1978 Austrian Grand Prix
| Racing data | ||
|---|---|---|
| 12th of 16 races of the 1978 World Automobile Championship | ||
|
||
| Surname: | XVI Grand Prix of Austria | |
| Date: | August 13, 1978 | |
| Place: | Spielberg | |
| Course: | Österreichring | |
| Length: | 320.868 km in 54 laps of 5.942 km
|
|
| Weather: | initially rain, later dry | |
| Spectator: | ~ 100,000 | |
| Pole position | ||
| Driver: |
 Ronnie Peterson
|
 lotus
|
| Time: | 1: 37.71 min | |
| Fastest lap | ||
| Driver: |
Ronnie Peterson
|
lotus
|
| Time: | 1: 43.12 min | |
| Podium | ||
| First: |
Ronnie Peterson
|
lotus
|
| Second: |
 Patrick Depailler
|
Tyrrell
|
| Third: |
 Gilles Villeneuve
|
 Ferrari
|
The 1978 Austrian Grand Prix took place on August 13th at the Österreichring near Zeltweg and was the twelfth race of the 1978 Automobile World Championship .
Reports
background
Shortly before the twelfth World Cup of the season in Spielberg, a court confirmed that the Arrows team had violated the copyrights of the plaintiff Shadow by building the FA1 and that the vehicle was therefore no longer allowed to be used. Since Arrows had expected this judgment, the new A1 model , which had been developed in the meantime, was available in time for the Austrian GP . Since the beginning of the season, due to the similarity between the FA1 and the Shadow DN9 , it had been speculated that former Shadow employees such as Jackie Oliver , Alan Rees or Tony Southgate might have illegally copied and taken the construction plans of the new racing car with them shortly before they left to then found her new team on this basis.
Nelson Piquet , who made his Grand Prix debut with Ensign Racing at the German Grand Prix , switched to the private team BS Fabrications , where an M23 was used as the second car alongside the McLaren M26 for Brett Lunger . Piquet's place in the second factory ensign was then returned to Derek Daly, who is now a regular driver .
Instead of Jean-Pierre Jarier , who had already left the ATS Racing Team after a short return, Hans Binder was allowed to complete his home Grand Prix for the German team.
training
Rolf Stommelen was the only one of the eight pilots who had to take part in the pre-qualification to fail , with technical problems on his new Arrows A1.
Unsurprisingly for the professional world, the front row consisted of the two Lotus 79s , with Ronnie Peterson again being slightly faster than his teammate Mario Andretti . Jean-Pierre Jabouille achieved third place on the grid next to Carlos Reutemann in the Ferrari 312T3 with the significantly improved Renault RS01 . The third row consisted of Jacques Laffite and Emerson Fittipaldi .
run
In rainy conditions, Peterson took the lead, while Andretti fell behind Reutemann. Jody Scheckter took fourth place ahead of Jacques Laffite, Emerson Fittipaldi and James Hunt . During an attempt to overtake during the first lap, Andretti and Reutemann's cars touched, whereupon the leading American in the world championship crashed into the guardrails and was eliminated. Reutemann lost his second place to Scheckter.
When it began to rain a lot harder on lap four, Scheckter slipped off the track and collided with Andretti's Lotus parked there. Shortly after Reutemann and Jabouille also spun due to aquaplaning , the race was interrupted with the red flag for safety reasons.
When the rain subsided, a new starting grid was formed, which corresponded to the order at the time the race was stopped. As a result, Peterson started ahead of Patrick Depailler , John Watson and Jacques Laffite, while Reutemann and Jabouille had to line up in the middle of the field.
While Depailler managed a good restart, Watson got off to a bad start, which led to a collision between Riccardo Patrese and Harald Ertl as a result of a chain reaction , whereby both were eliminated. On the same lap there was also a collision between Daly and Hunt, preceded by a spin by Alan Jones . At the end of the first lap after the restart, Ronnie Peterson was ahead of Patrick Depailler, Niki Lauda and Jacques Laffite.
Peterson continued to lead the race as the track dried out. Reutemann, who had made up a few places in the meantime, took the lead on lap 19 by continuing to ride on rain tires while some opponents made pit stops to switch to slicks . For the same reason, Gilles Villeneuve , who originally started from 12th place , managed to expand Reutemann's top position to a Ferrari double lead. In the 23rd lap he even took over the lead from his team-mate.
