1983 French Grand Prix

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1983 French Grand Prix
Race 3 of 15 in the 1983 Formula One World Championship
Race details
Date	April 17, 1983
Location	Paul Ricard Circuit
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	5.810[1] km (3.610 miles)
Distance	54 laps, 313.740[1] km (194.949 miles)
Weather	Dry, grey and cool[1]
Pole position
Driver	Alain Prost	Renault
Time	1:36.672
Fastest lap
Driver	Alain Prost	Renault
Time	1:42.695 on lap 34
Podium
First	Alain Prost	Renault
Second	Nelson Piquet	Brabham-BMW
Third	Eddie Cheever	Renault
Lap leaders

The 1983 French Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Paul Ricard on April 17, 1983.

French driver Alain Prost won the race for the Renault team, and this was the French marque's 3rd French Grand Prix win in a row and the 4th in 5 seasons. Second was the Brabham-BMW of 1981 World Champion Nelson Piquet, with Prost's Renault teammate Eddie Cheever finishing third. Rounding out the points finishers were Patrick Tambay in his Ferrari, and the non-turbo Williamses of Keke Rosberg and Jacques Laffite. This was the final time that both Renault cars started on the front row until the 2003 Malaysian Grand Prix, when young Spaniard Fernando Alonso and Jarno Trulli started on the front row.

Summary

Qualifying

On home soil, Renault dominated the French Grand Prix. Alain Prost took pole position 2.3 seconds faster than second placed teammate Eddie Cheever. On the fast Circuit Paul Ricard with its 1.8 km long Mistral Straight, turbo engines had a large advantage. The fastest normally-aspirated car was the 12th placed McLaren-Ford of Long Beach runner up Niki Lauda, qualifying some 4.3 seconds slower than pole-sitter Prost. After occupying the front row of the grid at Long Beach, Ferrari had difficulty with René Arnoux qualifying 4th and Tambay qualifying 11th.

Failing to qualify for the race were the RAM-Fords of Eliseo Salazar and debutante Jean-Louis Schlesser and the Osella of Piercarlo Ghinzani.

Race

As he had done in qualifying, Prost dominated the race for his first win in over 12 months, only losing the lead during the mid-race pit stops. Piquet finished second in the Brabham-BMW while Eddie Cheever finished 3rd in his Renault. Tambay managed to salvage what had been a tough weekend by finishing 4th with the Williams pair of Rosberg and Laffite finishing a lap down in 5th and 6th respectively.

Before the race, Lotus driver Nigel Mansell had his toes accidentally run over by his own team pushing his car in the pits which caused him to need a pain killing injection. He started the race but retired after just 6 laps when the pain of pushing the pedals became unbearable. Long Beach winner John Watson was the races first retirement on lap 3 with engine failure in his McLaren.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Gap
1	15	Alain Prost	Renault	1:38.358	1:36.672	—
2	16	Eddie Cheever	Renault	1:38.980	1:39.785	+2.308
3	6	Riccardo Patrese	Brabham-BMW	1:41.095	1:39.104	+2.432
4	28	René Arnoux	Ferrari	1:40.027	1:39.115	+2.443
5	11	Elio de Angelis	Lotus-Renault	1:39.512	1:39.312	+2.640
6	5	Nelson Piquet	Brabham-BMW	1:39.601	1:39.746	+2.929
7	22	Andrea de Cesaris	Alfa Romeo	1:38.099†	1:39.611	+2.939
8	23	Mauro Baldi	Alfa Romeo	1:41.215	1:39.618	+2.946
9	35	Derek Warwick	Toleman-Hart	1:43.038	1:39.881	+3.209
10	9	Manfred Winkelhock	ATS-BMW	1:40.233	1:44.997	+3.561
11	27	Patrick Tambay	Ferrari	1:40.393	1:40.488	+3.721
12	8	Niki Lauda	McLaren-Ford	1:41.065	1:41.492	+4.393
13	36	Bruno Giacomelli	Toleman-Hart	1:42.219	1:41.775	+5.103
14	7	John Watson	McLaren-Ford	1:41.838	1:42.448	+5.166
15	3	Michele Alboreto	Tyrrell-Ford	1:42.177	1:43.317	+5.505
16	1	Keke Rosberg	Williams-Ford	1:42.450	1:42.551	+5.778
17	34	Johnny Cecotto	Theodore-Ford	1:43.552	1:42.615	+5.943
18	12	Nigel Mansell	Lotus-Ford	1:43.320	1:42.650	+5.978
19	2	Jacques Laffite	Williams-Ford	1:43.295	1:42.678	+6.006
20	25	Jean-Pierre Jarier	Ligier-Ford	1:42.808	1:42.737	+6.065
21	29	Marc Surer	Arrows-Ford	1:42.962	1:44.346	+6.290
22	33	Roberto Guerrero	Theodore-Ford	1:43.367	1:43.602	+6.695
23	31	Corrado Fabi	Osella-Ford	1:45.638	1:43.411	+6.739
24	4	Danny Sullivan	Tyrrell-Ford	1:44.317	1:43.654	+6.982
25	26	Raul Boesel	Ligier-Ford	1:44.470	1:44.905	+7.798
26	30	Chico Serra	Arrows-Ford	1:44.778	1:45.859	+8.106
27	17	Eliseo Salazar	RAM-Ford	1:45.073	2:02.335	+8.401
28	32	Piercarlo Ghinzani	Osella-Ford	1:46.541	1:45.812	+9.140
29	18	Jean-Louis Schlesser	RAM-Ford	1:45.866	1:46.102	+9.194
Source:[2][3][4][5]

