1984 South African Grand Prix

Report

Qualifying

Qualifying saw reigning World Champion Nelson Piquet take the first of an eventual nine pole positions for 1984 in his Brabham-BMW (which was clocked at 325 km/h on the circuit's long front straight), with Keke Rosberg alongside him on the front row in his Williams-Honda. On the second row were Nigel Mansell in the Lotus and Patrick Tambay in the factory Renault, while on the third row were Alain Prost in the McLaren and Teo Fabi in the second Brabham. The top ten was completed by Elio de Angelis in the second Lotus, Niki Lauda in the second McLaren, Derek Warwick in the second Renault and Michele Alboreto in the Ferrari. The Cosworth-powered Tyrrells and Arrows struggled, with Thierry Boutsen coming 27th and last in his Arrows and thus failing to qualify.

Race

In the Sunday morning warm-up session Piercarlo Ghinzani, who had qualified 20th in his Osella, crashed heavily at the fast left-hand Jukskei Sweep, the car bursting into flames. Ghinzani escaped with minor burns on his hands, and subsequently withdrew from the race, thus promoting Boutsen to the last grid spot.

Before the start of the race, Prost's McLaren refused to fire up thanks to a fuel pump failure and his McLaren was pushed to the side of the road and he started from the pitlane in the spare car. In fact, Ghinzani's accident and the subsequent 30 minutes delay before the start was extremely fortunate for Prost. During the warmup, Lauda had a chronic misfire in his TAG-Porsche race engine. It took the McLaren team until 13 minutes into the extra 30 to completely change the electrical system in Lauda's car, which cured the low-end misfire but one still remained intermittent between 7,500 and 8,500 rpm, but it was driveable and allowed Lauda to be 2nd fastest in the warmup to Piquet. In truth however, without Ghinzani's accident and the extra 30 minutes, the McLaren team wouldn't have fixed Lauda's car on time and the former dual World Champion would have been forced to race the spare car, meaning Prost would not have even started.

At the start, Piquet almost stalled on the grid and was passed by Rosberg and Mansell. The Lotus then faltered and Mansell fell down the order, putting Piquet back up to second by the first corner. At the end of lap 1, Piquet passed Rosberg for the lead, before teammate Fabi moved into second on lap 2. Lauda had made a good start to run fourth; he then overtook Rosberg on lap 4 and Fabi on lap 10. Both Brabhams then hit trouble, needing new tyres before retiring with turbo failures, Fabi on lap 19 and Piquet on lap 30.

From there, Lauda controlled the race and went on to win easily, with Prost over a minute behind in second and the only other driver on the lead lap. Warwick gained his first Formula One podium by finishing third, while completing the top six were Riccardo Patrese (Alfa Romeo, its second points finish in a row giving more, somewhat false, hope that the 890T V8 would be competitive), Andrea de Cesaris (Ligier-Renault) and, gaining his first ever World Championship point, Ayrton Senna in his Toleman-Hart.

Classification

Qualifying

Race

Championship standings after the race

;Drivers' Championship standings

;Constructors' Championship standings

• 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.

References

| Previous_year's_race = 1983 South African Grand Prix | Next_year's_race = 1985 South African Grand Prix

References

1. (1985). "Australian Motor Racing Year 1984/85". Berghouse Publishing Group Pty Ltd.
2. "South African GP, 1984".
3. (1985). "Australian Motor Racing Year 1984/85". Berghouse Publishing Group Pty Ltd.
4. "National Panasonic Grand Prix - QUALIFYING 1".
5. "National Panasonic Grand Prix - QUALIFYING 2".
6. "National Panasonic Grand Prix - OVERALL QUALIFYING".
7. "1984 South African Grand Prix". formula1.com.
8. "South Africa 1984 - Championship • STATS F1".