Keke's diary
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Qualified: Pole Result: Retired
“The FW08 was very quick at a course like Brands Hatch, and it was a circuit I loved. In that car, it was like being in heaven.”
Then came the hell of the car failing to fire for the warm-up lap. Throwing cold water over the fuel pump remedied the problem, but by then Keke realised he’d be starting 266 rather than first.
“It destroyed our race, because I woukl have to charge, and the tyres couldn’t take it because we had chosen a fairly soft compound.”
Even so, the potential of the Keke/ FW08 combo soon became clear: 151h by the end of lap one, he was 12th by lap three, 10th on lap six, sixth by lap 13. Could he take an implausible win? A pitstop on lap 16 answered that.
“It was understeering like hell. Maybe it would have done that if we had led from pole, but I would have been driving differently. I find it strange that we had destroyed the fronts rather than the rears. But it all came to nothing in the end, we lost fuel pressure.
“Patrick was livid. I remember his face as if it was yesterday. Those were the tracks where we needed to score and we should have won.”
Championship positions:
1 Pironi 35;
2 Watson 30;
3 Lauda 24;
4 Rosberg 21;
5 Patrese, Prost 19;