1978 British Grand Prix

The 1978 British Grand Prix (formally the XXXI John Player British Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held at Brands Hatch on 16 July 1978. It was the tenth race of the 1978 World Championship of F1 Drivers and the 1978 International Cup for F1 Constructors.[1]

1978 British Grand Prix
Race 10 of 16 in the 1978 Formula One season
Race details
Date 16 July 1978
Official name XXXI John Player British Grand Prix
Location Brands Hatch, Kent, England
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 4.206 km (2.613 miles)
Distance 76 laps, 319.656 km (198.588 miles)
Weather Dry
Pole position
Driver Lotus-Ford
Time 1:16.80
Fastest lap
Driver Austria Niki Lauda Brabham-Alfa Romeo
Time 1:18.60 on lap 72
Podium
First Ferrari
Second Brabham-Alfa Romeo
Third Brabham-Alfa Romeo
Lap leaders
James Hunt, in a McLaren M26, crashed out on lap 8.

The 76-lap race was won by Argentinian driver Carlos Reutemann, driving a Ferrari. After starting from eighth position, Reutemann worked his way up the field and took the lead on lap 60, eventually winning by 1.2 seconds from Austrian driver Niki Lauda in the Brabham-Alfa Romeo. Lauda's Northern Irish teammate, John Watson, finished third.

Report

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Qualifying

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With a total of 31 cars on the entry list, it was decided to forbid the Martini of René Arnoux from taking part, thus leaving 30 cars for qualifying.[2]

As expected, the Lotuses filled the front row of the grid, although on this occasion Ronnie Peterson was ahead of Mario Andretti. Jody Scheckter in the Wolf and Niki Lauda in the Brabham made up the second row, while on the third were Riccardo Patrese in the Arrows and Alan Jones in the Williams. The top ten was completed by Jacques Laffite in the Ligier, Carlos Reutemann in the Ferrari, John Watson in the second Brabham and Patrick Depailler in the Tyrrell.

Race

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At the start of the race, Andretti took the lead from Peterson, with Scheckter holding third and Jones moving up to fourth. The Lotuses quickly pulled out a large gap, and looked set to dominate, until Peterson retired on lap 7 with a fuel leak. Andretti continued to lead until a puncture forced him to pit on lap 24, before his engine failed five laps later.

Scheckter inherited the lead, closely followed by Jones, Lauda and Patrese. On lap 27, Jones's driveshaft failed, before Scheckter began to suffer gearbox problems. On lap 34, Lauda overtook the South African, who retired three laps later. This left Patrese in second, with Reutemann up to third, Watson fourth, Didier Pironi fifth in the second Tyrrell and Keke Rosberg sixth in the ATS.[3]

On lap 41, Patrese suffered a rear puncture which led to a suspension failure. Pironi also retired on this lap with gearbox trouble, promoting Rosberg to fourth. The Finn soon came under pressure from Depailler, who got by on lap 49.

Reutemann closed up to Lauda and passed him for the lead on lap 60, as the two were lapping the McLaren of Bruno Giacomelli. The Argentine held off the Austrian for the remaining laps, eventually taking his third win of the season by 1.2 seconds. Watson finished 36 seconds behind Lauda and 36 ahead of Depailler, while a suspension failure for Rosberg on lap 60 meant that the final points went to Hans-Joachim Stuck in the Shadow and Patrick Tambay in the McLaren.

Classification

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Qualifying

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Pos. Driver Constructor Time/Gap
1   Ronnie Peterson LotusFord 1:16.80
2   Mario Andretti LotusFord +0.26
3   Jody Scheckter WolfFord +0.57
4   Niki Lauda BrabhamAlfa Romeo +0.62
5   Riccardo Patrese ArrowsFord +1.48
6   Alan Jones WilliamsFord +1.56
7   Jacques Laffite LigierMatra +1.64
8   Carlos Reutemann Ferrari +1.65
9   John Watson BrabhamAlfa Romeo +1.77
10   Patrick Depailler TyrrellFord +1.93
11   Emerson Fittipaldi FittipaldiFord +1.98
12   Jean-Pierre Jabouille Renault +2.08
13   Gilles Villeneuve Ferrari +2.19
14   James Hunt McLarenFord +2.25
15   Derek Daly EnsignFord +2.33
16   Bruno Giacomelli McLarenFord +2.99
17   Clay Regazzoni ShadowFord +3.03
18   Hans-Joachim Stuck ShadowFord +3.18
19   Didier Pironi TyrrellFord +3.19
20   Patrick Tambay McLarenFord +3.34
21   Héctor Rebaque LotusFord +3.44
22   Keke Rosberg ATSFord +3.47
23   Arturo Merzario MerzarioFord +3.55
24   Brett Lunger McLarenFord +3.59
25   Vittorio Brambilla SurteesFord +3.90
26   Jochen Mass ATSFord +3.91
27   Rupert Keegan SurteesFord +3.93
28   Rolf Stommelen ArrowsFord +4.25
29   Geoff Lees EnsignFord +4.61
30   Tony Trimmer McLarenFord +11.48
WD   René Arnoux MartiniFord Withdrew
Source:[4]

