1980 South African Grand Prix

The 1980 South African Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 1 March 1980 at Kyalami in Gauteng, South Africa. It was the third round of the 1980 Formula One season. The race was the twenty-sixth South African Grand Prix and the fourteenth to be held at Kyalami. The race was held over 78 laps of the 4.104-kilometre circuit for a total race distance of 320 kilometres.

1980 South African Grand Prix
Race 3 of 14 in the 1980 Formula One season
Race details
Date 1 March 1980
Official name XXVI South African Nashua Grand Prix
Location Kyalami
Transvaal Province, South Africa
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 4.104 km (2.550 miles)
Distance 78 laps, 320.112 km (198.908 miles)
Weather Dry
Pole position
Driver Renault
Time 1:10.00
Fastest lap
Driver France René Arnoux Renault
Time 1:13.15 on lap 51
Podium
First Renault
Second Ligier-Ford
Third Ligier-Ford
Lap leaders

The race was won by French driver René Arnoux driving a Renault RE20. It was Arnoux' second World Championship victory adding to his win at the previous race the 1980 Brazilian Grand Prix. Arnoux won by 34 seconds over fellow French driver Jacques Laffite driving a Ligier JS11/15. Laffite's Ligier teammate Didier Pironi was third, completing an all-French podium. This was the first race since the 1968 United States Grand Prix to have three drivers from the same country on the podium; all three were also driving French-built cars.

The race was additionally notable because of two accidents during qualifying: French driver Alain Prost broke his wrist when he crashed his McLaren M29 at the Esses after a suspension failure, while Swiss driver Marc Surer badly injured his legs when he crashed the new ATS D4 at Crowthorne Corner at the end of the straight. Neither started the race, with Prost also missing the following race and Surer the next three races.[1][2] ATS had only just downsized from two entries to one, but with Surer injured the former #2 driver Dutchman Jan Lammers rejoined the team. The new ATS D4 was too heavily damaged to be repaired and leaving Lammers to try and fail to qualify an ATS D3.

In common with the previous race in Brazil, altitude gave the turbo-charged Renaults a dominant edge in speed. Third on the grid, Nelson Piquet was almost two seconds behind in qualifying in his Brabham BT49. Jean-Pierre Jabouille and Arnoux led for much of the race until Jabouille punctured. The Ligiers climbed into the podium positions as championship leader Alan Jones retired his Williams FW07B. Piquet finished fourth ahead of Carlos Reutemann in the second Williams. The final point was claimed by Jochen Mass in his Arrows A3.

Thirteen cars finished the race although Patrick Depailler's Alfa Romeo 179 was too far behind to be classified. Geoff Lees was classified 13th as he crashed his Shadow DN11 late in the race. This would be Shadow's last Grand Prix start (not counting the non-championship Spanish GP three months later).

Arnoux became the new championship points leader, five points up on Jones and nine ahead of Piquet. Similarly Renault now led the constructors points over Williams.

Classification

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Qualifying

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Pos No. Driver Constructor Time Gap
1 15   Jean-Pierre Jabouille Renault 1:10.00 -
2 16   René Arnoux Renault 1:10.21 + 0.11
3 5   Nelson Piquet Brabham-Ford 1:11.87 + 1.87
4 26   Jacques Laffite Ligier-Ford 1:11.88 + 1.88
5 25   Didier Pironi Ligier-Ford 1:12.11 + 2.11
6 28   Carlos Reutemann Williams-Ford 1:12.15 + 2.15
7 22   Patrick Depailler Alfa Romeo 1:12.16 + 2.16
8 27   Alan Jones Williams-Ford 1:12.23 + 2.23
9 1   Jody Scheckter Ferrari 1:12.32 + 2.32
10 2   Gilles Villeneuve Ferrari 1:12.38 + 2.38
11 29   Riccardo Patrese Arrows-Ford 1:12.50 + 2.50
12 23   Bruno Giacomelli Alfa Romeo 1:12.51 + 2.51
13 3   Jean-Pierre Jarier Tyrrell-Ford 1:12.70 + 2.70
14 12   Elio de Angelis Lotus-Ford 1:12.74 + 2.74
15 11   Mario Andretti Lotus-Ford 1:12.93 + 2.93
16 4   Derek Daly Tyrrell-Ford 1:13.04 + 3.04
17 6   Ricardo Zunino Brabham-Ford 1:13.05 + 3.05
18 20   Emerson Fittipaldi Fittipaldi-Ford 1:13.23 + 3.23
19 29   Jochen Mass Arrows-Ford 1:13.25 + 3.25
20 14   Clay Regazzoni Ensign-Ford 1:13.25 + 3.25
21 7   John Watson McLaren-Ford 1:13.61 + 3.61
22 8   Alain Prost McLaren-Ford 1:13.76 + 3.76
23 31   Eddie Cheever Osella-Ford 1:13.83 + 3.83
24 21   Keke Rosberg Fittipaldi-Ford 1:13.84 + 3.84
25 17   Geoff Lees Shadow-Ford 1:14.46 + 4.46
26 9   Marc Surer ATS-Ford 1:14.54 + 4.54
27 18   David Kennedy Shadow-Ford 1:15.23 + 5.23
28 10   Jan Lammers ATS-Ford 1:15.29 + 5.29

