Patrese Wins Monaco Grand Prix After Four Lead Changes in Final Laps
Riccardo Patrese won the monaco grand prix after four lead changes in the final three laps on 23 May 1982, taking his first Formula 1 victory in a finish so chaotic that even the driver did not know he had won at first. The race became known as the one nobody wanted to win after Alain Prost, Didier Pironi and Andrea de Cesaris all lost the lead late.
Patrese Seizes Monaco
Prost had been in control after passing Keke Rosberg, and Rosberg’s crash on lap 65 opened the door for the final sequence. Light rain arrived with three laps left in the 76-lap race, and oil already on the track turned the closing laps into a scramble.
On lap 74, Prost lost control exiting the harbour chicane and hit the Armco barriers. Patrese moved into the lead in the Brabham-Ford, but then spun at the Loews hairpin and stalled. Marshals pushed the car clear, he bump-started the engine, and the race kept changing hands behind him.
Pironi, de Cesaris, Daly
Pironi took over in his Ferrari after Patrese stalled, with de Cesaris moving into second place in his Alfa Romeo. That pair never reached the finish line in order: Pironi stopped in the tunnel on the final lap after running out of fuel, and de Cesaris later lost the lead at Casino Square when his Alfa Romeo stopped.
Derek Daly also dropped out of contention when his Williams seized a gearbox a few hundred metres from the finish line. By then the race had already reached the strange point James Hunt described from the commentary box: "Well, we've got this ridiculous situation; we're all sitting by the start/finish line waiting for a winner to come past, and we don't seem to be getting one."
Monaco Grand Prix Finish
Patrese finally took the chequered flag and claimed his first Formula 1 victory, while Pironi and de Cesaris were classified second and third despite not seeing the finish. It was four lead changes, almost five, in the final three laps, a sequence that still stands apart in Monaco history 44 years later.
