[3] There were some changes for this race: Eliseo Salazar had left March to join Ensign, replacing Marc Surer.

The pole went to Jacques Laffite on his Ligier-Matra with the two Williams-Cosworth of Alan Jones and Carlos Reutemann second and third ahead of John Watson's McLaren, Alain Prost's Renault and the Alfa Romeo of Bruno Giacomelli.

Many times Laffite pulled alongside the Canadian as they went out a corner but the Ferrari would stay ahead as the horsepower kicked in.

The five remained locked together right to the flag, crossing the line covered by just 1.24 seconds to record the second-closest race in the history of Formula One.

This would be the last Spanish Grand Prix at Jarama, owing to criticism of the track being too narrow for modern Formula One, the unpleasant conditions and the small crowd (the small turn-out was probably due to the backlash of the previous year's race not being counted as a World Championship race, the announcement was made on the weekend itself)[citation needed]; and the last Spanish Grand Prix until the 1986 season, when it would be held at the newly built Jerez circuit in the south of the country.