Villeneuve wins dramatic race 1

Press, 2 June 1981, Page 6

Villeneuve wins dramatic race 1

NZPA-Reuter Monte Carlo

Canada's Gilles Villeneuve scored the first Grand Prix victory for the new turbo-charged Ferrari yesterday in a dramatic, accident-packed thirty-ninth Monaco Grand Prix.

He took the lead from Alan Jones, driving a Williams, only four laps from the end of the 76 laps around the streets of Monte Carlo when fuel problems cost the Australian a certain victory.

Jones came home second followed by the Talbot Ligier of France's Jacques Laffite with

Didier Pironi. of France, in a Ferrari, placing fourth. The only other finishers of the 20 starters were the American, Eddie Cheever, in a Tyrrell,- a Swiss, Marc Surer’s Ensign, and a Frenchman, Patrick Tambay, in a Theodore. The race started one hour late because of a fire in the Loews Hotel over the tunnel section of the circuit. Firefighting efforts then flooded that area. Brazil's Nelson Piquet led from the pole for 54 laps, fighting off a hard-charging. Jones until he crashed when trying to pass two slower cars.

Villeneuve’s winning time for the 251.712 kilometres was 1 hour. 54 minutes. 23.38 seconds, an average of 132.03 km ,)'< • Carlos Reutemann’s; remarkable run of 15 point-scoring/fin-ishes ended when the gearbox of his Williams failed. The result left Reutemann slill ahead in the title battle, with) 34 points, Jones second on 24 and Piquet relegated to third with 22. Villeneuve, who said his turbocharged car should prove better suited to the open spaces of file . regular circuits, jumped menac-ingly-into fourth place with’l2-