1982 San Marino Grand Prix

  1982 San Marino Grand Prix

Race details
Race 4 of 16 in the 1982 Formula One season
Date	April 25, 1982
Official name	2° Gran Premio di San Marino
Location	Autodromo Dino Ferrari Imola, Emilia-Romagna, Italy
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	5.040 km (3.132 mi)
Distance	60 laps, 302.400 km (187.902 mi)
Pole position
Driver	René Arnoux	Renault
Time	1:29.765
Fastest lap
Driver	Didier Pironi	Ferrari
Time	1:35.036 on lap 44
Podium
First	Didier Pironi	Ferrari
Second	Gilles Villeneuve	Ferrari
Third	Michele Alboreto	Tyrrell-Ford

The 1982 San Marino Grand Prix was the fourth race of the 1982 Formula One World Championship. It was held on the weekend of April 23–25, 1982 at the Autodromo Dino Ferrari, Imola. The race was marked by a boycott of many teams as part of a political war, unrelated to the event itself, involving the two dominant forces within the sport, FISA and FOCA, which caused the field for this race to be only 14 cars. It was Gilles Villeneuve's final race, as he was killed at the following race in Belgium.

Summary

See also: FISA-FOCA war

In a decision relating to the 1982 Brazilian Grand Prix, Nelson Piquet and Keke Rosberg were excluded for their cars' crafty use of water tanks as ballast to keep them under the weight limit during race conditions. An immediate outcry from the Formula One Constructors Association (FOCA) followed, and as the decision happened after the USGP West it was decided that the next race would be boycotted, and that race was Imola.

While most FOCA-aligned teams, such as Brabham, McLaren, Williams and Lotus boycotted the race, four teams– Tyrrell, Osella, ATS and Toleman– broke their stated boycott and started the race anyway.

Even with these teams defecting and starting the race, there were only 14 starters for the San Marino Grand Prix, of which at the time only the Ferraris and Renaults were considered competitive teams. This did not discourage the tifosi, maybe even the opposite, since it improved Ferrari's chances, and the venue was full of spectators.

Despite the Renaults of René Arnoux and Alain Prost qualifying 1-2, their cars failed in the race leaving Ferrari occupying the top two positions with Gilles Villeneuve leading Didier Pironi. The third-placed Tyrrell of Michele Alboreto was far behind, so Ferrari ordered their drivers to slow down to minimize the risk of mechanical failure or running out of fuel. Villeneuve believed this order also meant that the cars were to maintain position on the track, with Villeneuve ahead of Pironi. However, Pironi believed that the cars were free to race, and passed Villeneuve. Villeneuve believed that Pironi was simply trying to spice up an otherwise dull race, and duly re-passed his team mate, assuming that he would then hold station for the remainder of the race. Thus, Villeneuve failed to protect the inside line going into the Tosa corner on the final lap, and Pironi passed him to take the win. Villeneuve was irate at what he saw as Pironi's betrayal, although opinion inside the Ferrari team was split over the true meaning of the order to slow down. Villeneuve's expression was sullen on the podium, enraged by Pironi's actions. He was quoted afterwards as saying, "I'll never speak to Pironi again in my life." They proved to be prophetic words, as he was still not on speaking terms with his teammate when he died during qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix two weeks later.

Manfred Winkelhock was disqualified for his car being underweight in post-race scrutineering.

Despite most of the FOCA aligned teams boycotting the race it still counted towards the World Championship. This was a bone of contention with the FOCA teams as two previous races held during the war (the 1980 Spanish Grand Prix and the 1981 South African Grand Prix) which had seen all three manufacturer teams boycotting had been down-graded to non-championship races and had not counted towards the championship or official records.

Qualifying

Pos	No.	Driver	Constructor	Lap	Gap
1	16	René Arnoux	Renault	1:29.765	—
2	15	Alain Prost	Renault	1:30.249	+ 0.484
3	27	Gilles Villeneuve	Ferrari	1:30.717	+ 0.952
4	28	Didier Pironi	Ferrari	1:32.020	+ 2.255
5	3	Michele Alboreto	Tyrrell-Ford	1:33.209	+ 3.444
6	23	Bruno Giacomelli	Alfa Romeo	1:33.230	+ 3.465
7	22	Andrea de Cesaris	Alfa Romeo	1:33.397	+ 3.632
8	35	Derek Warwick	Toleman-Hart	1:33.503	+ 3.738
9	31	Jean-Pierre Jarier	Osella-Ford	1:34.336	+ 4.571
10	36	Teo Fabi	Toleman-Hart	1:34.647	+ 4.882
11	4	Brian Henton	Tyrrell-Ford	1:35.262	+ 5.497
12	9	Manfred Winkelhock	ATS-Ford	1:35.790	+ 6.025
13	32	Riccardo Paletti	Osella-Ford	1:36.228	+ 6.463
14	10	Eliseo Salazar	ATS-Ford	1:36.434	+ 6.669

Classification

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	28	Didier Pironi	Ferrari	60	1:36:38.887	4	9
2	27	Gilles Villeneuve	Ferrari	60	+ 0.366	3	6
3	3	Michele Alboreto	Tyrrell-Ford	60	+ 1:07.684	5	4
4	31	Jean-Pierre Jarier	Osella-Ford	59	+ 1 Lap	9	3
5	10	Eliseo Salazar	ATS-Ford	57	+ 3 Laps	14	2
DSQ	9	Manfred Winkelhock	ATS-Ford	54	Disqualified	12
NC	36	Teo Fabi	Toleman-Hart	52	Not classified	10
Ret	16	René Arnoux	Renault	44	Turbo	1
Ret	23	Bruno Giacomelli	Alfa Romeo	24	Engine	6
Ret	32	Riccardo Paletti	Osella-Ford	7	Suspension	13
Ret	15	Alain Prost	Renault	6	Engine	2
Ret	22	Andrea de Cesaris	Alfa Romeo	4	Electrical	7
Ret	4	Brian Henton	Tyrrell-Ford	0	Transmission	11
Ret	35	Derek Warwick	Toleman-Hart	0	Electrical	8
Source:

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Alain Prost	18
2	Niki Lauda	12
3	Didier Pironi	10
4	Michele Alboreto	10
5	Keke Rosberg	8

Constructors' Championship standings

Pos	Constructor	Points
1	Renault	22
2	McLaren-Ford	20
3	Ferrari	16
4	Williams-Ford	14
5	Tyrrell-Ford	10

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

References

Previous race: 1982 United States Grand Prix West	FIA Formula One World Championship 1982 season	Next race: 1982 Belgian Grand Prix
Previous race: 1981 San Marino Grand Prix	San Marino Grand Prix	Next race: 1983 San Marino Grand Prix

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