1984 San Marino Grand Prix

1984 San Marino Grand Prix
Race 4 of 16 in the 1984 Formula One World Championship
Race details
Date	6 May 1984
Official name	4o Gran Premio di San Marino
Location	Autodromo Dino Ferrari Imola, Emilia-Romagna, Italy
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	5.040 km (3.132 miles)
Distance	60 laps, 302.400 km (187.902 miles)
Pole position
Driver	Nelson Piquet	Brabham-BMW
Time	1:28.517
Fastest lap
Driver	Nelson Piquet	Brabham-BMW
Time	1:33.275 on lap 48
Podium
First	Alain Prost	McLaren-TAG
Second	René Arnoux	Ferrari
Third	Elio de Angelis	Lotus-Renault
Lap leaders

The 1984 San Marino Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Imola on 6 May 1984. It was the fourth race of the 1984 Formula One World Championship.

Report

Pre-race

A dispute between the Toleman team and tyre suppliers Pirelli lead to Ayrton Senna missing out on Friday practice running for his first Grand Prix around Imola. On Saturday his Hart 415T engine developed a misfire leading to Senna failing to qualify, the only time this would happen in the Brazilian's F1 career.

Race

The 60-lap race was won by Alain Prost, driving a McLaren-TAG. René Arnoux finished second in a Ferrari, while Elio de Angelis was third in a Lotus-Renault, despite running out of fuel on the last lap, and Derek Warwick finished fourth unable to unlap himself in the last lap largely because he was running dangerously low on fuel also and as such, followed Prost across the line so as not to have to do another lap (if he managed he would have completed more laps than de Angelis, promoting him onto the podium). Stefan Bellof finished fifth but was disqualified at the end of the season, so Thierry Boutsen (Arrows-Ford) and Andrea de Cesaris (Ligier-Renault) rounded out the points finishers, despite the de Cesaris running out of fuel in the last lap.

Andrea de Cesaris running out of fuel was the third time in 1984 that a Renault had run out of fuel as the factory Renault of Patrick Tambay had also run out of fuel in the first two races of the season in Brazil and South Africa. It had become fairly obvious over the first four races that 220 litres of fuel was not enough for the Renault turbo to finish the races at a winning pace, especially compared to the Porsche built TAG turbo being used by McLaren's. After the race Warwick said "This isn't motor racing, its a bloody joke. How am I supposed to race when I know I'm going to run out of fuel?" The Englishman's big problem in the closing laps was that having to continually turn the boost down and cut his revs as he was in the negative on his fuel readout had caused his engine to misfire leaving him no choice but to follow Prost home and forget about trying to catch the Lotus of de Angelis.ISSN 0158-4138

The race was not as straight forward for Prost as it seemed. During practice his TAG engine had cut out at times due to an electrical fault that could not be traced, and it did so again during the race, once which actually caused the McLaren to spin through the infield as he braked for Rivazza just before half distance. The spin resolved the issue of whether or not the Frenchman would come in for tyres as it was now necessary, he had flat spotted his soft Michelin 010's in the spin. However, the stop was a quick one and he retained a 20 second lead.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Gap
1	1	Nelson Piquet	Brabham-BMW	1:35.493	1:28.517
2	7	Alain Prost	McLaren-TAG	1:35.687	1:28.628	+0.111
3	6	Keke Rosberg	Williams-Honda	1:37.024	1:29.418	+0.901
4	16	Derek Warwick	Renault	1:36.706	1:29.682	+1.165
5	8	Niki Lauda	McLaren-TAG	1:38.021	1:30.325	+1.808
6	28	René Arnoux	Ferrari	1:38.389	1:30.411	+1.894
7	14	Manfred Winkelhock	ATS-BMW	1:47.362	1:30.723	+2.206
8	23	Eddie Cheever	Alfa Romeo	1:42.731	1:30.843	+2.326
9	2	Teo Fabi	Brabham-BMW	1:37.594	1:30.950	+2.433
10	22	Riccardo Patrese	Alfa Romeo	1:41.363	1:31.163	+2.646
11	11	Elio de Angelis	Lotus-Renault	1:38.423	1:31.173	+2.656
12	26	Andrea de Cesaris	Ligier-Renault	1:36.613	1:31.256	+2.739
13	27	Michele Alboreto	Ferrari	1:47.919	1:31.282	+2.765
14	15	Patrick Tambay	Renault	1:36.250	1:31.633	+3.146
15	5	Jacques Laffite	Williams-Honda	1:41.891	1:32.600	+4.083
16	17	Marc Surer	Arrows-BMW	1:42.046	1:33.063	+4.546
17	25	François Hesnault	Ligier-Renault	1:40.356	1:33.186	+4.669
18	12	Nigel Mansell	Lotus-Renault	1:38.363	1:34.477	+5.960
19	20	Johnny Cecotto	Toleman-Hart	no time	1:35.568	+7.051
20	18	Thierry Boutsen	Arrows-Ford	1:40.920	1:36.018	+7.501
21	4	Stefan Bellof	Tyrrell-Ford	1:39.765	1:36.059	+7.542
22	3	Martin Brundle	Tyrrell-Ford	1:41.123	1:36.531	+8.014
23	9	Philippe Alliot	RAM-Hart	1:43.132	1:36.733	+8.216
24	21	Mauro Baldi	Spirit-Hart	1:42.249	1:36.916	+8.399
25	10	Jonathan Palmer	RAM-Hart	1:53.014	1:37.262	+8.745
26	30	Jo Gartner	Osella-Alfa Romeo	1:50.979	1:38.948	+10.431
27	24	Piercarlo Ghinzani	Osella-Alfa Romeo	1:40.790	2:05.421	+12.273
28	19	Ayrton Senna	Toleman-Hart	no time	1:41.585	+13.068

