“A race nobody wanted to win”
Riccardo Patrese recalls the 1982 Monaco Grand Prix where he scored his first Formula One win in “a race nobody wanted to win”.
Patrese: “On lap 75, I was very cautious when I came to Loews, but I couldn’t control it and I spun. Afterwards someone objected that the marshals had pushed me. I didn’t feel any push. I think they pulled me back a little, as I was in an unsafe position, stuck in the middle of the track. Then they let go. The moment I released the brakes the car started to roll. I went down the hill, let the car get some speed, grabbed second gear and it started – with the Cosworth it was always quite easy to do a bump start.”
Patrese continues: “I didn’t know I’d won the GP. On the last lap de Cesaris stopped, then Pironi. I thought Rosberg’s Williams was still ahead of me because I thought he’d overtaken me. So I thought I was second. On the finishing lap everybody was waving flags and so on, while I was thinking I’d thrown it all away. I can remember thinking, ‘maybe they are pleased I finished second and drove a good race’, but I was very, very unhappy.”
“I was not in a hurry to get to the podium, because in the briefing they said only the winning car should stop in front of it. Because I was not the winner, I decided to give a lift to Didier. I dropped him off and instead of letting me go into the pits, I was shown the way to the podium. I didn’t understand. I thought they changed the rules and wanted the first three. But only my car was there! However there were more than three drivers; there was me, de Cesaris, Pironi and de Angelis! There was a big discussion over who was first, second or third. Somebody came to me and started to shout, ‘You won, you won’ Then I finally realised …”
Riccardo Patrese concludes: “Whenever you win at Monte Carlo there’s a very good party, and that year was even more special because it was the last time Princess Grace was there – she died in October of that year. I was quite young, and still a bit shy. She was really kind and nice to me, and they tried to make me confortable in that situation.”
