|
Race
 The
morning warm-up had been delayed by 40 minutes due to a staircase collapsing
in the paddock, injuring several people. However, all was well by the
time of the race, with the Dutch weather being hot and sunny. Piquet
got off the line beautifully, and slotted past Prost into Tarzan, with
Tambay doing the same to de Angelis. Lauda got away badly, dropping
to 11th place behind Boutsen and Fabi, while Winkelhock span the ATS
and was pushed back into contention as he had come to a halt in rather
an awkward place. Cheever and Hesnault were also off when the Frenchman
tried a rather optimistic lunge down the inside of the Alfa Romeo and
simply oversteered into it, both rejoining after losing several places.
 Rosberg
was charging by now, up into 5th and haring down on de Angelis, while
Lauda had disposed of two cars and was now looking at getting past Alboreto.
He could rest easy, however, as Prost simply had nothing to match Piquet
this time, the Brabham pulling away at around a second a lap, while
Rosberg in 3rd wasn't such a threat. With Piquet out of the title reckoning,
Prost merely had to concentrate on beating Lauda, and wasn't going to
risk 2nd place. The second McLaren had picked off Warwick, who was being
caught by Laffite in the second Williams, and began moving towards the
battle over 4th between Tambay and de Angelis, swiftly moving past both
to press Rosberg. Further back, Alboreto's Ferrari dropped out once
again, while Arnoux was unable to do anything about Senna and Fabi.
 The
rest became incidental on lap 11, when Piquet's engine blew out its'
oil, and caused him to retire yet again. Almost simultaneously, Lauda
finally forced his McLaren down the inside of Rosberg to take what was
suddenly second from Rosberg, and we were left to see which of the McLarens
would take victory. Prost had been left with an eight-second lead over
Lauda, but the Austrian wasn't able to pull away from Rosberg with any
real alacrity.
 Most
of the excitement for now was coming from de Angelis' attempts to get
past Tambay for 4th place. The Italian was all over the Renault's gearbox,
but just didn't have the speed to pull past on the straights, the battle
being hard enough to draw both closer to Rosberg, with Warwick, Laffite
and Fabi keeping in touch behind. Tambay and de Angelis were then split
up after running as one for half-a-dozen laps when they came upon the
unhappy Winkelhock, who nearly hit the Lotus twice after completely
ignoring his mirrors. The German would soon retire when he and Warwick
span on oil from Laffite's exploding Honda.
 Still,
by this time Lauda had got himself into a good groove, and had sliced
the lead down to under four seconds by lap 22. Once again Prost's ability
to cope with pressure would be brought into question. However, suddenly
Prost responded, and pulled away - the Frenchman had misinterpreted
his pit signals, believing Rosberg - 17 seconds behind - to be in 2nd.
As soon as he realised Lauda, on soft tyres, was bearing down on him
he switched back on and made the gap more comfortable.
 Behind,
Fabi span and stopped for tyres, while Tambay also pitted for fresh
Michelins. This left Rosberg with the Lotus cars of de Angelis and Mansell
on his gearbox. Mansell passed them both on successive laps at Tarzan,
with a big wobble as he nailed Rosberg, while a wary Prost was trying
to lap all three. The trio were much more concerned with third place
than letting the McLaren by, but Prost negotiated all three successfully
and had built a cushion of some 15 seconds over Lauda, meaning the affair
wasn't enough for his team-mate to draw in.
 Indeed,
Prost didn't make a single mistake all afternoon on his way to his fifth
victory of the year, with Lauda second, his lead in the championship
cut down to 1.5 points. The McLaren-TAGs achieved their fourth 1-2 finish
of the year, their ninth victory saw them overtake Lotus' 1978 record,
and also mathematically confirm the constructors' cup would be theirs.
Mansell took third ahead of de Angelis after Rosberg's sturdy drive
went unrewarded, pulling into the pits out of fuel a lap from the end.
This elevated the battle between Fabi and Tambay (who had lost fifth
gear) to the fight for 5th, with the Brabham driver just about having
enough to take the position.
 Arnoux
had briefly taken 6th only for his tyres to go off, and as he pulled
into the pits he neglected to signal properly, causing the following
Boutsen to thump into the back of the Ferrari and retire with a deranged
front-right wheel. The Ferrari returned and set fastest lap in pursuit
of Tambay, only to retire with an electrical fault. This left Hesnault
to finish 7th, ahead of the well-driven Tyrrells of Johansson and Bellof
and the RAMs of Palmer and Alliot, with Gartner the only other runner
after Cheever's Alfa Romeo once again ran out of fuel, five laps from
the end.
|
