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Portuguese GP 1984

Portuguese GP, 1984

It was 24 years since the last Portuguese GP had been held in Oporto. Upgrading work at the Estoril circuit was still being finished when the F1 circus arrived and heavy rains had not helped but there were few complaints from the drivers. The field was slightly bigger than usual because Renault Sport was running a third car for test driver Philippe Streiff. The only other change was the appearance of Manfred Winkelhock in the second Brabham after Teo Fabi's father died suddenly and he went back to Italy.

Qualifying was the same story as it had been at previous races with Nelson Piquet (Brabham-BMW) on pole position ahead of Alain Prost (McLaren-TAG). Ayrton Senna was an impressive third for Toleman with Keke Rosberg fourth in his Williams-Honda. Then came the two Lotus-Renaults of Elio de Angelis and Nigel Mansell, Patrick Tambay's Renault, Michele Alboreto's Ferrari and Derek Warwick in the second Renault. Stefan Johansson was 10th in the second Toleman while World Championship leader Niki Lauda was only 11th. With four and a half points between Lauda and Prost, Alain needed to win the race with Lauda lower than third. He could finish second if Lauda failed to score.

At the start Piquet went away slowly and Prost got ahead but he was beaten away by Rosberg and Mansell and was only third at the first corner. Alain made quick work of Mansell and chased after Rosberg. Further back Lauda began making progress up the field, picking carefully through the midfield. On the ninth lap Prost went ahead. Lauda was still ninth so things were looking good for the Frenchman. Behind him Mansell overtook Rosberg for second and was followed through by Senna, Alboreto was fifth and Johansson got the better of de Angelis to run sixth. On lap 18 Lauda passed de Angelis and nine laps later he moved ahead of Johansson. In the meantime Senna overtook Rosberg. On lap 28 Lauda was ahead of Alboreto and in the points. and within a few laps he was ahead of Rosberg. On lap 33 he passed Senna for third. The order now remained stable until lap 51 when Mansell spun because of brake trouble. He restarted before Lauda could pass him but the McLaren was right on his tail. On the next lap Mansell spun again and Lauda was second. It was all he needed. Prost duly won but lost the World title by half a point to Lauda.

Senna finished third with Alboreto fourth, de Angelis fifth and Piquet sixth.

POS	NO	DRIVER	ENTRANT	LAPS	TIME/RETIREMENT	QUAL POS
1	7	Alain Prost	McLaren-TAG Porsche	70	1h41m11.753s	2
2	8	Niki Lauda	McLaren-TAG Porsche	70	1h41m25.178s	11
3	19	Ayrton Senna	Toleman-Hart	70	1h41m31.795s	3
4	27	Michele Alboreto	Ferrari	70	1h41m32.070s	8
5	11	Elio de Angelis	Lotus-Renault	70	1h42m43.922s	5
6	1	Nelson Piquet	Brabham-BMW	69		1
7	15	Patrick Tambay	Renault	69		7
8	22	Riccardo Patrese	Alfa Romeo	69		12
9	28	Rene Arnoux	Ferrari	69		17
10	2	Manfred Winkelhock	Brabham-BMW	69		19
11	20	Stefan Johansson	Toleman-Hart	69		10
12	26	Andrea de Cesaris	Ligier-Renault	69		20
13	31	Gerhard Berger	ATS-BMW	68		23
14	5	Jacques Laffite	Williams-Honda	67		15
15	21	Mauro Baldi	Spirit-Hart	66		25
16r	30	Jo Gartner	Osella-Alfa Romeo	65	Out Of Fuel	24
17	23	Eddie Cheever	Alfa Romeo	64		14
r	24	Piercarlo Ghinzani	Osella-Alfa Romeo	60	Engine	22
r	12	Nigel Mansell	Lotus-Renault	52	Brake Fluid Loss/spin	6
r	16	Derek Warwick	Renault	51	Gearbox	9
r	33	Philippe Streiff	Renault	48	Drive Shaft	13
r	6	Keke Rosberg	Williams-Honda	39	Engine	4
r	25	Francois Hesnault	Ligier-Renault	31	Electrics	21
r	18	Thierry Boutsen	Arrows-Cosworth	24	Drive Shaft	18
r	18	Thierry Boutsen	Arrows-Cosworth	24	Driveshaft	18
r	10	Jonathan Palmer	RAM-Hart	19	Gearbox	26
r	17	Marc Surer	Arrows-Cosworth	8	Electrics	16
r	9	Philippe Alliot	RAM-Hart	2	Engine Failure	27