I'd like to stress one thing here to make it absolutely clear: I don't actually watch the races so some things described in the race commentary might not have happened exactly the same way in the actual simulation.
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1979 United States Grand Prix
Pre-qualifying
The Long Beach street circuit in California hosted the fourth round of the 1979 F1 season. The weekend began once again with the pre-qualifying session. Perhaps surprisingly it was Team Rebaque that controlled the session.
Jochen Mass has shown this season promising pace in patches and this time team he was backed by team owner
Héctor Rebaque who was second fastest
. Alfa Romeo's
Clay Regazzoni was third fastest but unfortunately his Austrian team-mate
Ertl couldn't match his pace. It was the first time Alfa Romeo couldn't advance from pre-qualifying.
Qualifying
Back from the high altitudes of Kyalami to the seaside, Renaults weren't tipped to do as well as in South Africa. Drivers
Gilles Villeneuve and
René Arnoux were to prove this wrong though. Villeneuve took the pole ending Ferrari's three race streak. Tyrrell's
Jody Scheckter was in surprisingly good pace too pushing the Ferraris completely out of the front row.
Reutemann and
Jones were to end the qualifying in 3rd and 5th, Arnoux in between them.
Niki Lauda showed once again the potential of the Copersucar-Fittipaldi chassis, rounding out the top-6. Williams had clearly found a great setup for this track as both of their drivers managed to get into the top-10 for the first time.
Emilio de Villota continued his great form and was 10th fastest.
Largest disappointments were
Didier Pironi (16th) and the McLarens.
Fittipaldi managed 13th and the winner of Kyalami,
Rosberg, only 17th fastest time.
Race
After a somewhat chaotic South African GP, many expected to see a race of high attrition on the tight street circuit as well. However, this was not how the race panned out afterall.
Start was clean. Only
Jabouille in the lone Ensign stalled to the grid and had to retire. In front
Arnoux was the man to take the best start. After a marvellous first lap he would actually lead the race while his polesitter team-mate
Villeneuve declined to fourth.
Scheckter and
Reutemann kept their positions in 2nd and 3rd.
Arnoux spun on the 10th lap and dropped out of the top-10.
Lauda hadn't had a particularly good race and it wasn't going to change: his Cosworth engine blew up in a spectacular fashion. After Arnoux' error Scheckter inherited the lead. Reutemann had a slow pit stop and dropped out of points.
Jones took his place in second. Villeneuve followed closely in third.
Piquet,
de Villota and
Rosberg, who was having a killer race,were the other drivers on points.
Derek Daly had had a slow start to the race but was improving quickly. Gradually overtaking driver after driver he was fourth when 50 laps were completed. Soo after he too ran into problems and retired. Rosberg had also lost time after making a mistake which allowed Reutemann to sneak back into top-6.
From there on the gaps stabilized and it was Tyrrell's Jody Scheckter who crossed the finish line first. Alan Jones was second and took his first points of the season. Villeneuve was third ahead of Piquet and Reutemann, who will surely be happy to come away with two points after his problems. The hero of the previous race,
Emilio de Villota continued his wonderful form taking home the last point after succesfully holding back
Elio de Angelis. Rosberg and Arnoux recovered to 8th and 9th. Race winner Scheckter's team-mate
Pironi had a quiet race and finished 10th.
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