When the Ferrari drivers finally also switched to slicks, Peterson took back the top spot and defended it to the finish. Hans-Joachim Stuck was in fourth place until he was eliminated due to an accident. Then Daly took over this place, but also spun off the track. Although he was able to continue the race after the marshals pushed him out of the gravel bed, he was disqualified because of this unauthorized use of outside help. This put Fittipaldi in fourth place ahead of Laffite and Vittorio Brambilla , who thus secured his first point of the current season.
With his victory, Peterson was only nine points behind his teammate Andretti in the world championship standings. Due to his contractually regulated number two status, he was not allowed to dispute this title anyway.
Registration list
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1 Brian Henton only drove the number 18 Surtees TS20 during practice on Saturday but did not set a classified lap time.
Classifications
Starting grid
| Item | driver | constructor | time | Ø speed | begin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Ronnie Peterson
|
Lotus Ford
|
1: 37.71 | 218.925 km / h | 1 |
| 2 |
 Mario Andretti
|
Lotus Ford
|
1: 37.76 | 218.813 km / h | 2 |
| 3 |
Jean-Pierre Jabouille
|
Renault
|
1: 38.32 | 217.567 km / h | 3 |
| 4th |
 Carlos Reutemann
|
Ferrari
|
1: 38.50 | 217.170 km / h | 4th |
| 5 |
Jacques Laffite
|
Ligier-Matra
|
1: 38.71 | 216.708 km / h | 5 |
| 6th |
.svg){kind=small} Emerson Fittipaldi
|
Fittipaldi-Ford
|
1: 38.77 | 216.576 km / h | 6th |
| 7th |
.svg){kind=small} Jody Scheckter
|
Wolf-Ford
|
1: 38.85 | 216.401 km / h | 7th |
| 8th |
James Hunt
|
McLaren-Ford
|
1: 39.10 | 215.855 km / h | 8th |
| 9 |
Didier Pironi
|
Tyrrell-Ford
|
1: 39.23 | 215.572 km / h | 9 |
| 10 |
John Watson
|
Brabham-Alfa Romeo
|
1: 39.35 | 215.312 km / h | 10 |
| 11 |
Gilles Villeneuve
|
Ferrari
|
1: 39.40 | 215.203 km / h | 11 |
| 12 |
 Niki Lauda
|
Brabham-Alfa Romeo
|
1: 39.49 | 215.009 km / h | 12 |
| 13 |
Patrick Depailler
|
Tyrrell-Ford
|
1: 39.51 | 214.965 km / h | 13 |
| 14th |
Patrick Tambay
|
McLaren-Ford
|
1: 39.59 | 214.793 km / h | 14th |
| 15th |
 Alan Jones
|
Williams-Ford
|
1: 39.81 | 214.319 km / h | 15th |
| 16 |
Riccardo Patrese
|
Arrows Ford
|
1: 40.11 | 213.677 km / h | 16 |
| 17th |
Brett Lunger
|
McLaren-Ford
|
1: 40.80 | 212.214 km / h | 17th |
| 18th |
 Hector Rebaque
|
Lotus Ford
|
1: 40.84 | 212.130 km / h | 18th |
| 19th |
 Derek Daly
|
Ensign-Ford
|
1: 41.02 | 211.752 km / h | 19th |
| 20th |
Nelson Piquet
|
McLaren-Ford
|
1: 41.15 | 211.480 km / h | 20th |
| 21st |
Vittorio Brambilla
|
Surtees-Ford
|
1: 41.16 | 211.459 km / h | 21st |
| 22nd |
 Clay Regazzoni
|
Shadow Ford
|
1: 41.42 | 210.917 km / h | 22nd |
| 23 |
 Hans-Joachim Stuck
|
Shadow Ford
|
1: 41.58 | 210.585 km / h | 23 |
| 24 |
Harald Ertl
|
Ensign-Ford
|
1: 41.60 | 210.543 km / h | 24 |
| 25th |
 Keke Rosberg
|
Wolf-Ford
|
1: 41.72 | 210.295 km / h | 25th |
