The 1980 British Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Brands Hatch on July 13, 1980. It was the eighth round of the 1980 Formula One season. The race was the 35th British Grand Prix and the ninth to be held at Brands Hatch. The race was held over 76 laps of the 4.207-kilometre circuit for a total race distance of 320 kilometres.
The race was won by Australian driver, Alan Jones driving a Williams FW07B. The win was Jones' eighth Formula One Grand Prix victory and his fourth of the year. Including the non-championship Spanish Grand Prix it was Jones' third victory in a row as he built his charge towards becoming the 1980 World Drivers' Champion. Jones won by eleven seconds over the man becoming his arch-rival, Brazilian driver Nelson Piquet driving a Brabham BT49. Third, and the only other car to finish on the lead lap, was Jones' Williams Grand Prix Engineering team mate, Argentinian driver Carlos Reutemann. The race had been dominated in the early running by French Equipe Ligier drivers Didier Pironi and Jacques Laffite who between them led the first thirty laps of the race. Tyre troubles caused by cracking rims caught both cars, Pironi pitted for new rubber, charging back to fifth before getting another puncture. Laffite never made it back to the pits after his puncture.
The Tyrrell 010s of Irish driver Derek Daly and French driver Jean-Pierre Jarier finished fourth and fifth with Alain Prost (McLaren M29) completing the points finishers. Brabham has sacked Ricardo Zunino and new driver Hector Rebaque finished seventh in his first start with the team.
After the disappearance of the Shadow team, numbers were unaffected as leading British Formula One Series team RAM Racing entered with their Williams FW07s, although only Rupert Keegan qualified, Desiré Wilson missing out. This race proved to be winner of the 1978 Monaco Grand Prix and the 1979 Spanish Grand Prix, Patrick Depailler's final Grand Prix. He was killed weeks later testing his Alfa Romeo 179 at Hockenheim.
Jones expanded his lead out to six points over Piquet but more significantly 14 points ahead of René Arnoux and Pironi. For all their impressive speed, Renault were fading as the year progressed. Williams was now an impressive 18 points ahead of Ligier. Piquet's lone-hand performance at Brabham kept them in third place in the constructors' tally. After eight races, Scuderia Ferrari had scored only five points between both its drivers in what was fast becoming the worst championship defence in Formula One history.
Read more about 1980 British Grand Prix: Classification, Standings After The Race
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