• † — Time disallowed

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Tyre	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	15	Alain Prost	Renault	M	54	1:34:13.913	1	9
2	5	Nelson Piquet	Brabham-BMW	M	54	+ 29.720	6	6
3	16	Eddie Cheever	Renault	M	54	+ 40.232	2	4
4	27	Patrick Tambay	Ferrari	G	54	+ 1:06.880	11	3
5	1	Keke Rosberg	Williams-Ford	G	53	+ 1 Lap	16	2
6	2	Jacques Laffite	Williams-Ford	G	53	+ 1 Lap	19	1
7	28	René Arnoux	Ferrari	G	53	+ 1 Lap	4
8	3	Michele Alboreto	Tyrrell-Ford	G	53	+ 1 Lap	15
9	25	Jean-Pierre Jarier	Ligier-Ford	M	53	+ 1 Lap	20
10	29	Marc Surer	Arrows-Ford	G	53	+ 1 Lap	21
11	34	Johnny Cecotto	Theodore-Ford	G	52	+ 2 Laps	17
12	22	Andrea de Cesaris	Alfa Romeo	M	50	+ 4 Laps	7
13	36	Bruno Giacomelli	Toleman-Hart	P	49	Gearbox	13
Ret	26	Raul Boesel	Ligier-Ford	M	47	Engine	25
Ret	31	Corrado Fabi	Osella-Ford	M	36	Engine	23
Ret	9	Manfred Winkelhock	ATS-BMW	G	36	Turbo	10
Ret	8	Niki Lauda	McLaren-Ford	M	29	Wheel bearing	12
Ret	23	Mauro Baldi	Alfa Romeo	M	28	Spun Off	8
Ret	30	Chico Serra	Arrows-Ford	G	26	Gearbox	26
Ret	33	Roberto Guerrero	Theodore-Ford	G	23	Engine	22
Ret	4	Danny Sullivan	Tyrrell-Ford	G	21	Clutch	24
Ret	11	Elio de Angelis	Lotus-Renault	P	20	Electrical	5
Ret	6	Riccardo Patrese	Brabham-BMW	M	19	Water Leak	3
Ret	35	Derek Warwick	Toleman-Hart	P	14	Engine	9
Ret	12	Nigel Mansell	Lotus-Ford	P	6	Physical	18
Ret	7	John Watson	McLaren-Ford	M	3	Engine	14
DNQ	17	Eliseo Salazar	RAM-Ford	P
DNQ	32	Piercarlo Ghinzani	Osella-Ford	M
DNQ	18	Jean-Louis Schlesser	RAM-Ford	P
Source:[6][7]

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Nelson Piquet 15 2 Niki Lauda 10 3 Alain Prost 9 4 John Watson 9 5 Jacques Laffite 7 Source:[8]

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 McLaren-Ford 19 2 Brabham-BMW 15 3 Renault 13 4 Ferrari 9 5 Williams-Ford 9 Source:[8]

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

References