Circuit of the past · Midrand
Kyalami lies between Johannesburg and Pretoria, almost one and a half kilometres above sea level: in the thin air turbocharged engines lost less power than naturally aspirated ones. The first race, on 2 January 1967, brought Pedro Rodríguez his first win. Tom Pryce was killed here in 1977, and in 1983 Nelson Piquet became world champion here — the first to do it in a turbocharged car.
Renault and Ligier stayed away from the 1985 South African Grand Prix because of apartheid, and after it the championship did not come back to the country until 1992. It returned to a rebuilt circuit: Nigel Mansell won in 1992 and Alain Prost in 1993, and that race turned out to be the last. Niki Lauda won at Kyalami more often than anyone else — three times.
The lap record is per circuit layout. Calculated by Gridlap from f1db history and the season’s results