1978 French Grand Prix
Racing data | ||
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9th of 16 races in the 1978 World Automobile Championship | ||
Surname: | LXIV Grand Prix de France | |
Date: | 2nd July 1978 | |
Place: | Le Castellet | |
Course: | Circuit Paul Ricard | |
Length: | 313.74 km in 54 laps of 5.81 km
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Weather: | sunny and warm | |
Spectator: | ~ 55,000 | |
Pole position | ||
Driver: | John Watson | Brabham |
Time: | 1: 44.41 min | |
Fastest lap | ||
Driver: | Carlos Reutemann | Ferrari |
Time: | 1: 48.56 min | |
Podium | ||
First: | Mario Andretti | lotus |
Second: | Ronnie Peterson | lotus |
Third: | James Hunt | McLaren |
The 1978 French Grand Prix took place on July 2 at the Paul Ricard Circuit in Le Castellet and was the ninth race of the 1978 World Automobile Championship .
Reports
background
Since the FIA had decided that the fan technology used by Brabham on the BT46B cars at the Swedish Grand Prix was not compatible with the applicable rules, the team had to fall back on the conventional BT46 from now on.
One of the few changes in the field of 29 drivers was the return of René Arnoux with the Martini team and the deployment of a third works McLaren for Bruno Giacomelli . At Ensign Racing , Jacky Ickx was also replaced by Derek Daly .
training
Brabham driver John Watson was five hundredths of a second faster in practice than Mario Andretti in the Lotus 79 . The feared disadvantage of the fan ban turned out to be null and void. Niki Lauda also seemed to confirm this by reaching third place on the grid. This was followed by James Hunt before Ronnie Peterson and Patrick Tambay .
run
Watson was initially able to defend his top position briefly against Andretti, but by the end of the first lap the American was in the lead and began to pull away. Tambay followed in front of Lauda, Peterson and Hunt.
Lauda fought his way past Tambay and Watson during the following laps, but retired on lap 10 due to an engine failure. From then on, Peterson, who had also overtaken Tambay and Watson, took second place and, after the successes in Belgium and Spain, gave the Lotus team the third double victory of the year. Watson was able to maintain third place until lap 16, but was then overtaken by Hunt. Behind it followed Alan Jones in front of Jody Scheckter . This order of the first six remained unchanged from the 17th lap to the finish.
Registration list
Classifications
Starting grid
Item | driver | constructor | time | Ø speed | begin |
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1 | John Watson | Brabham-Alfa Romeo | 1: 44.41 | 200.326 km / h | 1 |
2 | Mario Andretti | Lotus Ford | 1: 44.46 | 200.230 km / h | 2 |
3 | Niki Lauda | Brabham-Alfa Romeo | 1: 44.71 | 199.752 km / h | 3 |
4th | James Hunt | McLaren-Ford | 1: 44.92 | 199.352 km / h | 4th |
5 | Ronnie Peterson | Lotus Ford | 1: 44.98 | 199.238 km / h | 5 |
6th | Patrick Tambay | McLaren-Ford | 1: 45.07 | 199.067 km / h | 6th |
7th | Jody Scheckter | Wolf-Ford | 1: 45.20 | 198.821 km / h | 7th |
8th | Carlos Reutemann | Ferrari | 1: 45.35 | 198.538 km / h | 8th |
9 | Gilles Villeneuve | Ferrari | 1: 45.55 | 198.162 km / h | 9 |
10 | Jacques Laffite | Ligier-Matra | 1: 45.68 | 197.918 km / h | 10 |
11 | Jean-Pierre Jabouille | Renault | 1: 45.73 | 197.825 km / h | 11 |
12 | Riccardo Patrese | Arrows Ford | 1: 46.32 | 196.727 km / h | 12 |
13 | Patrick Depailler | Tyrrell-Ford | 1: 46.37 | 196.634 km / h | 13 |
14th | Alan Jones | Williams-Ford | 1: 46.40 | 196.579 km / h | 14th |
15th | Emerson Fittipaldi | Fittipaldi-Ford | 1: 46.70 | 196.026 km / h | 15th |
16 | Didier Pironi | Tyrrell-Ford | 1: 47.12 | 195.258 km / h | 16 |
