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 | Mario Andretti | Lotus-Ford | 70 | 1:39:52.02 | 1 | 9 |
2 | 6 | Ronnie Peterson | Lotus-Ford | 70 | +9.90 secs | 7 | 6 |
3 | 11 | Carlos Reutemann | Ferrari | 70 | +24.34 secs | 2 | 4 |
4 | 12 | Gilles Villeneuve | Ferrari | 70 | +47.04 secs | 4 | 3 |
5 | 26 | Jacques Laffite | Ligier-Matra | 69 | Accident | 14 | 2 |
6 | 3 | Didier Pironi | Tyrrell-Ford | 69 | +1 Lap | 23 | 1 |
7 | 30 | Brett Lunger | McLaren-Ford | 69 | +1 Lap | 24 | |
8 | 33 | Bruno Giacomelli | McLaren-Ford | 69 | +1 Lap | 21 | |
9 | 31 | René Arnoux | Martini-Ford | 68 | +2 Laps | 19 | |
10 | 27 | Alan Jones | Williams-Ford | 68 | +2 Laps | 11 | |
11 | 9 | Jochen Mass | ATS-Ford | 68 | +2 Laps | 16 | |
12 | 22 | Jacky Ickx | Ensign-Ford | 64 | +6 Laps | 22 | |
13 | 19 | Vittorio Brambilla | Surtees-Ford | 63 | Engine | 12 | |
Ret | 16 | Hans Joachim Stuck | Shadow-Ford | 56 | Spun Off | 10 | |
NC | 15 | Jean-Pierre Jabouille | Renault | 56 | +14 Laps | 20 | |
Ret | 20 | Jody Scheckter | Wolf-Ford | 53 | Spun Off | 5 | |
Ret | 4 | Patrick Depailler | Tyrrell-Ford | 51 | Gearbox | 13 | |
Ret | 17 | Clay Regazzoni | Shadow-Ford | 40 | Transmission | 18 | |
Ret | 35 | Riccardo Patrese | Arrows-Ford | 31 | Suspension | 8 | |
Ret | 36 | Rolf Stommelen | Arrows-Ford | 26 | Spun Off | 17 | |
Ret | 2 | John Watson | Brabham-Alfa Romeo | 18 | Accident | 9 | |
Ret | 1 | Niki Lauda | Brabham-Alfa Romeo | 0 | Accident | 3 | |
Ret | 7 | James Hunt | McLaren-Ford | 0 | Accident | 6 | |
Ret | 14 | Emerson Fittipaldi | Fittipaldi-Ford | 0 | Accident | 15 | |
DNQ | 18 | Rupert Keegan | Surtees-Ford | ||||
DNQ | 24 | EIR Derek Daly | Hesketh-Ford | ||||
DNQ | 32 | Keke Rosberg | Theodore-Ford | ||||
DNQ | 10 | Alberto Colombo | ATS-Ford | ||||
DNPQ | 25 | Hector Rebaque | Lotus-Ford | ||||
DNPQ | 37 | Arturo Merzario | Merzario-Ford |
Notes[]
- Lap Leaders: Mario Andretti 70 laps (1-70).
- First points - Gilles Villeneuve.
- Last appearance: Hesketh Racing
Standings after the race[]
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- 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 |
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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. |