1982 Formula One World Championship
Two weeks later, Villeneuve died after an accident during the final qualifying session for the Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder. Bamsey and Lang write that he was trying to beat Pironi's time, while Ferrari race engineer Mauro Forghieri says that the Canadian was returning to the pits and would not therefore have set a lap time. Villeneuve caught Jochen Mass travelling much more slowly through a left-handed bend and moved to the right to pass him at the same instant that Mass also moved right to let Villeneuve through on the racing line. The two collided and Villeneuve was thrown out of his disintegrating car. He died of a fractured neck in a local hospital at 9:12 that evening. Ferrari withdrew from the race, which John Watson won for McLaren. His teammate Lauda was disqualified after the race for an underweight car. The results were dominated by the returning FOCA teams; even the only turbo-engined finisher, Piquet's Brabham-BMW, was from their number.