Monaco GP 1980

MAY 18, 1980

Monaco GP, 1980

The driver lineup was the same as in Belgium and so there were 27 cars fighting for the 20 places on the grid. Belgian GP winner Didier Pironi was on pole position in his Ligier ahead of the two Williams FW07Bs with Carlos Reutemann ahead of Alan Jones. Nelson Piquet was fourth on the grid and then came Jacques Laffite (Ligier), Gilles Villeneuve (Ferrari), the Alfa Romeos of Patrick Depailler and Bruno Giacomelli, Jean-Pierre Jarier's Tyrrell and Alain Prost, showing well in the difficult McLaren. His teammate John Watson failed to qualify as did Ricardo Zunino in the second Brabham, while it was a bad day for Renault (with Jean-Pierre Jabouille 16th and Rene Arnoux 20th and World Champion Jody Scheckter who was 17th in his Ferrari.

At the start of the race Pironi took the lead from Reutemann, Jones, Laffite, Depailler and Piquet. Behind them there was a huge accident as Derek Daly (Tyrrell) ran into the back of Giacomelli's Alfa Romeo and spun into Prost,s McLaren. The car was then launched into the air and landed on top of Jarier's Tyrrell. Also damaged in the carnage was Jan Lammers's ATS.

While this was happening Jones had overtaken Reutemann. The order then remained unchanged until lap 24 when Jones suffered a differential failure and retired, leaving Reutemann in second place with Laffite third, Depailler fourth and Piquet fifth.

It then began to rain. Pironi seemed to have everything under control but then his gearbox began jumping out of third and on lap 55 this caught him out and he crashed coming out of Casino Square. Depailler had also disappeared with an engine failure and so Reutemann was left in the lead with Laffite in a solid second. Piquet was third but not really a threat and everyone else was a lap down. This is how they finished with Jochen Mass fourth in his Arrows, Villeneuve fifth and Emerson Fittipaldi (Fittipaldi) in sixth position.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
28 Carlos Reutemann Williams-Cosworth  76 1h55m34.365s  
26 Jacques Laffite Ligier-Cosworth  76 1h56m47.994s  
Nelson Piquet Brabham-Cosworth  76 1h56m52.091s  
30 Jochen Mass Arrows-Cosworth  75  15 
Gilles Villeneuve Ferrari  75  
20 Emerson Fittipaldi Fittipaldi-Cosworth  74  18 
11 Mario Andretti Lotus-Cosworth  73  19 
29 Riccardo Patrese Arrows-Cosworth  73  11 
9r 12 Elio de Angelis Lotus-Cosworth  68 Accident 14 
nc Jan Lammers ATS-Cosworth  64  13 
25 Didier Pironi Ligier-Cosworth  54 Accident 
16 Rene Arnoux Renault  53 Accident 20 
22 Patrick Depailler Alfa Romeo  50 Engine 
Jody Scheckter Ferrari  27 Handling 17 
15 Jean-Pierre Jabouille Renault  25 Gearbox 16 
27 Alan Jones Williams-Cosworth  24 Differential 
Jean-Pierre Jarier Tyrrell-Cosworth  Accident 
23 Bruno Giacomelli Alfa Romeo  Accident 
Alain Prost McLaren-Cosworth  Accident 10 
Derek Daly Tyrrell-Cosworth  Accident 12 
nq John Watson McLaren-Cosworth    21 
nq 31 Eddie Cheever Osella-Cosworth    22 
nq 17 Geoff Lees Shadow-Cosworth    23 
nq 21 Keke Rosberg Fittipaldi-Cosworth    24 
nq Ricardo Zunino Brabham-Cosworth    25 
nq 14 Tiff Needell Ensign-Cosworth    26 
nq 18 David Kennedy Shadow-Cosworth    27