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	7	Alain Prost	McLaren-TAG	60	1:36:53.679	2	9
2	28	René Arnoux	Ferrari	60	+ 13.416	6	6
3	11	Elio de Angelis	Lotus-Renault	59	Out of Fuel	11	4
4	16	Derek Warwick	Renault	59	+ 1 Lap	4	3
5	18	Thierry Boutsen	Arrows-Ford	59	+ 1 Lap	20	2
6	26	Andrea de Cesaris	Ligier-Renault	58	Out of Fuel	12	1
7	23	Eddie Cheever	Alfa Romeo	58	Out of Fuel	8
8	21	Mauro Baldi	Spirit-Hart	58	+ 2 Laps	24
9	10	Jonathan Palmer	RAM-Hart	57	+ 3 Laps	25
DSQ	4	Stefan Bellof	Tyrrell-Ford	59	Disqualified	21
DSQ	3	Martin Brundle	Tyrrell-Ford	55	Disqualified	22
Ret	9	Philippe Alliot	RAM-Hart	53	Turbo	23
NC	20	Johnny Cecotto	Toleman-Hart	52	+ 8 Laps	19
Ret	1	Nelson Piquet	Brabham-BMW	48	Turbo	1
Ret	2	Teo Fabi	Brabham-BMW	48	Turbo	9
Ret	30	Jo Gartner	Osella-Alfa Romeo	46	Engine	26
Ret	17	Marc Surer	Arrows-BMW	40	Turbo	16
Ret	14	Manfred Winkelhock	ATS-BMW	31	Turbo	7
Ret	27	Michele Alboreto	Ferrari	23	Exhaust	13
Ret	8	Niki Lauda	McLaren-TAG	15	Engine	5
Ret	5	Jacques Laffite	Williams-Honda	11	Engine	15
Ret	22	Riccardo Patrese	Alfa Romeo	6	Electrical	10
Ret	12	Nigel Mansell	Lotus-Renault	2	Spun Off	18
Ret	6	Keke Rosberg	Williams-Honda	2	Electrical	3
Ret	15	Patrick Tambay	Renault	0	Collision	14
Ret	25	François Hesnault	Ligier-Renault	0	Collision	17
DNQ	24	Piercarlo Ghinzani	Osella-Alfa Romeo
DNQ	19	Ayrton Senna	Toleman-Hart
Source:

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Alain Prost	24
2	Derek Warwick	13
3	René Arnoux	10
4	Elio de Angelis	10
5	Michele Alboreto	9
Source:

Constructors' Championship standings

Pos	Constructor	Points
1	McLaren-TAG	33
2	Ferrari	19
3	Renault	14
4	Lotus-Renault	10
5	Williams-Honda	9
Source:

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. Points accurate at final declaration of results. Tyrrell and its drivers were subsequently disqualified and their points reallocated.