[Race] The GROAT - Round 2 - 1981 Jarama vs 1993 Donington

[crmalcolm]

1981 Jarama
Jacques Laffite made a terrible start from pole position, his Ligier was bogged down and he was down to twelfth by the end of the first corner. Alan Jones made a traditional strong start to take the lead ahead of teammate Reutemann whilst Gilles Villeneuve was in third from seventh on the grid. Villeneuve in the process had barged past Alain Prost, damaging the Renault driver's front wing and forcing Prost into the pits at the end of the first lap. Villeneuve then continued his charge catching Reutemann napping and performing a wild move around the outside of the Williams driver to take second place.

Villeneuve was not expected to sustain his pace, his Michelin tyres had suffered significantly more wear than his Goodyear clad rivals around him. Alan Jones began to pull out a drastic lead leaving his rivals behind to battle with Villeneuve in second place.

Jones had the race in hand, his main championship rivals were suffering. Reutemann was stuck behind Villeneuve whilst Nelson Piquet was struggling in seventh position. But then inexplicably, on lap 14 Jones spun off the circuit. By the time his Williams had rejoined the race he was now well out of the points, throwing away a potential win.

Despite his poor start, Jacques Laffite continued to demonstrate his Ligier's competitiveness at Jarama. He quickly moved up to seventh passing Riccardo Patrese, Bruno Giacomelli and Didier Pironi. He was then promoted a further two places when the battling duo of Nelson Piquet and Mario Andretti collided. Piquet was out of the race whilst a disgruntled Andretti returned to the pits for repairs. The accident wasting a rare chance of points for Alfa Romeo and Andretti who had largely been uncompetitive in 1981.

Villeneuve by the mid-point race surprisingly still led the race, however Reutemann behind him was hampered by gear shift problems and failed to be able to demonstrate the Williams's true potential. Laffite continued to lap the quickest on the track and soon moved past both Watson's McLaren and Reutemann's Williams and was now the one harrowing Villeneuve's Ferrari. Villeneuve was clearly not quick, his struggling Ferrari had began to hold up all four drivers behind him and soon enough even Elio de Angelis's Lotus had joined the queue of cars behind Villeneuve. Villeneuve had some solace on the straights as his tubo charged Ferrari was quicker than the Ford-Cosworth powered cars behind him. Nonetheless, most of the Jarama circuit was made up of slow corners and Laffite and the others were constantly hounding his tail.

Reutemann's gear shift problems continued to plague him and he dropped behind Watson's McLaren, however he remained very much in the fight as the top five continued to remain within a second of Villeneuve. Much to everyone's surprise Villeneuve managed to hold off the five cars behind him taking the race victory, the top five finishing just 1.24 seconds apart, the race notably being the closest ever finish in the history of the sport. Taking a distant sixth in the race was the second Lotus of Nigel Mansell who finished some way ahead of Alan Jones, who had clawed his way back to seventh but nonetheless out of the points.

Villeneuve's two consecutive wins had brought him well into championship contention and he was now only one point behind Piquet and three behind Jones. Reutemann, the only other major contender to score in Spain was now on 37 points, still holding a significant 13 point lead in the championship over Jones.


1993 Donington
At the start, it was damp and Schumacher blocked Senna and both lost time and Wendlinger took third. Having dropped to fifth, Senna quickly passed Schumacher at the third corner. He then went after Wendlinger, passing him through the Craner Curves with Schumacher and Andretti trying to follow through. Schumacher went through but Andretti hit Wendlinger and both were out. Senna went after Hill now and took second at McLean's Corner. Now Prost was the target and the lead was taken at the penultimate corner - the Melbourne Hairpin. Going into the second lap, Senna led Prost, Hill, Barrichello (who had started 12th), Schumacher and Lehto.

The track began to dry and everyone pitted for dry tyres. Lehto was fifth, having started from the pit lane, but he retired with handling problems on lap 14. Berger took the place but he too retired with suspension problems six laps later. It rained again and the leaders now pitted for wets. Schumacher stayed out and was leading but spun off on lap 23 because he was on the wrong tyres. The track began to dry and everyone pitted once again with Senna having a problem and losing 20 seconds. Prost now led Senna, Hill, Rubens Barrichello, Derek Warwick and Herbert.

It began to rain and the two Williams stopped for wets while Senna stayed out. It was the correct decision because it began to dry again. The Williams stopped yet again for dries. Prost stalled in the pits in his stop and when he rejoined, he was a lap behind and down in fourth. Barrichello was now second but it rained and then stopped again. He went to the pits twice and by now Hill was in second, albeit a lap down. Barrichello, third, had trouble with his fuel pressure and retired, giving the place to Prost. Senna set the fastest lap on lap 57, on a lap when he drove into the pitlane but aborted the pit stop, showing that there actually was a shortcut through the pitlane. This is due to the grand prix configuration of Donington, which has the pit entry before the final hairpin corner onto the start/finish straight. This is possibly the only fastest lap in modern F1 history set by driving through the pitlane.

Senna won from Hill and Prost, having made four pit stops in the wet-dry conditions compared to Prost's seven, which is a record that stands as of 2011. Johnny Herbert finished fourth for Lotus by stopping only once while all the other finishing drivers stopped in the pits several times. Patrese and Barbazza took the last two points scoring places. By the end, Senna had lapped the entire field except for one car and finished over a minute ahead of second place Damon Hill.

[chunterer]

Now this one is really hard for me to choose!

2 of the best races in my lifetime, won by two of my favourite drivers of my lifetime.

Gilles was mega, but I think Ayrton humiliated the whole field at Donington in '93.

[S griffin]

Two great drives. A great defensive drive vs a great wet drive. I'll go with Jarama