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The 1978 Belgian Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on 21 May 1978 at Zolder.

Report[]

The main news before the Belgian Grand Prix was that the new Lotus 79 was now ready to race, and immediately Mario Andretti showed its pace by taking pole comfortably from Carlos Reutemann and Niki Lauda. He converted it to a first-corner lead, whereas Reutemann had a bad start and got swamped by the field, causing a chain reaction in which Lauda was hit by Jody Scheckter and had to retire. This left Gilles Villeneuve second and Ronnie Peterson third but neither could keep pace with Andretti who was able to drive away.

The first 40 laps went without incident until Villeneuve suffered a puncture and had to pit which dropped him back down to fifth, and a few laps later Peterson also pitted for new tyres leaving the charging Reutemann second ahead of Jacques Laffite's Ligier. Peterson on the new tyres was much quicker and was able to pass them both in the closing stages, and Laffite made an attempt to pass Reutemann on the last lap but they collided and Laffite was out. Andretti cruised to an untroubled victory, with Peterson making it a Lotus 1-2, and Reutemann completing the podium.

Classification[]

Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 5 25px USA Mario Andretti Lotus-Ford 70 1:39:52.02 1 9
2 6 25px Sweden Ronnie Peterson Lotus-Ford 70 +9.90 secs 7 6
3 11 25px Argentina Carlos Reutemann Ferrari 70 +24.34 secs 2 4
4 12 25px Canada Gilles Villeneuve Ferrari 70 +47.04 secs 4 3
5 26 25px France Jacques Laffite Ligier-Matra 69 Accident 14 2
6 3 25px France Didier Pironi Tyrrell-Ford 69 +1 Lap 23 1
7 30 25px USA Brett Lunger McLaren-Ford 69 +1 Lap 24
8 33 25px Italy Bruno Giacomelli McLaren-Ford 69 +1 Lap 21
9 31 25px France René Arnoux Martini-Ford 68 +2 Laps 19
10 27 25px Australia Alan Jones Williams-Ford 68 +2 Laps 11
11 9 25px Germany Jochen Mass ATS-Ford 68 +2 Laps 16
12 22 25px Belgium Jacky Ickx Ensign-Ford 64 +6 Laps 22
13 19 25px Italy Vittorio Brambilla Surtees-Ford 63 Engine 12
Ret 16 25px Germany Hans Joachim Stuck Shadow-Ford 56 Spun Off 10
NC 15 25px France Jean-Pierre Jabouille Renault 56 +14 Laps 20
Ret 20 25px South Africa Jody Scheckter Wolf-Ford 53 Spun Off 5
Ret 4 25px France Patrick Depailler Tyrrell-Ford 51 Gearbox 13
Ret 17 25px Switzerland Clay Regazzoni Shadow-Ford 40 Transmission 18
Ret 35 25px Italy Riccardo Patrese Arrows-Ford 31 Suspension 8
Ret 36 25px Germany Rolf Stommelen Arrows-Ford 26 Spun Off 17
Ret 2 25px UK John Watson Brabham-Alfa Romeo 18 Accident 9
Ret 1 25px Austria Niki Lauda Brabham-Alfa Romeo 0 Accident 3
Ret 7 25px UK James Hunt McLaren-Ford 0 Accident 6
Ret 14 25px Brazil Emerson Fittipaldi Fittipaldi-Ford 0 Accident 15
DNQ 18 25px UK Rupert Keegan Surtees-Ford
DNQ 24 EIR Derek Daly Hesketh-Ford
DNQ 32 25px Finland Keke Rosberg Theodore-Ford
DNQ 10 25px Italy Alberto Colombo ATS-Ford
DNPQ 25 25px Mexico Hector Rebaque Lotus-Ford
DNPQ 37 25px Italy Arturo Merzario Merzario-Ford

Notes[]

Standings after the race[]

Drivers' Championship standings
Pos Driver Points
1 25px USA Mario Andretti 27
2 25px France Patrick Depailler 23
3 25px Argentina Carlos Reutemann 22
4 25px Sweden Ronnie Peterson 20
5 25px Austria Niki Lauda 16
Constructors' Championship standings
Pos Constructor Points
1 25px UK Lotus-Ford 36
2 25px UK Tyrrell-Ford 25
3 25px Italy Ferrari 22
4 25px UK Brabham-Alfa Romeo 20
5 25px Brazil Fittipaldi-Ford 6
  • Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.


Previous race:
1978 Monaco Grand Prix
FIA Formula One World Championship
1978 season
Next race:
1978 Spanish Grand Prix
Previous race:
1977 Belgian Grand Prix
Belgian Grand Prix Next race:
1979 Belgian Grand Prix
Smallwikipedialogo.png This page uses some content from Wikipedia. The original article was at 1978 Belgian Grand Prix. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Autopedia, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.


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