Race · Round 8 of 15 · 5 July 1981

1981 French Grand Prix

Alain Prost won for Renault from 3rd on the grid at Dijon-Prenois. 6 of the starters were not classified. It was the first championship race win for Alain Prost.

Wet · High of 21 °C, no rain on the day (modelled, Open-Meteo)

How it is modelled

ERA5's reanalysis, through Open-Meteo, of the circuit's whole local day and not the race's hours, for the grid cell the circuit sits in and not the track, so a shower can be missing from it. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026. Neither the European Commission nor ECMWF is responsible for any use that may be made of the Copernicus information or data it contains.

Circuit: Dijon-PrenoisDijon, France
Winner: Alain ProstRenault
Pole: Rene Arnoux
Fastest lap: Alain Prost
Entries: 2917 classified

Classification

Classification
Pos	Driver	Constructor	Chassis	Grid	Laps	Out	Points	FL
1	Alain Prost	Renault	—	3	80	Finished	9	fastest lap
2	John Watson	McLaren	—	2	80	Finished	6
3	Nelson Piquet	Brabham	BT49C	4	80	Finished	4
4	Rene Arnoux	Renault	—	1	80	Finished	3
5	Didier Pironi	Ferrari	126CK	14	79	Finished	2
6	Elio de Angelis	Team Lotus	—	8	79	Finished	1
7	Nigel Mansell	Team Lotus	—	13	79	Finished	0
8	Mario Andretti	Alfa Romeo	—	10	79	Finished	0
9	Héctor Rebaque	Brabham	BT49C	15	78	Finished	0
10	Carlos Reutemann	Williams	FW07C	7	78	Finished	0
11	Andrea de Cesaris	McLaren	—	5	78	Finished	0
12	Marc Surer	Theodore	TY01	21	78	Finished	0
13	Eddie Cheever	Tyrrell	—	19	77	Finished	0
14	Riccardo Patrese	Arrows	A3	18	77	Finished	0
15	Bruno Giacomelli	Alfa Romeo	—	12	77	Finished	0
16	Michele Alboreto	Tyrrell	—	23	77	Finished	0
17	Alan Jones	Williams	FW07C	9	76	Finished	0
DNF	Jacques Laffite	Ligier	JS17	6	57	Suspension	0
DNF	Derek Daly	March	811	20	55	Engine	0
DNF	Gilles Villeneuve	Ferrari	126CK	11	41	Electrical	0
DNF	Patrick Tambay	Ligier	JS17	16	30	Wheel bearing	0
DNF	Keke Rosberg	Fittipaldi	F8C	17	11	Suspension	0
DNF	Eliseo Salazar	Ensign	N180B	22	6	Suspension	0
DNS	Chico Serra	Fittipaldi	F8C	—	—	DNS	0
DNQ	Siegfried Stohr	Arrows	A3	—	—	DNQ	0
DNQ	Brian Henton	Toleman	TG181	—	—	DNQ	0
DNQ	Slim Borgudd	ATS	—	—	—	DNQ	0
DNQ	Beppe Gabbiani	Osella	—	—	—	DNQ	0
DNQ	Derek Warwick	Toleman	TG181	—	—	DNQ	0

A blank chassis is a season the team ran more than one design and no source says which car raced here.

F1DB layout dijon-2 · 3.801 km · 12 turns, F1DB’s figures
F1DB, CC BY 4.0 · drawn by Jules Roy
The outline is F1DB’s, for every layout; the trace is OpenStreetMap’s, where it exists.

Grid to flag

Lines run from grid slot to result, ending at the last lap completed. A dashed line ending in a cross is a driver not classified. Nothing between is recorded, so a crossing is not an overtake at that lap.

