A look back at Monaco: 1982

With only two days until the action in Monaco kicks off, we at F1Today.net continue our nostalgia trip looking at some of the most famous races at Monaco in the years gone by. Today, we view the race that saw an incredible finish in 1982.

1982 Monaco Grand Prix

The 1982 Monaco Grand Prix will be remembered greatly for the final few laps of the race, much like it was in yesterday's flashback of the 1992 Grand Prix. The build-up to the race was overshadowed by the loss of Gilles Villeneuve, who had passed away in the previous round, the Belgian Grand Prix.

Rene Arnoux claimed pole position in his Renault. At the start of the race, the Frenchman bolted away and kept his lead, setting his eyes on the victory. Arnoux needed a turn in fortunes, as he had retired from the previous four races. He looks comfortable until lap 14 before he spun out and retired from the Grand Prix.

Alain Prost inherited the lead from Arnoux and was being put under a lot of pressure from Riccardo Patrese's Brabham. There was no real chance of Patrese getting by due to the difficulty of overtaking in Monaco, and with only a few laps to go, everyone expected Prost to come across the line and take his third victory of the season.

With three laps to go, the Renault of Prost snapped sideways and hit the barriers. Prost was out, and Patrese slipped through after 60+ laps of following him. It appeared that Prost's crash was a result of oil from Derek Daly's car, who also had made contact with the barriers, mere laps before Prost's race ending moment.

On the very next lap, Patrese, who looked set for his maiden victory in Formula 1, ran over the oil and his car stalled. As the Italian sat in his car attempting to get things going again, Didier Pironi and Andrea de Cesaris went by to take over the positions of first and second. Patrese was stranded on a slope, and used the hill to bump his car back into life.

With only one lap remaining, the order was Pironi, de Cesaris and Patrese. It looked all but certain now that Pironi would take victory only two weeks after witnessing the death of teammate Villeneuve. In an amazing final twist, Pironi ground to a halt as the Frenchman ran out of fuel. While many believed this would allow de Angelis through to win, he also ran out of fuel.

Ricardo Patrese then came through to take the win but there was so much confusion over what had happened, when the drivers went up onto the podium, no-one really knew who the winner was. The incident prompted commentator James Hunt to say: "Well, we've got this ridiculous situation where we're all sitting by the start-finish line waiting for a winner to come past and we don't seem to be getting one!"

Patrese was confirmed as the winner, with Pironi finishing second and de Cesaris third. It was the Italian's first ever win, but he wouldn't enjoy much success over the remainder of the season, with only one other podium, and finished tenth in the overall standings.

Fergal Walsh