1981 Spanish Grand Prix
Race 7 of 15 in the 1981 Formula One World Championship
Race details
Date	21 June 1981
Official name	XXVII Gran Premio de España
Location	Circuito Permanente Del Jarama, Jarama, Spain
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	3.312 km (2.06 miles)
Distance	80 laps, 264.96 km (164.70 miles)
Weather	Sunny, hot
Pole position
Driver	Jacques Laffite	Ligier-Matra
Time	1:13.754[1]
Fastest lap
Driver	Alan Jones	Williams-Ford
Time	1:17.818 on lap 5[2]
Podium
First	Gilles Villeneuve	Ferrari
Second	Jacques Laffite	Ligier-Matra
Third	John Watson	McLaren-Ford
Lap leaders

The 1981 Spanish Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 21 June 1981 at the Circuito Permanente del Jarama, Jarama, Spain. It was the seventh race of the 1981 Formula One World Championship.

The 1981 Spanish Grand Prix featured the second closest finish ever of a Formula One race: after Gilles Villeneuve's Ferrari, the four following cars finished in just 1.24 seconds. This was Villeneuve's last victory, often regarded as his tactical masterpiece.^[3]

There were some changes for this race: Eliseo Salazar had left March to join Ensign, replacing Marc Surer. Also, John Player Special sponsorship and livery returned to Team Lotus after a 2-year hiatus.

The pole went to Jacques Laffite on his Ligier-Matra with the two Williams-Cosworth of Alan Jones and Carlos Reutemann second and third ahead of John Watson's McLaren, Alain Prost's Renault and the Alfa Romeo of Bruno Giacomelli. Gilles Villeneuve was seventh.

Race day was unusually hot. At the beginning of the race Jones and Reutemann went into the lead, as Laffite made a poor start. Villeneuve jumped into third place at the first corner, damaging Prost's front wing as he took the position. At the end of the first lap Villeneuve pulled out of Reutemann's slipstream and took second place. Jones began to build a lead but on lap 14 he went off the track, when he was 10 seconds ahead of the Canadian.

This left Villeneuve with Reutemann on his tail. Behind them Watson, Laffite and Elio de Angelis began to close on the dueling leaders. Reutemann was having some trouble with his gearbox and when Laffite arrived behind him there was little the Argentine could do to stop him from overtaking. Reutemann would later drop behind Watson. The five front-runners became a train of cars, packed together for the remaining laps of the race.

Villeneuve used the power of his Ferrari engine on the straight to gain a little margin and not get overtaken by his rivals, but in the corners they were all over him. Many times Laffite pulled alongside the Canadian as they went out a corner but the Ferrari would stay ahead as the horsepower kicked in. The five remained locked together right to the flag, crossing the line covered by just 1.24 seconds to record the second-closest race in the history of Formula One.

This would be the last Spanish Grand Prix at Jarama, owing to criticism of the track being too narrow for modern Formula One, the unpleasant conditions and the small crowd (the small turn-out was probably due to the backlash of the previous year's race not being counted as a World Championship race, the announcement was made on the weekend itself)^{[citation needed]}; and the last Spanish Grand Prix until the 1986 season, when it would be held at the newly built Jerez circuit in the south of the country. At this Grand Prix the Equipe Banco Occidental team became the last privateer team to have entered a car for a race alongside a works team when they entered a Williams car alongside the Williams works team, but eventually withdrew before the practice and qualifying.^[4]

