The 1981 Caesars Palace Grand Prix decided the Drivers' Championship by one point, with Nelson Piquet clinching the title over Carlos Reutemann.
Key Facts
- Race distance
- 75 laps
- Championship margin
- 1 point (Piquet over Reutemann)
- Race winner
- Alan Jones (Williams-Ford)
- Season round
- 15th and final race of 1981 season
- Last Australian F1 winner
- 28 years, until Webber in 2009
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
The 1981 Formula One World Championship entered its final round with the Drivers' title still unresolved. Nelson Piquet and Carlos Reutemann were separated by only a slim points margin, making the outcome of this Las Vegas race decisive for the championship.
Held on October 17, 1981, at a temporary street circuit adjacent to Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, the 75-lap race was won by Alan Jones in a Williams-Ford. Alain Prost finished second and Bruno Giacomelli third, while Piquet came fifth and Reutemann, starting from pole, finished eighth.
Piquet's fifth-place finish was sufficient to claim the Drivers' Championship by a single point over Reutemann. Jones's victory was the last Formula One win by an Australian driver for 28 years, a record that stood until Mark Webber's victory at the 2009 German Grand Prix.