The fortieth running of the Monaco Grand Prix provided arguably the most dramatic ending to a race since the inauguration of the World Drivers’ Championship, as a combination of light rain and spilt oil turned the circuit into a skating rink over the closing laps.
Until then the race had been pretty much a procession with championship leader Alain Prost taking the lead on the fifteenth of the 76 laps after his Renault team-mate René Arnoux had dropped out with mechanical failure. Riccardo Patrese in an old Brabham-Ford was tagging along in second but Nelson Piquet in the new, but still unreliable, turbo Brabham BMW had been forced to retire after 50 laps. The main excitement had centred on the battle for fourth place where Keke Rosberg (Williams) pressed Andrea de Cesaris (Alfa Romeo), until the Finn called it a day on lap 64 with a damaged front suspension.
Then a race which had appeared to be drifting towards a quiet conclusion suddenly came alive when it started to rain with five laps remaining. The first casualty was Derek Daly’s Williams, which slid into the barrier at Tabac when lying fifth. Despite losing a rear wing and damaging the gearbox, Daly managed to get going again and was far enough ahead of Elio de Angelis’s Lotus to retain his place, but then the battered Williams seized up completely at Rascasse hairpin and Daly was out of the race. Up front, Prost still had a seven-second lead over Patrese and seemed secure until on lap 74 the Renault slid sideways exiting the seafront chicane, hit the barriers and lost a wheel. This put Patrese into the lead but less than a minute later he, too, slid to a halt near Loews hairpin. Didier Pironi’s Ferrari and de Cesaris both got through before Patrese was able to get moving once more.
Patrese began the final lap a distant third with seemingly no hope of victory, unaware that ahead of him both Pironi and de Cesaris were reduced to cruising because the punishing track had left them short of fuel. Pironi ground to a halt in the tunnel, out of fuel and with an electrical problem to boot. Seconds later, on the approach to the tunnel, de Cesaris ran out of fuel. Patrese could hardly believe his eyes as he passed the two stationary cars and proceeded to tiptoe to the finish for his first-ever Grand Prix win. Pironi and de Cesaris were credited with second and third places respectively a lap behind the winner, with Nigel Mansell a hard-earned fourth in the Lotus.