17th | Clay Regazzoni | Shadow Ford | 1: 48.55 | 192.685 km / h | 17th |
18th | René Arnoux | Martini Ford | 1: 48.68 | 192.455 km / h | 18th |
19th | Vittorio Brambilla | Surtees-Ford | 1: 48.68 | 192.455 km / h | 19th |
20th | Hans-Joachim Stuck | Shadow Ford | 1: 48.89 | 192.084 km / h | 20th |
21st | Rolf Stommelen | Arrows Ford | 1: 49.14 | 191.644 km / h | 21st |
22nd | Bruno Giacomelli | McLaren-Ford | 1: 49.53 | 190.961 km / h | 22nd |
23 | Rupert Keegan | Surtees-Ford | 1: 49.54 | 190.944 km / h | 23 |
24 | Brett Lunger | McLaren-Ford | 1: 49.55 | 190.927 km / h | 24 |
25th | Jochen Mass | ATS Ford | 1: 49.90 | 190.318 km / h | 25th |
26th | Keke Rosberg | ATS Ford | 1: 50.09 | 189.990 km / h | 26th |
DNQ | Arturo Merzario | Merzario-Ford | 1: 50.11 | 189.955 km / h | - |
DNQ | Derek Daly | Ensign-Ford | 1: 50.19 | 189.818 km / h | - |
DNQ | Hector Rebaque | Lotus Ford | 1: 50.40 | 189.457 km / h | - |
run
Item | driver | constructor | Round | Stops | time | begin | Fastest lap | Failure reason |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Mario Andretti | Lotus Ford | 54 | 0 | 1: 38: 51.92 | 2 | 1: 48.79 | |
2 | Ronnie Peterson | Lotus Ford | 54 | 0 | + 2.93 | 5 | 1: 48.94 | |
3 | James Hunt | McLaren-Ford | 54 | 0 | + 19.80 | 4th | 1: 48.77 | |
4th | John Watson | Brabham-Alfa Romeo | 54 | 0 | + 36.88 | 1 | 1: 49.85 | |
5 | Alan Jones | Williams-Ford | 54 | 0 | + 41.81 | 14th | 1: 49.76 | |
6th | Jody Scheckter | Wolf-Ford | 54 | 0 | + 54.53 | 7th | 1: 49.98 | |
7th | Jacques Laffite | Ligier-Matra | 54 | 0 | + 54.74 | 10 | 1: 50.04 | |
8th | Riccardo Patrese | Arrows Ford | 54 | 0 | +1: 24.88 | 12 | 1: 50.40 | |
9 | Patrick Tambay | McLaren-Ford | 54 | 0 | +1: 27.06 | 6th | 1: 49.78 | |
10 | Didier Pironi | Tyrrell-Ford | 54 | 0 | +1: 29.98 | 16 | 1: 50.71 | |
11 | Hans-Joachim Stuck | Shadow Ford | 53 | 0 | + 1 lap | 20th | 1: 51.33 | |
12 | Gilles Villeneuve | Ferrari | 53 | 1 | + 1 lap | 9 | 1: 49.75 | |
13 | Jochen Mass | ATS Ford | 53 | 0 | + 1 lap | 25th | 1: 51.44 | |
14th | René Arnoux | Martini Ford | 53 | 0 | + 1 lap | 18th | 1: 51.92 | |
15th | Rolf Stommelen | Arrows Ford | 53 | 0 | + 1 lap | 21st | 1: 52.01 | |
16 | Keke Rosberg | ATS Ford | 52 | 0 | + 2 rounds | 26th | 1: 52.90 | |
17th | Vittorio Brambilla | Surtees-Ford | 52 | 0 | + 2 rounds | 19th | 1: 52.12 | |
18th | Carlos Reutemann | Ferrari | 49 | 1 | + 5 rounds | 8th | 1: 48.56 | |
- | Brett Lunger | McLaren-Ford | 45 | 0 | DNF | 24 | 1: 51.29 | Engine failure |
- | Emerson Fittipaldi | Fittipaldi-Ford | 43 | 0 | DNF | 15th | 1: 50.17 | Suspension damage |
- | Rupert Keegan | Surtees-Ford | 40 | 0 | DNF | 23 | 1: 51.87 | Engine failure |
- | Bruno Giacomelli | McLaren-Ford | 28 | 0 | DNF | 22nd | 1: 52.13 | Engine failure |
- | Patrick Depailler | Tyrrell-Ford | 10 | 0 | DNF | 13 | 1: 50.64 | Engine failure |
- | Niki Lauda | Brabham-Alfa Romeo | 10 | 0 | DNF | 3 | 1: 49.78 | Engine failure |
- | Clay Regazzoni | Shadow Ford | 4th | 0 | DNF | 17th | 2: 29.31 | defective ignition |
- | Jean-Pierre Jabouille | Renault | 1 | 0 | DNF | 11 | Engine failure |
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
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Constructors' championship
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Individual evidence
- ↑ "Training" ( memento of the original from December 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Motorsportarchiv.de; accessed on August 5, 2012)
- ^ "Report" (accessed on August 5, 2012)
- ↑ "World Cup stands" ( Memento of the original from November 30, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Motorsportarchiv.de; accessed on August 5, 2012)