Formula 1 - 1981 - Round 15 - Caesar's Palace / Las Vegas GP

The Watkins Glen circuit in the state of New York was removed from the calendar in May due to bankruptcy of the company operating the circuit[citation needed], resulting in a three-week long gap between the Canadian Grand Prix and the new Caesars Palace Grand Prix at a circuit located in a car park outside of the Caesars Palace hotel and casino complex in Las Vegas, Nevada. During this time frame Niki Lauda announced his decision to return to F1 with McLaren in 1982.[citation needed] Many in the F1 paddock were confused and unhappy to be racing around the car park of a Las Vegas casino.[citation needed]

World Championship leader Carlos Reutemann qualified on pole ahead of his teammate Alan Jones. The Australian had no intent to do anything to help the Argentine to the title because of their clash over team orders at the start of the year. He was retiring from F1 after the race and had nothing to lose. He was going for a victory.[citation needed] Third on the grid was Gilles Villeneuve in the Ferrari with Reutemann's title rival Nelson Piquet fourth, Alain Prost fifth in his Renault and John Watson sixth in the McLaren.

In dry, 75 °F (24 °C) conditions, Jones took the lead at the start with Reutemann dropping behind Villeneuve, Prost and Giacomelli before the first corner, while Piquet was eighth. With Villeneuve holding up those behind, Jones drove to an unchallenged victory. Prost overtook Villeneuve on lap three but his Renault was not as fast as Jones' Williams. On the next lap Laffite overtook Watson and the order then stabilized with Piquet running behind Reutemann, both men out of the points. On lap 17 Piquet passed the subdued Reutemann and he was followed by Andretti. Piquet chased after Watson and took sixth place on lap 22. This was briefly fifth when Villeneuve stopped with a fuel injection problem. But Nelson was then overtaken by Andretti. A few moments later Giacomelli's promising run in fourth place ended when he went off and rejoined back in ninth position so Piquet was back in fifth but when Reutemann overtook Watson for sixth the pair were back on equal points (although Piquet would win the title on victories). Then Andretti retired with a broken rear suspension and Piquet moved to fourth and Reutemann to fifth. Soon afterwards Prost pitted for tires and dropped to sixth but at the same time Mansell went ahead of Reutemann and as Prost recovered so the Argentine lost another place. Prost's recovery would take him to second place, while Reutemann's unimpressive afternoon continued as he drifted behind the recovering Giacomelli. Piquet got up to third when Laffite went in for tires but he was then overtaken by Mansell and Giacomelli, the Italian moving up to third in the closing laps. So Jones won, ahead of Prost, Giacomelli, Mansell, Piquet and Laffite.

With Reutemann out of the points, Piquet's fifth place was enough to win his first of 3 World Championship titles.