Total chaos: Monaco Grand Prix 1982
The 1982 Monaco Grand Prix featured possibly the most eventful finish in Formula 1 history, with five lead changes in the last two laps.
The F1 world was still reeling from the death of Gilles Villeneuve two weeks earlier and Ferrari took only one car to the world’s most famous street race.
The race started smoothly with pole man Rene Arnoux in the Renault leading Giacomelli’s Alfa, followed by Patrese’s Brabham-BMW with Prost (Renault) fourth and Pironi (Ferrari) fifth.
There wasn’t too much action until rain began to fall during the closing stages.
Rosberg was the first to crash, smacking a barrier on lap 65. Then Derek Daly followed suit, crashing his Williams at Tabac, however he managed to keep going albeit with no rear wing and a trail of oil.
On lap 74 Prost had a big one at the chicane bruising his legs from the huge impact with the barrier. This put Patrese into the lead, but halfway around the 75th lap he spun at the Loews Hairpin.
Pironi was now in front. but his Ferrari was running out of fuel and conked out on the final lap. The lead would have been inherited by the unlucky de Cesaris, but he too was out of juice.
In theory Mansell should have come through for the win as he was a lap behind, but Patrese had been pushed by marshals because his Brabham was in a dangerous position. Patreses had calmly rolled down the hill and bump-started his Brabham and cruised through to take his first Grand Prix victory. When he finally crossed the line he did not even know he had won.
Pironi (stopped) and de Cesaris (immobile) were classified 2nd and 3rd, with Daly (stationary) sixth.
Here is what Riccardo said about his maiden GP triumph on his official website
“I was very cautious when I came to Loews, but I couldn’t control it and I spun. Afterwards someone objected that the marshals had pushed me. I didn’t feel any push. I think they pulled me back a little, as I was in an unsafe position, stuck in the middle of the track. Then they let go. The moment I released the brakes the car started to roll. I went down the hill, let the car get some speed, grabbed second gear and it started – with the Cosworth it was always quite easy to do a bump start.”
“I didn’t know I’d won the GP. On the last lap de Cesaris stopped, then Pironi. I thought Rosberg’s Williams was still ahead of me because I thought he’d overtaken me. So I thought I was second. On the finishing lap everybody was waving flags and so on, while I was thinking I’d thrown it all away. I can remember thinking, ‘maybe they are pleased I finished second and drove a good race’, but I was very, very unhappy.”
“I was not in a hurry to get to the podium, because in the briefing they said only the winning car should stop in front of it. Because I was not the winner I decided to give a lift to Didier. I dropped him off and instead of letting me go into the pits, I was shown the way to the podium. I didn’t understand. I thought they changed the rule and wanted the first three. But only my car was there! However there were more than three drivers; there was me, de Cesaris, Pironi and de Angelis! There was a big discussion over who was first, second or third. Somebody came to me and started to shout, ‘You won, you won.’ Then I finally realised…”
“Whenever you win at Monte Carlo there’s a very good party, and that year was even more special because it was the last time Princess Grace was there – she died in October of that year. I was quite young, and still a bit shy. She was really very kind and nice to me, and they tried to make me comfortable in that situation.”
Images: RiccardoPatrese.com
