1980 South African Grand Prix

  1980 South African Grand Prix

Race details
Race 3 of 14 in the 1980 Formula One season
Date	1 March 1980
Location	Kyalami Gauteng, South Africa
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	4.104 km (2.550 mi)
Distance	78 laps, 320.112 km (198.908 mi)
Weather	Dry
Pole position
Driver	Jean-Pierre Jabouille	Renault
Time	1:10.00
Fastest lap
Driver	René Arnoux	Renault
Time	1:13.15 on lap 51
Podium
First	René Arnoux	Renault
Second	Jacques Laffite	Ligier-Ford
Third	Didier Pironi	Ligier-Ford

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.

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 team mate Didier Pironi was third, completing an all France podium. This was the first race since the 1968 United States Grand Prix to have a podium made up of drivers from just one country. All three drivers 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. Swiss driver Marc Surer was hurt more seriously when he crashed the new ATS D4 at Crowthorne Corner at the end of the straight. Surer suffered serious injuries to his legs. 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.

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

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	16	René Arnoux	Renault	78	1:36:52.54	2	9
2	26	Jacques Laffite	Ligier-Ford	78	+34.07	4	6
3	25	Didier Pironi	Ligier-Ford	78	+52.49	5	4
4	5	Nelson Piquet	Brabham-Ford	78	+1:01.02	3	3
5	28	Carlos Reutemann	Williams-Ford	77	+1 Lap	6	2
6	30	Jochen Mass	Arrows-Ford	77	+1 Lap	19	1
7	3	Jean-Pierre Jarier	Tyrrell-Ford	77	+1 Lap	13
8	20	Emerson Fittipaldi	Fittipaldi-Ford	77	+1 Lap	18
9	14	Clay Regazzoni	Ensign-Ford	77	+1 Lap	20
10	6	Ricardo Zunino	Brabham-Ford	77	+1 Lap	17
11	7	John Watson	McLaren-Ford	76	+2 Laps	21
12	11	Mario Andretti	Lotus-Ford	76	+2 laps	15
13	17	Geoff Lees	Shadow-Ford	70	Suspension	24
Ret	23	Bruno Giacomelli	Alfa Romeo	69	Engine	12
Ret	15	Jean-Pierre Jabouille	Renault	61	Puncture	1
Ret	4	Derek Daly	Tyrrell-Ford	61	Puncture	16
Ret	21	Keke Rosberg	Fittipaldi-Ford	58	Accident	23
NC	22	Patrick Depailler	Alfa Romeo	53	Not Classified	7
Ret	27	Alan Jones	Williams-Ford	34	Gearbox	8
Ret	2	Gilles Villeneuve	Ferrari	31	Transmission	10
Ret	1	Jody Scheckter	Ferrari	14	Engine	9
Ret	29	Riccardo Patrese	Arrows-Ford	10	Spun Off	11
Ret	31	Eddie Cheever	Osella-Ford	8	Spun Off	22
Ret	12	Elio de Angelis	Lotus-Ford	1	Spun Off	14
DNS	8	Alain Prost	McLaren-Ford		Accident
DNS	9	Marc Surer	ATS-Ford		Accident
DNQ	18	David Kennedy	Shadow-Ford
DNQ	10	Jan Lammers	ATS-Ford
Source:[3]

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 René Arnoux 18 2 Alan Jones 13 3 Nelson Piquet 9 4 Didier Pironi 7 5 Elio de Angelis 6

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Renault 18 2 Williams-Ford 15 3 Ligier-Ford 13 4 Brabham-Ford 9 5 Lotus-Ford 6

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

References

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". GP Encyclopedia. Inside F1, Inc. Retrieved 2008-10-11.
3. "1980 South African Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 18 February 2014. Retrieved 23 December 2015.