Summary

The 1981 Spanish Grand Prix featured the second closest finish ever of a Formula
One race: after Gilles Villeneuve's Ferrari, the four following cars finished in
just 1.24 seconds. This was Villeneuve's last victory, often regarded as his
tactical masterpiece.[3]

There were some changes for this race: Eliseo Salazar had left March to join
Ensign, replacing Marc Surer. Also, John Player Special sponsorship and livery
returned to Team Lotus after a 2-year hiatus.

The pole went to Jacques Laffite on his Ligier-Matra with the two Williams-Cosworth
of Alan Jones and Carlos Reutemann second and third ahead of John Watson's McLaren,
Alain Prost's Renault and the Alfa Romeo of Bruno Giacomelli. Gilles Villeneuve was
seventh.

Race day was unusually hot. At the beginning of the race Jones and Reutemann went
into the lead, as Laffite made a poor start. Villeneuve jumped into third place at
the first corner, damaging Prost's front wing as he took the position. At the end
of the first lap Villeneuve pulled out of Reutemann's slipstream and took second
place. Jones began to build a lead but on lap 14 he went off the track, when he was
10 seconds ahead of the Canadian.

This left Villeneuve with Reutemann on his tail. Behind them Watson, Laffite and
Elio de Angelis began to close on the dueling leaders. Reutemann was having some
trouble with his gearbox and when Laffite arrived behind him there was little the
Argentine could do to stop him from overtaking. Reutemann would later drop behind
Watson. The five front-runners became a train of cars, packed together for the
remaining laps of the race.

Villeneuve used the power of his Ferrari engine on the straight to gain a little
margin and not get overtaken by his rivals, but in the corners they were all over
him. Many times Laffite pulled alongside the Canadian as they went out a corner but
the Ferrari would stay ahead as the horsepower kicked in. The five remained locked
together right to the flag, crossing the line covered by just 1.24 seconds to
record the second-closest race in the history of Formula One.

This would be the last Spanish Grand Prix at Jarama, owing to criticism of the
track being too narrow for modern Formula One, the unpleasant conditions and the
small crowd[4] (the small turn-out was probably due to the backlash of the previous
year's race not being counted as a World Championship race, the announcement was
made on the weekend itself); and the last Spanish Grand Prix until the 1986 season,
when it would be held at the newly built Jerez circuit in the south of the country.

Classification
Qualifying
Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap
1 26 France Jacques Laffite Ligier-Matra 1:14.822 1:13.754 —
2 1 Australia Alan Jones Williams-Ford 1:14.424 1:14.024 +0.270
3 2 Argentina Carlos Reutemann Williams-Ford 1:14.808 1:14.342
+0.588
4 7 United Kingdom John Watson McLaren-Ford 1:15.094 1:14.657
+0.903
5 15 France Alain Prost Renault 1:14.980 1:14.669 +0.915
6 23 Italy Bruno Giacomelli Alfa Romeo 1:16.807 1:14.897 +1.143
7 27 Canada Gilles Villeneuve Ferrari 1:16.548 1:14.987 +1.233
8 22 United States Mario Andretti Alfa Romeo 1:15.576 1:15.159 +1.405
9 5 Brazil Nelson Piquet Brabham-Ford 1:16.861 1:15.355 +1.601
10 11 Italy Elio de Angelis Lotus-Ford 1:15.399 1:15.449 +1.645
11 12 United Kingdom Nigel Mansell Lotus-Ford 1:16.226 1:15.562 +1.808
12 29 Italy Riccardo Patrese Arrows-Ford 1:16.038 1:15.627 +1.873
13 28 France Didier Pironi Ferrari 1:16.522 1:15.715 +1.961
14 8 Italy Andrea de Cesaris McLaren-Ford 1:16.119 1:15.850 +2.096
15 20 Finland Keke Rosberg Fittipaldi-Ford 1:16.040 1:15.924 +2.170
16 33 France Patrick Tambay Theodore-Ford 1:17.347 1:16.355 +2.601
17 16 France René Arnoux Renault 1:17.132 1:16.406 +2.652
18 6 Mexico Héctor Rebaque Brabham-Ford 1:16.722 1:16.527 +2.773
19 25 France Jean-Pierre Jabouille Ligier-Matra 1:16.559 1:16.794
+2.805
20 3 United States Eddie Cheever Tyrrell-Ford 1:17.459 1:16.641
+2.887
21 21 Brazil Chico Serra Fittipaldi-Ford 1:18.705 1:16.782 +3.028
22 17 Republic of Ireland Derek Daly March-Ford 1:17.416 1:16.979
+3.225
23 30 Italy Siegfried Stohr Arrows-Ford 1:18.331 1:17.294 +3.540
24 14 Chile Eliseo Salazar Ensign-Ford 1:18.769 1:17.822 +4.068
25 4 Italy Michele Alboreto Tyrrell-Ford 1:18.859 1:17.943 +4.189
26 31 Italy Beppe Gabbiani Osella-Ford no time 1:18.169 +4.415
27 9 Sweden Slim Borgudd ATS-Ford 1:20.028 1:18.263 +4.509
28 35 United Kingdom Brian Henton Toleman-Hart 1:19.815 1:18.340
+4.586
29 36 United Kingdom Derek Warwick Toleman-Hart 1:20.342 1:18.872
+5.118
30 32 Italy Giorgio Francia Osella-Ford 1:19.586 8:22.382 +5.832