Grand Prix to Piquet

Press, 4 August 1981, Page 30

Grand Prix to Piquet

NZPA-Reuter Hockenheim, West Germany The Brazilian, Nelson Piquet roared into contention for the world championship title when he won the West German Grand Prix in a Brabham yesterday. However, Piquet emerged triumphant only after the reigning champion, Alan Jones, of Australia, saw near-certain victory cruelly snatched from his grasp for the second year in a row. Jones looked set to repeat his 1979 Hockenheim victory

when his Williams car finally overhauled the early leader, Frenchman Alain Prost, midway through the race and went into a commanding lead. However, the Australian, robbed of victory last year by a burst tyre four laps from the finish, was denied again, this time by problems with his. fuel injection system which made him slow up agonisingly in the final laps. Jones signalled trouble as he passed the nits on several

occasions as his lead was eroded by the chasing white Brabham of Piquet, which had passed Prost’s Renault on the thirty-seventh lap of the 45-lap race. Piquet, who won the Argentine Grand Prix, swept past Jones two laps later to beat Prost by over 11 seconds, with another Frenchman, Jacques Laffite, grabbing third place in a Talbot-Ligier as Jones finally admitted defeat and drove dejectedly into the pits.