Portuguese GP 1984

Portuguese GP, 1984

It was 24 years since the last Portuguese GP had been held in Oporto. Upgrading work at the Estoril circuit was still being finished when the F1 circus arrived and heavy rains had not helped but there were few complaints from the drivers. The field was slightly bigger than usual because Renault Sport was running a third car for test driver Philippe Streiff. The only other change was the appearance of Manfred Winkelhock in the second Brabham after Teo Fabi's father died suddenly and he went back to Italy.

Qualifying was the same story as it had been at previous races with Nelson Piquet (Brabham-BMW) on pole position ahead of Alain Prost (McLaren-TAG). Ayrton Senna was an impressive third for Toleman with Keke Rosberg fourth in his Williams-Honda. Then came the two Lotus-Renaults of Elio de Angelis and Nigel Mansell, Patrick Tambay's Renault, Michele Alboreto's Ferrari and Derek Warwick in the second Renault. Stefan Johansson was 10th in the second Toleman while World Championship leader Niki Lauda was only 11th. With four and a half points between Lauda and Prost, Alain needed to win the race with Lauda lower than third. He could finish second if Lauda failed to score.

At the start Piquet went away slowly and Prost got ahead but he was beaten away by Rosberg and Mansell and was only third at the first corner. Alain made quick work of Mansell and chased after Rosberg. Further back Lauda began making progress up the field, picking carefully through the midfield. On the ninth lap Prost went ahead. Lauda was still ninth so things were looking good for the Frenchman. Behind him Mansell overtook Rosberg for second and was followed through by Senna, Alboreto was fifth and Johansson got the better of de Angelis to run sixth. On lap 18 Lauda passed de Angelis and nine laps later he moved ahead of Johansson. In the meantime Senna overtook Rosberg. On lap 28 Lauda was ahead of Alboreto and in the points. and within a few laps he was ahead of Rosberg. On lap 33 he passed Senna for third. The order now remained stable until lap 51 when Mansell spun because of brake trouble. He restarted before Lauda could pass him but the McLaren was right on his tail. On the next lap Mansell spun again and Lauda was second. It was all he needed. Prost duly won but lost the World title by half a point to Lauda.

Senna finished third with Alboreto fourth, de Angelis fifth and Piquet sixth.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
Alain Prost McLaren-TAG Porsche  70 1h41m11.753s  
Niki Lauda McLaren-TAG Porsche  70 1h41m25.178s  11 
19 Ayrton Senna Toleman-Hart  70 1h41m31.795s  
27 Michele Alboreto Ferrari  70 1h41m32.070s  
11 Elio de Angelis Lotus-Renault  70 1h42m43.922s  
Nelson Piquet Brabham-BMW  69  
15 Patrick Tambay Renault  69  
22 Riccardo Patrese Alfa Romeo  69  12 
28 Rene Arnoux Ferrari  69  17 
10 Manfred Winkelhock Brabham-BMW  69  19 
11 20 Stefan Johansson Toleman-Hart  69  10 
12 26 Andrea de Cesaris Ligier-Renault  69  20 
13 31 Gerhard Berger ATS-BMW  68  23 
14 Jacques Laffite Williams-Honda  67  15 
15 21 Mauro Baldi Spirit-Hart  66  25 
16r 30 Jo Gartner Osella-Alfa Romeo  65 Out Of Fuel 24 
17 23 Eddie Cheever Alfa Romeo  64  14 
24 Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Alfa Romeo  60 Engine 22 
12 Nigel Mansell Lotus-Renault  52 Brake Fluid Loss/spin 
16 Derek Warwick Renault  51 Gearbox 
33 Philippe Streiff Renault  48 Drive Shaft  13 
Keke Rosberg Williams-Honda  39 Engine 
25 Francois Hesnault Ligier-Renault  31 Electrics 21 
18 Thierry Boutsen Arrows-Cosworth  24 Drive Shaft 18 
18 Thierry Boutsen Arrows-Cosworth  24 Driveshaft 18 
10 Jonathan Palmer RAM-Hart  19 Gearbox 26 
17 Marc Surer Arrows-Cosworth  Electrics 16 
Philippe Alliot RAM-Hart  Engine Failure 27