French Grand Prix

THE French Grand Prix returned to the Paul Ricard circuit for the first time since 1983 and produced some tremendously exciting racing at ferocious speeds in the hot conditions. Right, Keke Rosberg’s pole position Williams-Honda FVV10 leads into the first left-hander after the start with Ayrton Senna’s Lotus 97T and eventual winner Nelson Piquet’s Brabham BT54 breathing down his neck. The rest of the field is spread out in a somewhat straggling formation already with, at the back of the picture, PierLuigi Martini’s and Martin Brundle’s TyrrellRenault 014 making very slow starts, but not as slow as Jonathan Palmer’s Zakspeed which got away behind the course cars seen on the horizon. Below left,. Brundle gave Ken Tyrrell’s first Renault turbo-engined machine a promising debut, climbing steadily through the second half of the field before retiring moth gear selection troubles. Below centre, Patrick Tarnbay’s revised Renault RE6OB heads towards sixth place ahead of Marc Surer’s Brabharn BT54 and eventual seventh placeman Derek Warwick’s Renault 6E60. Bottom right: a spectacular rear vievv of the battle for second place with Rosberg’s Williams hanging on in front of the McLarens of Lauda and Prost.