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Gap
1	26	Jacques Laffite	Ligier-Matra	1:14.822	1:13.754	—
2	1	Alan Jones	Williams-Ford	1:14.424	1:14.024	+0.270
3	2	Carlos Reutemann	Williams-Ford	1:14.808	1:14.342	+0.588
4	7	John Watson	McLaren-Ford	1:15.094	1:14.657	+0.903
5	15	Alain Prost	Renault	1:14.980	1:14.669	+0.915
6	23	Bruno Giacomelli	Alfa Romeo	1:16.807	1:14.897	+1.143
7	27	Gilles Villeneuve	Ferrari	1:16.548	1:14.987	+1.233
8	22	Mario Andretti	Alfa Romeo	1:15.576	1:15.159	+1.405
9	5	Nelson Piquet	Brabham-Ford	1:16.861	1:15.355	+1.601
10	11	Elio de Angelis	Lotus-Ford	1:15.399	1:15.449	+1.645
11	12	Nigel Mansell	Lotus-Ford	1:16.226	1:15.562	+1.808
12	29	Riccardo Patrese	Arrows-Ford	1:16.038	1:15.627	+1.873
13	28	Didier Pironi	Ferrari	1:16.522	1:15.715	+1.961
14	8	Andrea de Cesaris	McLaren-Ford	1:16.119	1:15.850	+2.096
15	20	Keke Rosberg	Fittipaldi-Ford	1:16.040	1:15.924	+2.170
16	33	Patrick Tambay	Theodore-Ford	1:17.347	1:16.355	+2.601
17	16	René Arnoux	Renault	1:17.132	1:16.406	+2.652
18	6	Héctor Rebaque	Brabham-Ford	1:16.722	1:16.527	+2.773
19	25	Jean-Pierre Jabouille	Ligier-Matra	1:16.559	1:16.794	+2.805
20	3	Eddie Cheever	Tyrrell-Ford	1:17.459	1:16.641	+2.887
21	21	Chico Serra	Fittipaldi-Ford	1:18.705	1:16.782	+3.028
22	17	Derek Daly	March-Ford	1:17.416	1:16.979	+3.225
23	30	Siegfried Stohr	Arrows-Ford	1:18.331	1:17.294	+3.540
24	14	Eliseo Salazar	Ensign-Ford	1:18.769	1:17.822	+4.068
25	4	Michele Alboreto	Tyrrell-Ford	1:18.859	1:17.943	+4.189
26	31	Beppe Gabbiani	Osella-Ford	no time	1:18.169	+4.415
27	9	Slim Borgudd	ATS-Ford	1:20.028	1:18.263	+4.509
28	35	Brian Henton	Toleman-Hart	1:19.815	1:18.340	+4.586
29	36	Derek Warwick	Toleman-Hart	1:20.342	1:18.872	+5.118
30	32	Giorgio Francia	Osella-Ford	1:19.586	8:22.382	+5.832
WD	37	Emilio de Villota	Williams-Ford	—	—	—
Source: [5]

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Tyre	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	27	Gilles Villeneuve	Ferrari	M	80	1:46:35.01	7	9
2	26	Jacques Laffite	Ligier-Matra	M	80	+ 0.22	1	6
3	7	John Watson	McLaren-Ford	M	80	+ 0.58	4	4
4	2	Carlos Reutemann	Williams-Ford	M	80	+ 1.01	3	3
5	11	Elio de Angelis	Lotus-Ford	M	80	+ 1.24	10	2
6	12	Nigel Mansell	Lotus-Ford	M	80	+ 28.58	11	1
7	1	Alan Jones	Williams-Ford	M	80	+ 56.58	2
8	22	Mario Andretti	Alfa Romeo	M	80	+ 1:00.80	8
9	16	René Arnoux	Renault	M	80	+ 1:07.08	17
10	23	Bruno Giacomelli	Alfa Romeo	M	80	+ 1:13.65	6
11	21	Chico Serra	Fittipaldi-Ford	M	79	+ 1 Lap	21
12	20	Keke Rosberg	Fittipaldi-Ford	M	78	+ 2 Laps	15
13	33	Patrick Tambay	Theodore-Ford	M	78	+ 2 Laps	16
14	14	Eliseo Salazar	Ensign-Ford	M	77	+ 3 Laps	24
15	28	Didier Pironi	Ferrari	M	76	+ 4 Laps	13
16	17	Derek Daly	March-Ford	M	75	+ 5 Laps	22
NC	3	Eddie Cheever	Tyrrell-Ford	M	62	Not Classified	20
Ret	25	Jean-Pierre Jabouille	Ligier-Matra	M	51	Brakes	19
Ret	6	Héctor Rebaque	Brabham-Ford	M	46	Gearbox	18
Ret	30	Siegfried Stohr	Arrows-Ford	M	43	Ignition	23
Ret	5	Nelson Piquet	Brabham-Ford	M	43	Accident	9
Ret	15	Alain Prost	Renault	M	28	Spun Off	5
Ret	29	Riccardo Patrese	Arrows-Ford	M	21	Brakes	12
Ret	8	Andrea de Cesaris	McLaren-Ford	M	9	Accident	14
DNQ	4	Michele Alboreto	Tyrrell-Ford	M
DNQ	31	Beppe Gabbiani	Osella-Ford	M
DNQ	9	Slim Borgudd	ATS-Ford	M
DNQ	35	Brian Henton	Toleman-Hart	P
DNQ	36	Derek Warwick	Toleman-Hart	P
DNQ	32	Giorgio Francia	Osella-Ford	M
Source: [6][7]

• This was the 300th Grand Prix in which a Frenchman participated. In those 300 races, French drivers had won 15 Grands Prix, achieved 106 podium finishes, 24 pole positions, 29 fastest laps and 2 Grand Slams.

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Carlos Reutemann 37 2 Alan Jones 24 3 Nelson Piquet 22 4 Gilles Villeneuve 21 5 Jacques Laffite 17 Source: [8]

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Williams-Ford 61 2 Ferrari 26 3 Brabham-Ford 25 4 Ligier-Matra 17 5 Lotus-Ford 12 Source: [8]

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.