| 26th |
René Arnoux
|
Martini Ford
|
1: 41.84 | 210.047 km / h | 26th |
| DNQ |
Arturo Merzario
|
Merzario-Ford
|
1: 41.85 | 210.027 km / h | - |
| DNQ |
Jochen Mass
|
ATS Ford
|
1: 42.47 | 208.756 km / h | - |
| DNQ |
Rupert Keegan
|
Surtees-Ford
|
1: 43.06 | 207.561 km / h | - |
| DNQ |
Hans Binder
|
ATS Ford
|
1: 44.46 | 204.779 km / h | - |
| DNPQ |
Rolf Stommelen
|
Arrows Ford
|
1: 44.88 | 203.959 km / h | - |
run
| Item | driver | constructor | Round | Stops | time | begin | Fastest lap | Failure reason |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Ronnie Peterson
|
Lotus Ford
|
54 | ? | 1: 41: 21.57 | 1 | 1: 43.12 | |
| 2 |
Patrick Depailler
|
Tyrrell-Ford
|
54 | ? | + 47.44 | 13 | ||
| 3 |
Gilles Villeneuve
|
Ferrari
|
54 | ? | +1: 39.76 | 11 | ||
| 4th |
Emerson Fittipaldi
|
Fittipaldi-Ford
|
53 | ? | + 1 lap | 6th | ||
| 5 |
Jacques Laffite
|
Ligier-Matra
|
53 | ? | + 1 lap | 5 | ||
| 6th |
Vittorio Brambilla
|
Surtees-Ford
|
53 | ? | + 1 lap | 21st | ||
| 7th |
John Watson
|
Brabham-Alfa Romeo
|
53 | ? | + 1 lap | 10 | ||
| 8th |
Brett Lunger
|
McLaren-Ford
|
52 | ? | + 2 rounds | 17th | ||
| 9 |
René Arnoux
|
Martini Ford
|
52 | ? | + 2 rounds | 26th | ||
| - |
Clay Regazzoni
|
Shadow Ford
|
50 | ? | NC | 22nd | Unrated | |
| - |
Keke Rosberg
|
Wolf-Ford
|
49 | ? | NC | 25th | Unrated | |
| - |
Derek Daly
|
Ensign-Ford
|
43 | ? | DSQ | 19th | disqualified | |
| - |
Patrick Tambay
|
McLaren-Ford
|
40 | ? | DNF | 14th | Lathe operator | |
| - |
Hans-Joachim Stuck
|
Shadow Ford
|
33 | ? | DNF | 23 | accident | |
| - |
Jean-Pierre Jabouille
|
Renault
|
31 | ? | DNF | 3 | Gearbox damage | |
| - |
Niki Lauda
|
Brabham-Alfa Romeo
|
28 | ? | DNF | 12 | Lathe operator | |
| - |
Carlos Reutemann
|
Ferrari
|
27 | ? | DSQ | 4th | disqualified | |
| - |
Didier Pironi
|
Tyrrell-Ford
|
20th | ? | DNF | 9 | accident | |
| - |
James Hunt
|
McLaren-Ford
|
8th | ? | DNF | 8th | accident | |
| - |
Alan Jones
|
Williams-Ford
|
7th | ? | DNF | 15th | accident | |
| - |
Harald Ertl
|
Ensign-Ford
|
6th | ? | DNF | 24 | collision | |
| - |
Riccardo Patrese
|
Arrows Ford
|
6th | ? | DNF | 16 | collision | |
| - |
Jody Scheckter
|
Wolf-Ford
|
3 | ? | DNF | 7th | accident | |
| - |
Nelson Piquet
|
McLaren-Ford
|
2 | ? | DNF | 20th | accident | |
| - |
Hector Rebaque
|
Lotus Ford
|
1 | ? | DNF | 18th | Clutch damage | |
| - |
Mario Andretti
|
Lotus Ford
|
0 | ? | DNF | 2 | collision |
World Cup stands after the race
The first six of the race got 9, 6, 4, 3, 2 and 1 point (s) respectively.
Driver ranking
|
|
Constructors' championship
|
|
Individual evidence
- ↑ "Training" ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Motorsportarchiv.de; accessed on August 17, 2012)
- ^ "Report" (accessed on August 17, 2012)
- ↑ "World Cup stands" ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Motorsportarchiv.de; accessed on August 17, 2012)
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