1984 Brazilian Grand Prix

The 1984 Brazilian Grand Prix , officially known as the XIII Grande Prêmio Brasil de Fórmula 1 was a Formula One motor race held on 25 March 1984 in Rio de Janeiro . The race was contested over 61 laps of Jacarepaguá Circuit and was the first race of the 1984 Formula One World Championship . This race was the 13th edition of the Brazilian Grand Prix , the ninth time that the Jacarepaguá Circuit race held a Grand Prix, and marked the debut of Ayrton Senna in Formula One.

Elio de Angelis claimed the first pole position of the season in his Lotus - Renault from the Ferrari of Michele Alboreto in his first race for the Prancing Horse . Derek Warwick , in his first race for Renault, was 3rd on the grid with the McLaren - TAG of Alain Prost 4th, Prost returning to the team he started his career with after three seasons with Renault. Reigning World Champion (and local favourite) Nelson Piquet qualified 7th in his Brabham - BMW , while another Brazilian, a Formula One ...

With only 220 litres of fuel allowed, many teams on the grid tried various ways to save fuel from evaporating in the Rio heat. McLaren covered their cars in tin foil while others such as Lotus and Renault attempted to freeze their fuel in order to actually fit more in. The Renault team also had a sophisticated (for 1984) electronic fuel monitoring system which they hoped would give them an advantage over their rivals.

Alboreto got the jump at the start and led early from Warwick and de Angelis, with the McLarens of Niki Lauda 4th and Prost fighting back from a bad start. The Frenchman had bogged down at the green light with too few revs and was only 10th at the end of the first lap (Piquet also made a bad start after almost stalling at the green light and much to the agony of the crowd, was only in 23rd halfway through the first lap). Not having done a practice start in the car, during the warm-up Prost had a...

Senna was the first retirement of the 1984 season when the Hart 415T in his Toleman blew its turbo on lap 8.

After passing Warwick for the lead, Prost, who was in the pits for a tyre change when Lauda coasted in to retire, lost the lead back to the Englishman when he made his second stop for tyres. With 10 laps to go it looked like Warwick was headed for his first ever Grand Prix win with a 20+ second lead on the McLaren. But the lap 10 clash with Lauda had come home to roost and the Renault 's front left suspension failed, handing the lead to Prost who then easily ran out the winner by 40 seconds from...

Brundle, and the Tyrrell team, would later be disqualified from the season for technical infringements. This promoted Tambay to 5th and the Arrows -Ford of Thierry Boutsen to 6th.