was little the Argentine could do to stop him from overtaking. Reutemann would later drop behind Watson. The five front-runners became a train of cars, packed together for the remaining laps of the race.
Villeneuve used the power of his Ferrari engine on the straight to gain a little margin and not get overtaken by his rivals, but in the corners they were all over him. Many times Laffite pulled alongside the Canadian as they went out a corner but the Ferrari would stay ahead as the horsepower kicked in. The five remained locked together right to the flag, crossing the line covered by just 1.24 seconds to record the second-closest race in the history of Formula One.
This would be the last Spanish Grand Prix at Jarama, owing to criticism of the track being very short and sinuous for modern Formula One, the unpleasant conditions and the small crowd (the small turn-out was probably due to the backlash of theprevious year's race not being counted as a World Championship race, the announcement was made on the weekend itself)[citation needed]; and the last Spanish Grand Prix until the1986 season, when it would be held at the newly builtJerez circuit in the south of the country. At this Grand Prix theEquipe Banco Occidental team became the lastprivateer team to have entered a car for a race alongside aworks team when they entered aWilliams car alongside the Williams works team, but eventually withdrew before the practice and qualifying.[4]
| Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Q1 | Q2 | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 26 |  Jacques Laffite | Ligier-Matra | 1:14.822 | 1:13.754 | — |
| 2 | 1 | Alan Jones | Williams-Ford | 1:14.424 | 1:14.024 | +0.270 |
| 3 | 2 |  Carlos Reutemann | Williams-Ford | 1:14.808 | 1:14.342 | +0.588 |
| 4 | 7 |  John Watson | McLaren-Ford | 1:15.094 | 1:14.657 | +0.903 |
| 5 | 15 | Alain Prost | Renault | 1:14.980 | 1:14.669 | +0.915 |
| 6 | 23 |  Bruno Giacomelli | Alfa Romeo | 1:16.807 | 1:14.897 | +1.143 |
| 7 | 27 |  Gilles Villeneuve | Ferrari | 1:16.548 | 1:14.987 | +1.233 |
| 8 | 22 |  Mario Andretti | Alfa Romeo | 1:15.576 | 1:15.159 | +1.405 |
| 9 | 5 |  Nelson Piquet | Brabham-Ford | 1:16.861 | 1:15.355 | +1.601 |
| 10 | 11 | Elio de Angelis | Lotus-Ford | 1:15.399 | 1:15.449 | +1.645 |
| 11 | 12 | Nigel Mansell | Lotus-Ford | 1:16.226 | 1:15.562 | +1.808 |
| 12 | 29 | Riccardo Patrese | Arrows-Ford | 1:16.038 | 1:15.627 | +1.873 |
| 13 | 28 | Didier Pironi | Ferrari | 1:16.522 | 1:15.715 | +1.961 |
| 14 | 8 | Andrea de Cesaris | McLaren-Ford | 1:16.119 | 1:15.850 | +2.096 |
| 15 | 20 |  Keke Rosberg | Fittipaldi-Ford | 1:16.040 | 1:15.924 | +2.170 |
| 16 | 33 | Patrick Tambay | Theodore-Ford | 1:17.347 | 1:16.355 | +2.601 |
| 17 | 16 | René Arnoux | Renault | 1:17.132 | 1:16.406 | +2.652 |
| 18 | 6 |  Héctor Rebaque | Brabham-Ford | 1:16.722 | 1:16.527 | +2.773 |
| 19 | 25 | Jean-Pierre Jabouille | Ligier-Matra | 1:16.559 | 1:16.794 | +2.805 |
| 20 | 3 | Eddie Cheever | Tyrrell-Ford | 1:17.459 | 1:16.641 | +2.887 |
| 21 | 21 | Chico Serra | Fittipaldi-Ford | 1:18.705 | 1:16.782 | +3.028 |
| 22 | 17 |  Derek Daly | March-Ford | 1:17.416 | 1:16.979 | +3.225 |
| 23 | 30 | Siegfried Stohr | Arrows-Ford | 1:18.331 | 1:17.294 | +3.540 |
| 24 | 14 |  Eliseo Salazar | Ensign-Ford | 1:18.769 | 1:17.822 | +4.068 |
| 25 | 4 | Michele Alboreto | Tyrrell-Ford | 1:18.859 | 1:17.943 | +4.189 |
| 26 | 31 | Beppe Gabbiani | Osella-Ford | no time | 1:18.169 | +4.415 |
| 27 | 9 |  Slim Borgudd | ATS-Ford | 1:20.028 | 1:18.263 | +4.509 |
| 28 | 35 | Brian Henton | Toleman-Hart | 1:19.815 | 1:18.340 | +4.586 |
| 29 | 36 | Derek Warwick | Toleman-Hart | 1:20.342 | 1:18.872 | +5.118 |
| 30 | 32 | Giorgio Francia | Osella-Ford | 1:19.586 | 8:22.382 | +5.832 |
| WD | 37 |  Emilio de Villota | Williams-Ford | — | — | — |
| Source:[5] | ||||||
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| Previous race: 1981 Monaco Grand Prix | FIA Formula One World Championship 1981 season | Next race: 1981 French Grand Prix |
| Previous race: 1980 Spanish Grand Prix | Spanish Grand Prix | Next race: 1986 Spanish Grand Prix |
