36 years ago, Alain Prost’s first victory

Left in 3^e position on the grid of the Dijon-Prenois circuit, behind John Watson and Rene Arnoux, Alain Prost certainly did not expect a turnaround in the situation. Nelson Piquet had taken advantage of the confusion at the start to take the lead and led the race without being worried.

Au 58^e lap, an almost tropical storm fell on the circuit and the race had to be interrupted 2 passes from the total allocation of points for the world championship. Once the storm passed, Prost took the advantage over Piquet at the restart on a track that was still wet. The Frenchman did not let go of the lead for the remaining 22 laps as the Brazilian sank after leading the entire first part of the race.

At the checkered flag, the general classification was established by adding the times of the two rounds and offered victory to the Renault RE32 by Alain Prost who scored his first success in Formula 1. John Watson finally finished second aboard his Marlboro MP4 and Nelson Piquet was unfortunate third with his Brabham.

Alain Prost would score two more successes in this 1981 season, in the Netherlands and at Monza, while Nelson Piquet would win the first of his three world crowns.