Although legend attributes the game's creation to Stephen de Vignolles, also known as La Hire, a knight in the service of Charles VII during the Hundred Years' War, it may possibly have come into France from Spain because the words "pique" and "repique", the main features of the game, are of Spanish origin.
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It first became popular in England after the marriage of Queen Mary I of England (Bloody Mary) to King Philip II of Spain in 1554.
Even in practice, Piquet suffered noticeably and became physically sick; he later got a 90-minute massage from Sugar Ray Leonard's masseur to help sort out his troubled back and "Las Vegas neck."
Berger ended up second, followed by Prost, Senna, Piquet, and Bertrand Gachot's Jordan.
Other victories were taken by Giaffone's team-mate Valmir Benavides, who triumphed at Caruaru, Geraldo Piquet won the series' only race outside of Brazil in Buenos Aires, while Iveco took a solitary victory with Beto Monteiro winning at Velopark.
Negrão moved up to the GP2 Series for its inaugural season in 2005, alongside Piquet in his family-sponsored team.
The 1981 event saw a tremendous battle between Jones and rising star Alain Prost in a Renault, with Jones passing Prost in the stadium due to interference by Prost's backmarker teammate Rene Arnoux; but the race was won by Brazilian Nelson Piquet after Jones went into the pits with problems with his Williams.
During the 1983 South African Grand Prix, the Brabham-BMW team asked driver Riccardo Patrese to cede Nelson Piquet the race win if it ensured Piquet would win the driver's championship.