Race

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Pos No Driver Constructor Tyre Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 16   René Arnoux Renault M 78 1:36:52.54 2 9
2 26   Jacques Laffite Ligier-Ford G 78 + 34.07 4 6
3 25   Didier Pironi Ligier-Ford G 78 + 52.49 5 4
4 5   Nelson Piquet Brabham-Ford G 78 + 1:01.02 3 3
5 28   Carlos Reutemann Williams-Ford G 77 + 1 Lap 6 2
6 30   Jochen Mass Arrows-Ford G 77 + 1 Lap 19 1
7 3   Jean-Pierre Jarier Tyrrell-Ford G 77 + 1 Lap 13
8 20   Emerson Fittipaldi Fittipaldi-Ford G 77 + 1 Lap 18
9 14   Clay Regazzoni Ensign-Ford G 77 + 1 Lap 20
10 6   Ricardo Zunino Brabham-Ford G 77 + 1 Lap 17
11 7   John Watson McLaren-Ford G 76 + 2 Laps 21
12 11   Mario Andretti Lotus-Ford G 76 + 2 Laps 15
13 17   Geoff Lees Shadow-Ford G 70 Suspension 24
Ret 23   Bruno Giacomelli Alfa Romeo G 69 Engine 12
Ret 15   Jean-Pierre Jabouille Renault M 61 Puncture 1
Ret 4   Derek Daly Tyrrell-Ford G 61 Puncture 16
Ret 21   Keke Rosberg Fittipaldi-Ford G 58 Accident 23
NC 22   Patrick Depailler Alfa Romeo G 53 + 25 Laps 7
Ret 27   Alan Jones Williams-Ford G 34 Gearbox 8
Ret 2   Gilles Villeneuve Ferrari M 31 Transmission 10
Ret 1   Jody Scheckter Ferrari M 14 Engine 9
Ret 29   Riccardo Patrese Arrows-Ford G 10 Spun Off 11
Ret 31   Eddie Cheever Osella-Ford G 8 Spun Off 22
Ret 12   Elio de Angelis Lotus-Ford G 1 Spun Off 14
DNS 8   Alain Prost McLaren-Ford G Accident
DNS 9   Marc Surer ATS-Ford G Accident
DNQ 18   David Kennedy Shadow-Ford G
DNQ 10   Jan Lammers ATS-Ford G
Source:[3][4]

Championship standings after the race

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  • Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

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  1. ^ "History of McLaren - Timeline - The 1980s". McLaren. Archived from the original on 17 April 2008. Retrieved 19 January 2016.
  2. ^ "Grand Prix Results: South African GP, 1980". Grandprix.com. Retrieved 10 November 2008.
  3. ^ "1980 South African Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 18 February 2014. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  4. ^ "1980 South African Grand Prix - Race Results & History - GP Archive". GPArchive.com. March 1980. Retrieved 2 November 2021.
  5. ^ a b "South Africa 1980 - Championship • STATS F1". statsf1.com. Retrieved 20 March 2019.


Previous race:
1980 Brazilian Grand Prix
FIA Formula One World Championship
1980 season
Next race:
1980 United States Grand Prix West
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1979 South African Grand Prix
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1981 South African Grand Prix