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.
The race was not as straight forward for Prost as it seemed. During the race he was having a problem with his carbon brakes overheating, so much so that at one point mid-race it caused his McLaren to spin through the infield as he braked for Rivazza. The spin resolved the issue of whether or not the Frenchman would come in for tyres as it was now necessary as 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-BMW1:35.493 1:28.517 2 7 Alain Prost McLaren-TAG1:35.687 1:28.628 +0.111 3 6 Keke Rosberg Williams-Honda1:37.024 1:29.418 +0.901 4 16 Derek Warwick Renault1:36.706 1:29.682 +1.165 5 8 Niki Lauda McLaren-TAG1:38.021 1:30.325 +1.808 6 28 René Arnoux Ferrari1:38.389 1:30.411 +1.894 7 14 Manfred Winkelhock ATS-BMW1:47.362 1:30.723 +2.206 8 23 Eddie Cheever Alfa Romeo1:42.731 1:30.843 +2.326 9 2 Teo Fabi Brabham-BMW1:37.594 1:30.950 +2.433 10 22 Riccardo Patrese Alfa Romeo1:41.363 1:31.163 +2.646 11 11 Elio de Angelis Lotus-Renault1:38.423 1:31.173 +2.656 12 26 Andrea de Cesaris Ligier-Renault1:36.613 1:31.256 +2.739 13 27 Michele Alboreto Ferrari1:47.919 1:31.282 +2.765 14 15 Patrick Tambay Renault1:36.250 1:31.633 +3.146 15 5 Jacques Laffite Williams-Honda1:41.891 1:32.600 +4.083 16 17 Marc Surer Arrows-BMW1:42.046 1:33.063 +4.546 17 25 François Hesnault Ligier-Renault1:40.356 1:33.186 +4.669 18 12 Nigel Mansell Lotus-Renault1:38.363 1:34.477 +5.960 19 20 Johnny Cecotto Toleman-Hartno time 1:35.568 +7.051 20 18 Thierry Boutsen Arrows-Ford1:40.920 1:36.018 +7.501 21 4 Stefan Bellof Tyrrell-Ford1:39.765 1:36.059 +7.542 22 3 Martin Brundle Tyrrell-Ford1:41.123 1:36.531 +8.014 23 9 Philippe Alliot RAM-Hart1:43.132 1:36.733 +8.216 24 21 Mauro Baldi Spirit-Hart1:42.249 1:36.916 +8.399 25 10 Jonathan Palmer RAM-Hart1:53.014 1:37.262 +8.745 26 30 Jo Gartner Osella-Alfa Romeo1:50.979 1:38.948 +10.431 27 24 Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Alfa Romeo1:40.790 2:05.421 +12.273 28 19 Ayrton Senna Toleman-Hartno 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 4 Stefan Bellof Tyrrell-Ford 59 Disqualified 21 3 Martin Brundle Tyrrell-Ford 55 Disqualified 22 9 Philippe Alliot RAM-Hart 53 Turbo 23 20 Johnny Cecotto Toleman-Hart 52 + 8 Laps 19 1 Nelson Piquet Brabham-BMW 48 Turbo 1 2 Teo Fabi Brabham-BMW 48 Turbo 9 30 Jo Gartner Osella-Alfa Romeo 46 Engine 26 17 Marc Surer Arrows-BMW 40 Turbo 16 14 Manfred Winkelhock ATS-BMW 31 Turbo 7 27 Michele Alboreto Ferrari 23 Exhaust 13 8 Niki Lauda McLaren-TAG 15 Engine 5 5 Jacques Laffite Williams-Honda 11 Engine 15 22 Riccardo Patrese Alfa Romeo 6 Electrical 10 12 Nigel Mansell Lotus-Renault 2 Spun Off 18 6 Keke Rosberg Williams-Honda 2 Electrical 3 15 Patrick Tambay Renault 0 Collision 14 25 François Hesnault Ligier-Renault 0 Collision 17 24 Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Alfa Romeo 19 Ayrton Senna Toleman-Hart
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 9Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 McLaren-TAG 33 2 Ferrari 19 3 Renault 14 4 Lotus-Renault 10 5 Williams-Honda 9Source:
References