1982 Canadian F1 Grand Prix Race Report & Results

Event: Canandian Grand Prix
Track: Circuit Gilles Villeneuve

Weather: overcast, dry

Nelson Piquet won his 7th F1 World Championship race at the 1982 Canadian Grand Prix on the road. The Brabham-BMW driver started from 4th on the grid and won on the renamed Circuit Gilles Villeneuve for the 1st time. It was his 1st win of the season and the 28th win for the Brabham F1 team, and the very first F1 victory for a BMW turbo engine.

Pironi's pole at Villeneuve's circuit

The Île Notre-Dame circuit had been renamed Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. The Quebec public received Pironi cooly, but the Frenchman took his first pole for Ferrari and dedicated it carefully: "It is my first pole for Ferrari, and a great joy to take it on a circuit that bears the name of the man who was not just my team-mate but my friend. I dedicate it to him because I know that, had he still been with us, he would have been on pole." Arnoux was second for Renault, Prost third, Piquet fourth in the Brabham-BMW. Friday's rain meant Saturday morning was the only dry session.

The Paletti accident

At the start Pironi's clutch stuck and the Ferrari was anchored on pole. Yellow flags waved; Pironi flailed his arms. Most of the field threaded their way past him, but Boesel clipped a wheel, slewed sideways and tagged Salazar; immediately behind, the 23-year-old Riccardo Paletti, making only his second start, on the last row of his Osella, saw none of it and slammed head-on into the back of the stalled Ferrari at 185 km/h. The Osella's monocoque collapsed. Pironi vaulted out of his car and ran to help with Sid Watkins; they tried to free the unconscious Italian, then the fuel tank ignited and they were beaten back. It took the marshals 28 minutes to extract Paletti. The steering column had pierced his chest. He died in surgery at the Royal Victoria hospital. Two days short of his 24th birthday. His mother had watched from the grandstand.

The race

The second start, at 18:20, was clean. Pironi led briefly before Arnoux's Renault overhauled him down the main straight; Piquet then took both of them on lap 9. Mansell hit a slow Giacomelli at the hairpin on lap 2 and broke his left wrist. Arnoux's Renault spun at turn 12 on lap 29, a replay of his Monaco mistake, and Prost's V6 blew on lap 31, the sixth scoreless race in a row for the French team. Patrese settled into a comfortable second behind his Brabham team-mate; Watson made third only when Cheever ran out of fuel on lap 67 and de Cesaris coasted to a halt on lap 69, also dry. Piquet won by 14 seconds.

Aftermath

Paletti's death was kept off the PA until after the flag, but the drivers knew. Piquet, Patrese and Watson stood on the podium with grave faces. It was an emotional victory all the same, BMW's first win in F1, only the fifth race for the turbo, and Brabham's first one-two with two different engines. Piquet, who had failed to qualify in Detroit a week earlier and had been disqualified from Brazil over the water tanks, had two scores to settle. Watson extended his championship lead to ten over Pironi. McLaren now led the constructors' by sixteen. Mansell was out for several weeks with the broken wrist. Balestre, surveying two driver fatalities in five weeks, used the moment to push again for stronger monocoques.

Classification 1982 Canadian F1 GP

Pos	#	Driver	Constructor	Car & Engine	Grid	Laps	Led	Time	Pts
1	1	NelsonPiquet	Brabham	Brabham BT50BMW M12/13	4	70	62	1:46:39.577	9
2	2	RiccardoPatrese	Brabham	Brabham BT49DFord DFV	8	70		1:46:53.376+13.799s	6
3	7	JohnWatson	McLaren	McLaren MP4/1Ford DFV	6	70		1:47:41.413+1:01.836	4
4	11	Eliode Angelis	Team Lotus	Lotus 91Ford DFV	10	69		+1 lap	3
5	29	MarcSurer	Arrows	Arrows A4Ford DFV	16	69		+1 lap	2
6	22	Andreade Cesaris	Alfa Romeo	Alfa Romeo 182Alfa Romeo 1260	9	68		Out of Fuel	1
7	5	DerekDaly	Williams	Williams FW08Ford DFV	13	68		Out of Fuel
8	30	MauroBaldi	Arrows	Arrows A4Ford DFV	17	68		+2 laps
9	28	DidierPironi	Ferrari	Ferrari 126C2Ferrari 021	1	67	1	+3 laps
10	25	EddieCheever	Ligier	Ligier JS17BMatra MS81	12	66		Out of Fuel
11	17	JochenMass	March	March 821Ford DFV	22	66		+4 laps
NC	4	BrianHenton	Tyrrell	Tyrrell 011Ford DFV	26	59		Not Classifled
DNF	6	KekeRosberg	Williams	Williams FW08Ford DFV	7	52		Gearbox
DNF	18	RaulBoesel	March	March 821Ford DFV	21	47		Engine
DNF	3	MicheleAlboreto	Tyrrell	Tyrrell 011Ford DFV	15	41		Engine
DNF	15	AlainProst	Renault	Renault RE30BRenault EF1	3	30		Engine
DNF	16	RenéArnoux	Renault	Renault RE30BRenault EF1	2	28	7	Spun Off
DNF	10	EliseoSalazar	ATS	ATS D5Ford DFV	24	20		Engine
DNF	8	NikiLauda	McLaren	McLaren MP4/1Ford DFV	11	17		Clutch
DNF	26	JacquesLaffite	Ligier	Ligier JS17BMatra MS81	19	8		Fuel System
DNF	14	RobertoGuerrero	Ensign	Ensign N181Ford DFV	20	7		Clutch
DNF	23	BrunoGiacomelli	Alfa Romeo	Alfa Romeo 182Alfa Romeo 1260	5	2		Collision
DNF	12	NigelMansell	Team Lotus	Lotus 91Ford DFV	14	2		Collision
DNF	31	Jean-PierreJarier	Osella	Osella FA1CFord DFV	18	0		Withdrew
DNF	32	RiccardoPaletti	Osella	Osella FA1CFord DFV	23	0		Fatal Accident on first start
DNF	33	GeoffLees	Theodore	Theodore TY02Ford DFV	25	0		Collision on first start
DNQ	9	ManfredWinkelhock	ATS	ATS D5Ford DFV		0		No Time
DNQ	19	Emiliode Villota	March	March 821Ford DFV		0		No Time
DNQ	20	ChicoSerra	Fittipaldi	Fittipaldi F8DFord DFV		0		No Time

Fastest lap: 1:28.323 min by Didier Pironi (Ferrari 126C2) in lap 66

✅ Check out 1982 F1 Championship Standings
✅ Check out 1982 F1 Teams & Drivers

✅ Check out All Time F1 Drivers Rankings
✅ Check out All Time F1 Driver Records
✅ Check out All Time F1 Teams Rankings

About the author

Leopold

Leopold Pleijsier founded F1-Fansite.com in 2001 and has followed Formula 1 since the early 1980s. He writes about daily F1 news, race weekends, drivers and the sport’s history.

Related topics