48th, Lauda Seals Half-Point Championship Win in Stunning Portuguese GP
Speed vs stealth. Today Alain Prost has a reputation as the master strategist, a driver who prioritised race set-up over qualifying panache, but in 1984 he was a regular front-row qualifier while team-mate Niki Lauda relied on canny racecraft.
The Austrian led the championship by 3.5 points coming into the season finale – the first Portuguese Grand Prix since 1959 – and to take the title Prost needed to win with Lauda third or lower, finish second with Lauda fifth or lower or third with Lauda outside the points. It was all going swimmingly, too.
Pole qualifier Nelson Piquet was slow away, but Prost dropped behind Keke Rosberg (Williams) and Nigel Mansell (Lotus), although it took only until lap nine for the Frenchman to work his way to the front. At that stage, Lauda was still mired in the top 10’s lower reaches and France appeared destined to crown its first world champion.