Grid to flag
Driver	Grid	Result	Laps
Alain Prost	3	1	80
John Watson	2	2	80
Nelson Piquet	4	3	80
Rene Arnoux	1	4	80
Didier Pironi	14	5	79
Elio de Angelis	8	6	79
Nigel Mansell	13	7	79
Mario Andretti	10	8	79
Héctor Rebaque	15	9	78
Carlos Reutemann	7	10	78
Andrea de Cesaris	5	11	78
Marc Surer	21	12	78
Eddie Cheever	19	13	77
Riccardo Patrese	18	14	77
Bruno Giacomelli	12	15	77
Michele Alboreto	23	16	77
Alan Jones	9	17	76
Jacques Laffite	6	DNF	57
Derek Daly	20	DNF	55
Gilles Villeneuve	11	DNF	41
Patrick Tambay	16	DNF	30
Keke Rosberg	17	DNF	11
Eliseo Salazar	22	DNF	6

Qualifying

Qualifying
Pos	Driver	Constructor	No.	Time	Gap	≈ Distance	Interval
1	Rene Arnoux	Renault	16	1:05.950	—	0 m	—
2	John Watson	McLaren	7	1:06.360	+0.410	24 m	+0.410
3	Alain Prost	Renault	15	1:06.360	+0.410	24 m	+0.000
4	Nelson Piquet	Brabham	5	1:06.910	+0.960	55 m	+0.550
5	Andrea de Cesaris	McLaren	8	1:07.030	+1.080	62 m	+0.120
6	Jacques Laffite	Ligier	26	1:07.090	+1.140	66 m	+0.060
7	Carlos Reutemann	Williams	2	1:07.420	+1.470	85 m	+0.330
8	Elio de Angelis	Team Lotus	11	1:07.520	+1.570	90 m	+0.100
9	Alan Jones	Williams	1	1:07.530	+1.580	91 m	+0.010
10	Mario Andretti	Alfa Romeo	22	1:07.560	+1.610	93 m	+0.030
11	Gilles Villeneuve	Ferrari	27	1:07.600	+1.650	95 m	+0.040
12	Bruno Giacomelli	Alfa Romeo	23	1:07.630	+1.680	97 m	+0.030
13	Nigel Mansell	Team Lotus	12	1:07.720	+1.770	102 m	+0.090
14	Didier Pironi	Ferrari	28	1:08.090	+2.140	123 m	+0.370
15	Héctor Rebaque	Brabham	6	1:08.210	+2.260	130 m	+0.120
16	Patrick Tambay	Ligier	25	1:08.470	+2.520	145 m	+0.260
17	Keke Rosberg	Fittipaldi	20	1:09.350	+3.400	196 m	+0.880
18	Riccardo Patrese	Arrows	29	1:09.370	+3.420	197 m	+0.020
19	Eddie Cheever	Tyrrell	3	1:09.880	+3.930	227 m	+0.510
20	Derek Daly	March	17	1:09.940	+3.990	230 m	+0.060
21	Marc Surer	Theodore	33	1:10.210	+4.260	246 m	+0.270
22	Eliseo Salazar	Ensign	14	1:10.500	+4.550	262 m	+0.290
23	Michele Alboreto	Tyrrell	4	1:10.640	+4.690	270 m	+0.140
24	Chico Serra	Fittipaldi	21	1:10.860	+4.910	283 m	+0.220
25	Siegfried Stohr	Arrows	30	1:11.240	+5.290	305 m	+0.380
26	Brian Henton	Toleman	35	1:11.280	+5.330	307 m	+0.040
27	Slim Borgudd	ATS	9	1:12.200	+6.250	360 m	+0.920
28	Beppe Gabbiani	Osella	31	1:12.240	+6.290	363 m	+0.040
29	Derek Warwick	Toleman	36	1:13.650	+7.700	444 m	+1.410

Before knock-out qualifying arrived in 2006 there is one time per driver; from 2006, the best lap of each of the three sessions.

How it is derived: distance

Distance at the session-best lap’s average speed, on the layout raced that year.

Pit stops

Pit stops are recorded from 1994. F1DB, the source of every stop here, holds none before then, so this race has no stints to draw.

The cars in this race

The photograph each car's Wikipedia article leads with, from Wikimedia Commons: taken wherever and whenever that was, not necessarily at this race.

A photograph marked unchecked has a file name that does not name the car it is shown for. Most are still the right car, filed under the driver rather than the machine — but nobody has confirmed these one by one.

Where this comes from

Round: 8 of 1981
Grand Prix: French Grand Prix
Dates: 5 Jul 1981
Layout raced: —
Format: Standard weekend
Constructor: Renault
Entrant: Renault
Confidence: reference

No layout is recorded for this round: this register has no layout timeline for the circuit, and a blank here is better than a guess.