95th, De Angelis Clinches Victory in Last-Lap Thriller Against Rosberg

1982 Austrian GP
August 15, Österreichring

The writing was on the wall, and even Lotus boss Colin Chapman, joint-founder of the Cosworth DFV dynasty in 1967, had been forced down the forced-induction route: he announced his team’s 1983 deal with Renault at this race.

This was music to the cultured ears of his Italian number one Elio de Angelis, who promptly re-signed. In the short term the atmo car delighted him in practice; only the Williams of Keke Rosberg was faster – sixth – in the ‘best of the rest’ battle.

But the turbos fluffed their lines on race day. The Ferrari of Patrick Tambay picked up an early puncture. The pace-setting Brabhams of Nelson Piquet and Riccardo Patrese suffered engine failures, the latter’s BMW locking solid and sending him spinning out after 26 laps in the lead that included the first scheduled pitstop of the modern era. And the Renault of Alain Prost retired five laps from victory because of fuel injection bothers.

This left the composed de Angelis in the lead, albeit hounded by Rosberg, who was increasingly happy with his car’s behaviour on a lightening fuel load. Both men were seeking their maiden GP win.

The Lotus’s DFV hesitated on the final lap and Rosberg drew alongside. The Finn would have won, too, given another couple of yards. Instead he missed out by five-hundredths. De Angelis threw an arm up in triumph – in the manner of a hopeful Peter Gethin at Monza in 1971 – while Chapman hurled a celebratory cap into the air for the first time since the 1978 Dutch GP.

Tragically, the DFV’s 150th victory would also be Chapman’s last before he suffered a fatal heart attack in December. PF

1st Elio de Angelis (Lotus-Ford)
2nd Keke Rosberg (Williams-Ford)
3rd Jacques Laffite (Ligier-Matra)
Winner’s time & speed 1hr 25min 02.212sec, 138.071mph
Pole position Nelson Piquet (Brabham-BMW), 1min 27.612sec, 151.713mph