1982 Detroit Grand Prix

Due to organizational problems, extra practice planned for Thursday was cancelled, and the first qualifying session on Friday had to be postponed. There was time for only a one-hour practice session on Friday, and so qualifying would take place on Saturday in two one-hour sessions, four hours apart. Saturday was cold and overcast with a threat of rain, and nearly all the drivers scrambled to get a time in on the dry track while they could, with many spins and trips down the escape roads of the u...

In contrast to Saturday afternoon, Sunday was mostly sunny and pleasant as a flotilla of boats dotted the river across from the circuit. The top three drivers all managed excellent starts, and Prost led de Cesaris and Rosberg through the first turn. Following them at the end of Lap one were Pironi, Mansell, Bruno Giacomelli , Cheever and Lauda. Manfred Winkelhock retired from an excellent fifth position when a front hub upright that had been replaced on the grid broke anyway, putting his ATS int...

On Lap seven, under pressure from de Angelis, Roberto Guerrero 's Ensign went wide at the first corner. De Angelis tried to go through on the inside, but when Guerrero resumed his line, the two collided. The Lotus was able to continue, but Guerrero slid to a halt in the tire wall. Jochen Mass and Watson were able to avoid the disabled Ensign, but when Riccardo Patrese came upon the scene, he locked up and hit the tire wall right next to Guerrero, losing a wheel. A brake duct on Patrese's car qui...

The cars returned to the pits and waited for nearly an hour while all manner of repairs were made by the mechanics. Prost had his skirts changed and fuel topped off, Lauda changed his leaking oil cooler, and Guerrero, Winkelhock and Patrese, who had retired, even brought their spare cars out on the grid for the restart! This, at least, was not allowed, and eighteen cars restarted the race in running order, with the final result to be determined by the sum of the two times recorded in the two par...

Prost again took the lead off the grid, and one lap later he led Rosberg, Pironi, Giacomelli, Cheever, René Arnoux , Lauda and Mansell. Immediately, Prost began to distance himself from Rosberg, who was also pulling away from Pironi and, after fifteen laps (total), led by five seconds. Gradually, however, the Renault began to develop electronic injection problems, as teammate Arnoux had several laps earlier, and the Frenchman saw his lead over Rosberg begin to evaporate. By Lap 21, the two cars ...

Behind this group, amazingly, came the charging McLaren of John Watson, who had stormed through nearly the entire field from seventeenth place on the original grid. When Cheever and Lauda both overtook Giacomelli as he got sideways exiting a corner, Watson was quickly nose to tail behind Giacomelli and struggling to get through. On Lap 30, with Rosberg leading by 15 seconds, Watson passed Giacomelli, but the Italian counterattacked a moment later when the McLaren went wide. Giacomelli tried to f...