The race was marred by the death of Italian driver
Riccardo Paletti, in only his second F1 race start. At the start, the lights took an unusually long time to turn to green. During this time,
Didier Pironi, who had the pole position, stalled the engine of his
Ferrari. Pironi lifted his hand to signal the problem just as the lights switched to green, which was too late to abort the start. The other cars swerved across the track, trying to squeeze past Pironi's stationary car.
Raul Boesel just clipped the back left of the Ferrari, spinning his
March into the path of
Eliseo Salazar and
Jochen Mass. Salazar, Boesel and Mass suffered minor impacts but it looked as if everyone had passed the Ferrari without serious consequences. However, Paletti could not react in time and slammed into the rear of the stranded Ferrari at , catapulting it into the path of
Geoff Lees. The Osella's nose was crushed in severely. Due to the force of the severe impact, Paletti sustained heavy chest injuries and was lying unconscious in his car, wedged against the steering wheel. Didier Pironi and
Sid Watkins, the
FIA's head doctor, were on the scene to stabilise and assist Paletti. As Watkins climbed over the wreckage of the Osella, the petrol from the fuel tank ignited, enveloping the car in a wall of fire. When the fire was finally put out, the injured Paletti was without a pulse. It took the rescue workers 25 minutes to cut him out safely from his wrecked car, as the sparks caused by the cutting equipment threatened to re-ignite the petrol on the track. He was flown by a medical helicopter to the
Royal Victoria Hospital, where he died soon after arriving. His mother was watching from the stands, as they were to celebrate his 24th birthday later that week. Paletti suffered a torn aorta as well as fractures to both legs. According to track doctor Jacques Bouchard his pupils were already dilated (indicating brain death) when medical personnel arrived and that the extended extraction time made no difference to his chances of survival. Paletti was the last driver to lose his life in a Formula One car until
Elio de Angelis was killed while testing for Brabham at the
Circuit Paul Ricard in France in 1986, and was the last fatality at a Formula One race weekend until
Roland Ratzenberger at the
1994 San Marino Grand Prix. == Classification ==