*Positions in red indicate entries that failed to qualify.

Race

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Pos No Driver Constructor Tyre Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 11   Carlos Reutemann Ferrari M 76 1:42:12.39 8 9
2 1   Niki Lauda Brabham-Alfa Romeo G 76 + 1.23 4 6
3 2   John Watson Brabham-Alfa Romeo G 76 + 37.25 9 4
4 4   Patrick Depailler Tyrrell-Ford G 76 + 1:13.27 10 3
5 16   Hans-Joachim Stuck Shadow-Ford G 75 + 1 Lap 18 2
6 8   Patrick Tambay McLaren-Ford G 75 + 1 Lap 20 1
7 33   Bruno Giacomelli McLaren-Ford G 75 + 1 Lap 16
8 30   Brett Lunger McLaren-Ford G 75 + 1 Lap 24
9 19   Vittorio Brambilla Surtees-Ford G 75 + 1 Lap 25
10 26   Jacques Laffite Ligier-Matra G 73 + 3 Laps 7
NC 9   Jochen Mass ATS-Ford G 65 + 11 Laps 26
Ret 10   Keke Rosberg ATS-Ford G 59 Suspension 22
Ret 17   Clay Regazzoni Shadow-Ford G 49 Gearbox 17
Ret 15   Jean-Pierre Jabouille Renault M 46 Turbo 12
Ret 35   Riccardo Patrese Arrows-Ford G 40 Suspension 5
Ret 3   Didier Pironi Tyrrell-Ford G 40 Gearbox 19
Ret 20   Jody Scheckter Wolf-Ford G 36 Gearbox 3
Ret 14   Emerson Fittipaldi Fittipaldi-Ford G 32 Engine 11
Ret 37   Arturo Merzario Merzario-Ford G 32 Fuel System 23
Ret 22   Derek Daly Ensign-Ford G 30 Wheel 15
Ret 5   Mario Andretti Lotus-Ford G 28 Engine 2
Ret 27   Alan Jones Williams-Ford G 26 Transmission 6
Ret 12   Gilles Villeneuve Ferrari M 19 Transmission 13
Ret 25   Héctor Rebaque Lotus-Ford G 15 Gearbox 21
Ret 7   James Hunt McLaren-Ford G 7 Accident 14
Ret 6   Ronnie Peterson Lotus-Ford G 6 Fuel Leak 1
DNQ 18   Rupert Keegan Surtees-Ford G
DNQ 36   Rolf Stommelen Arrows-Ford G
DNQ 23   Geoff Lees Ensign-Ford G
DNQ 40   Tony Trimmer McLaren-Ford G
Source:[5][6]

Notes

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Championship standings after the race

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  • Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

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  1. ^ "1978 British Grand Prix Entry list".
  2. ^ "What? - Martini". 8W. Retrieved 29 October 2013.
  3. ^ "Grand Prix Results: British GP, 1978". Grandprix.com. Retrieved 29 October 2013.
  4. ^ "Formula One 1978 British Grand Prix Classification | Motorsport Stats".
  5. ^ "1978 British Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 3 September 2014. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  6. ^ "1978 British Grand Prix - Race Results & History - GP Archive". GPArchive.com. 16 July 1978. Retrieved 5 November 2021.
  7. ^ a b "Britain 1978 - Championship • STATS F1". statsf1.com. Retrieved 13 March 2019.


Previous race:
1978 French Grand Prix
FIA Formula One World Championship
1978 season
Next race:
1978 German Grand Prix
Previous race:
1977 British Grand Prix
British Grand Prix Next race:
1979 British Grand Prix
Awards
Preceded by
1977 British Grand Prix
Formula One Promotional Trophy
for Race Promoter

1978
Succeeded by
1979 Italian Grand Prix