1981 Dutch Grand Prix

Arnoux and Prost leading the start of the race

At the start, Prost led the field into Tarzan, with teammate René Arnoux following closely behind. Further back in the midfield, Gilles Villeneuve crashed into the back of Bruno Giacomelli's Alfa Romeo, vaulting over the Alfa before spinning out of the race.

As the field wound toward the second corner, Mario Andretti and Carlos Reutemann collided, leaving Andretti's car with a broken nose. Before the end of the first lap, another incident occurred when Patrick Tambay and Didier Pironi came together. It resulted in instant retirement for Tambay, whilst the second Ferrari carried on for three more laps before also pulling out of the race.

At the front of the field, Arnoux was unable to keep up with the pace and dropped four places, behind Alan Jones, Nelson Piquet, Jacques Laffite and Reutemann. With Arnoux out of the way, Jones hunted down Prost and challenged for the lead until his tires wore out and Jones had to slow down. Reutemann and Laffite, in the meantime, battled fiercely for fourth, ending with both cars crashing out of the race on the 18th lap.

Toward the end of the race, a slowing Jones was overtaken by Piquet. This would prove to be crucial in the World Championship standings, for if Jones had kept second, Piquet would have missed out on the title at the final race of the season.

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Nelson Piquet 45 2 Carlos Reutemann 45 3 Jacques Laffite 34 4 Alan Jones 31 5 Alain Prost 28 Source: [3]

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Williams-Ford 76 2 Brabham-Ford 56 3 Renault 39 4 Ligier-Matra 34 5 Ferrari 28 Source: [3]

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.