1979 Austrian Grand Prix
Argentinean
Carlos Reutemann came to Austria as teh championship leader. Back-to-back victories in the previous two races put the 37-year old Ferrari pilot in a position where he could seal the title with a win if his teammate
Jones, currently second in the standings, scored no points.
High altitude location of the Österreichring meant that turbo-Renaults would once again have a slight advantage over their competition.
Pre-qualifying
Clay Regazzoni reigned in pre-qualifying. He was the fastest right from the start and only Shadow's
Patrick Gaillard could mount a serious threat to the Swiss veteran. The four other drivers had more tight battle as they all clocked a time within 0,128 second. In the end it was Team Ensign to be sent packing for the sixth time in 11 races.
Qualifying
Qualifying sessions provided no major upsets.
Gilles Villeneuve took his second pole position of the season. He was followed by Ferraris, Williams' and
Arnoux.
Didier Pironi was 'best of the rest' behind the top three teams before Lotuses, McLarens and improved Ligiers. Pironi's teammate
Jody Scheckter was clearly the slowest driver to use Michelin tyres - he was down in 14th.
Emilio de Villota was 15th and was followed by an experienced duo of Regazzoni and
Hunt. Ertl in 18th added to Alfa Romeo's decent day by beating
Lauda and both Brabhams. Back of the grid saw no surprises either. Gaillard, who had shown great speed in pre-qualifying, couldn't match his pace and couldn't qualify for the race. Slowest of all was once again the young Dutchman
Jan Lammers whose weekend ended in qualifying for the fifth time already.
Race
Ferraris had a good start from the right side of the grid and they took the lead in the first lap with Reutemann leading. Villeneuve held on to third. Pironi was another great starter and he was up to fourth.
De Angelis, Arnoux,
Fittipaldi,
Piquet,
Cheever and
Daly completed the top-10 after first lap. Championship contender Scheckter dropped one place to 15th. Long and wide straights provided lots of drafting and battling in the mid-pack where Ligiers, Alfa Romeos, Arrows', Fittipaldis and Brabhams were swapping positions.
Early laps saw some drama in the leading group. Cheever made a slight contact with his teammate, got a puncture and retired. Another driver in big trouble was Piquet who spun in fifth lap. He rejoined the track in last place. Few laps later
Alan Jones started to lose power and had to give up places to Villeneuve and de Angelis.
Villeneuve couldn't enjoy his time in second for long as the fragile Renault engine blew up once again. Jones retook third briefly but he was forced to retire a while later when his Ferrari lost all power. Problems for his challenge had helped Reutemann extend his gap to about 20 seconds. De Angelis was in second. Derek Daly was having a great race and was now up to third ahead of Arnoux, Rosberg, Fittipaldi, de Villota and Scheckter. Pironi had lost time too and he was now trailing his teammate in 9th.
De Villota and Pironi dropped out with some 20 laps to go and after that there wasn't much drama on track. Reutemann controlled the race knowing that he would be crowned the World Champion if he brought the car home in first place. De Angelis had had a good fight with the McLarens between pit stops but was able to leave them in his dust. Rosberg would also make a small error towards the end which dropped him out of the points.
Experience played out again and it was Niki Lauda who got himself oon the points once again with an errorless drive. Another Fittipaldi was on the points too as Emerson held on to his fifth place to grab his second points finish of the season. Arnoux's Renault held together for a second race in a row earning the Frenchman a three championship points. Derek Daly had a wonderful race from 8th in the grid to podium. Elio de Angelis was a very happy fellow too after taking his third second-place finish in four races.
Most happy of them all though was
Carlos Reutemann. Faultless and very composed drive to get his third consecutive victory meant that he would be the
1979 Formula 1 World Champion! Six wins to his name so far this season, he undoubtedly deserves to be crowned as the first Argentinean World Champion since the great
Juan-Manuel Fangio whose five championship titles is a record that will surely never be broken.
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