Saturday 17th May 1980

Ever skipped a stone across a pond? Now, close your eyes and imagine that instead of a pond, it’s a tightly-bunched field of F1 cars, and instead of a stone, it’s a Tyrrell 010 from 1980. That’s a pretty good approximation of what happened at the start of the 1980 Monaco GP.
Daly started 12th on the grid but braked a fraction too late heading into the first corner. Fractions make a huge difference at Monaco and he ended up launching off the back of Bruno Giacomelli’s Alfa Romeo, bouncing off Alain Prost’s McLaren and onto teammate Jean-Pierre Jarier, putting all four cars out instantly in one of the most spectacular accidents to happen in the Principality. Incredibly, all were OK – the rest of the field even had a challenge negotiating the wreckage on the following lap because of course, the race wasn’t stopped.
Didier Pironi led the bulk of the race for Ligier, only to crash out at Casino Square, leaving Carlos Reutemann to claim the win ahead of Jacques Laffite and Nelson Piquet. In sixth place was Emerson Fittipaldi, scoring what would be the last point of his F1 career.