95th, De Angelis Clinches Victory in Last-Lap Thriller Against Rosberg
This swooping circuit in Styria was turbo country – as Kyalami, Rio, Imola, Montréal, Zandvoort, Paul Ricard and Hockenheim had all proved to be in their turn as the Grand Prix season had unrolled.
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.