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25px South African flag after 1928  1980 South African Grand Prix
Race details
Race 3 of 14 in the 1980 Formula One season
Kyalami 1968layout.svg
Date 1 March 1980
Location Kyalami
Gauteng, South Africa
Course Permanent racing facility
4.104 km (2.550 mi)
Distance 78 laps, 320.112 km (198.908 mi)
Weather Dry
Pole position
Driver 25px France Jean-Pierre Jabouille Renault
Time 1:10.00
Fastest lap
Driver 25px France René Arnoux Renault
Time 1:13.15 on lap 51
Podium
First 25px France René Arnoux Renault
Second 25px France Jacques Laffite Ligier-Ford
Third 25px France 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.

The race was additionally notable because of two accidents during qualifying. French driver Alain Prost broke his wrist when he crashed his McLaren M29 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 to 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 25px France René Arnoux Renault 78 1:36:52.54 2 9
2 26 25px France Jacques Laffite Ligier-Ford 78 +34.07 4 6
3 25 25px France Didier Pironi Ligier-Ford 78 +52.49 5 4
4 5 25px Brazil Nelson Piquet Brabham-Ford 78 +1:01.02 3 3
5 28 25px Argentina Carlos Reutemann Williams-Ford 77 +1 Lap 6 2
6 30 25px Germany Jochen Mass Arrows-Ford 77 +1 Lap 19 1
7 3 25px France Jean-Pierre Jarier Tyrrell-Ford 77 +1 Lap 13
8 20 25px Brazil Emerson Fittipaldi Fittipaldi-Ford 77 +1 Lap 18
9 14 25px Switzerland Clay Regazzoni Ensign-Ford 77 +1 Lap 20
10 6 25px Argentina Ricardo Zunino Brabham-Ford 77 +1 Lap 17
11 7 25px United Kingdom John Watson McLaren-Ford 76 +2 Laps 21
12 11 25px United States Mario Andretti Lotus-Ford 76 +2 laps 15
13 17 25px United Kingdom Geoff Lees Shadow-Ford 70 Suspension 24
Ret 23 25px Italy Bruno Giacomelli Alfa Romeo 69 Engine 12
Ret 15 25px France Jean-Pierre Jabouille Renault 61 Puncture 1
Ret 4 25px Flag of the Republic of Ireland Derek Daly Tyrrell-Ford 61 Puncture 16
Ret 21 25px Finland Keke Rosberg Fittipaldi-Ford 58 Accident 23
NC 22 25px France Patrick Depailler Alfa Romeo 53 Not Classified 7
Ret 27 25px Australia Alan Jones Williams-Ford 34 Gearbox 8
Ret 2 25px Canada Gilles Villeneuve Ferrari 31 Transmission 10
Ret 1 25px South African flag after 1928 Jody Scheckter Ferrari 14 Engine 9
Ret 29 25px Italy Riccardo Patrese Arrows-Ford 10 Spun Off 11
Ret 31 25px United States Eddie Cheever Osella-Ford 8 Spun Off 22
Ret 12 25px Italy Elio de Angelis Lotus-Ford 1 Spun Off 14
DNS 8 25px France Alain Prost McLaren-Ford Accident
DNS 9 25px Switzerland Marc Surer ATS-Ford Accident
DNQ 18 25px Flag of the Republic of Ireland Dave Kennedy Shadow-Ford
DNQ 10 25px Netherlands Jan Lammers ATS-Ford

Standings after the race[]

Drivers' Championship standings
Pos Driver Points
1 25px France René Arnoux 18
2 25px Australia Alan Jones 13
3 25px Brazil Nelson Piquet 9
4 25px France Didier Pironi 7
5 25px Italy Elio de Angelis 6
Constructors' Championship standings
Pos Constructor Points
1 25px France Renault 18
2 25px UK Williams-Ford 15
3 25px France Ligier-Ford 13
4 25px UK Brabham-Ford 9
5 25px UK Lotus-Ford 6
  • Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References[]


Previous race:
1980 Brazilian Grand Prix
FIA Formula One World Championship
1980 season
Next race:
1980 United States Grand Prix West
Previous race:
1979 South African Grand Prix
South African Grand Prix Next race:
1981 South African Grand Prix
Smallwikipedialogo.png This page uses some content from Wikipedia. The original article was at 1980 South African Grand Prix. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Autopedia, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.


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