1979 Brazilian Grand Prix
Pre-qualifying
Friday morning pre-qualifying was run in sunny conditions. From the go it was clear that the experienced duo of
Regazzoni and
Mass were the favourited to lead their teams to the qualifying session and they duly delivered. Ensigns were once again sent packing early.
Qualifying
Ferrari was dominant again as
Reutemann took his second pole of the season with
Jones locking the front row for the Maranello team. Renaults were in surprisingly good form, they locked the second row.
Pironi was once again the faster Tyrrell taking fifth ahed
Daly and Ligier's much improved
Patrick Tambay. Both Williams's improved a lot too from Argentina:
Piquet in 8th and
de Angelis in 10th with
Fittipaldi splitting them raised their expectations of a good race.
James Hunt was a formidable 11th beating his young Dutch team-mate by over 2,5 seconds.
Lammers apparently had some problems with his car and didn't qualify for the race. Other slight disappointments were
Scheckter (13th),
Lauda (16th) and
Rosberg (19th).
Rupert Keegan, who finished third in the season opener was also well off the pace in 20th.
Race
The start of the race was messy.
Patrese and
Gaillard made contact in the first corner collecting
de Villota and
Mass with them. All four had to retire.
Reutemann took the lead as expected and
Jones challenged him early on.
Villeneuve was in third place ahead of
Pironi who had made a great start, overtaking
Arnoux.
Daly was battling hard with
Fittipaldi for sixth.
After the first few laps the race was quite an uneventful one. In the back
Scheckter,
Rosberg,
Regazzoni and
Piquet had to retire due to technical problems.
Jones joined them near the halfway point of the race due to transmission problems. Fittipaldi took fifth place briefly but had to let Daly past when his engine began to overheat. The Brazilian had to retire five laps before finish.
It was Carlos Reutemann though who continued his fine form by taking his second consecutive victory. Gille Villeneuve took second for Renault with Didier Pironi completing the podium line-up after a good drive. Derek Daly was fourth taking following the great second-place finish in Brazil.
Elio de Angelis and
Patrick Tambay battled for fifth all the way to the finish but in the end it was the Italian youngster to take fifth and two points for Williams. Tambay's sixth place earned Ligier their first point of the season. Surprise third of the Brazilian GP,
Rupert Keegan, never had the same speed as in Brazil but kept his car out of trouble and got himself a decent seventh and loads of experience.
- - - - -
The development market for the second race is open! You have until Wednesday 18:00 EEST to make/modify your you investments.
The discussions have been updated with development info and budgets.