Auto Racing Roundup : After Prost Drops Out, Piquet Breezes to Win

Nelson Piquet, Brazil’s two-time world champion, won the Brazilian Grand Prix at Rio de Janeiro Sunday in the first race for this year’s international Formula One championship.

Piquet, 33, had an average speed of 115 m.p.h. over the twisting Jacarepagua circuit in a British Williams with a Honda engine that proved powerful and durable against 24 other entries.

Alain Prost, last year’s Formula One driving champion, challenged Piquet in the early laps but dropped out with piston problems in the Porsche/TAG engine of his red-and-white McLaren, with which Prost won here last year.

It was Piquet’s 14th victory in 112 Formula One races and his first place gave him nine points toward this year’s driver’s title. He was world champion in 1981 and 1983, driving for Brabham. He switched to Williams this year after winning only one race last year.

Second place, 30 seconds behind Piquet, went to Brazil’s Ayrton Senna, 26, a rising star of Formula One racing, who drove a Renault-powered Lotus. He earned six points.

Third and fourth place were taken by the French Ligier team of Jacques Lafitte and Rene Arnoux. The McLaren, Brabham, and Ferrari teams were shut out.

Only 10 of the 25 starters finished the race which was run on a dry track under a strong sun that pushed temperatures to more than 110 degrees. More than 50,000 spectators turned out and cheered the double Brazilian victory.

The next race in the international Formula One circuit is the Spanish Grand Prix in three weeks.