1978 Italian Grand Prix
The Italian Grand Prix 1978 was held on 10 September at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza and was the 14th race of the Formula 1 season 1978.
- 3.1 Start -up
- 3.2 race
- 4.1 Drivers' Championship
- 4.2 Constructors' Championship
Reports
Background
As the teams arrived to the last European race of the season after Monza, the championship was almost already decided in favor of Mario Andretti as the only remaining pilot who can make him still mathematically the championship lead would dispute his teammate Ronnie Peterson was. This, however, had contractually promised him his support and also kept strictly during the previous race it.
Due to broken legs, which he had contracted during testing for the ATS Racing team at Silverstone, Jochen Mass could not finish the season. Instead, Michael Bleekemolen, who had previously started two weeks as a guest starter for the team already at the Grand Prix of the Netherlands, his place. After Harald Ertl was Friday failed due to the pre-qualification in the Ensign, he was allowed to attend the regular training at the wheel of the second ATS HS1.
When Team Surtees of the still injured Rupert Keegan was represented by local debutant Carlo Franchi. His compatriot Alberto Colombo took in a second Merzario A1 part of the race weekend.
Training
The training was exceptionally not totally dominated by Lotus. However, Mario Andretti reached his seventh pole position of the season. Gilles Villeneuve followed before Jean -Pierre Jabouille and Niki Lauda. Ronnie Peterson shared the third row with Alan Jones. John Watson, Jacques Laffite, Jody Scheckter and James Hunt completed the top ten.
Only 24 of the 31 fastest pilots present were allowed for the race.
Race
Since Ronnie Peterson crashed with the Lotus 79 due to a brake failure on Sunday morning 's warm-up, he had to take the race with 78 the previous year's Lotus car type.
The starter Gianni Restelli gave up the race already free, when pilots were rolled to the back of the fleet to their starting positions. So while the first rows of the grid had to regularly hit from the state, the following drivers had an acceleration advantage. This resulted in a very compact box. Moreover, since the start straight at Monza was unusually wide, it came to daring maneuvers, which turned out to be a mistake at the end of this straight, where the track before the first chicane massively rejuvenated.
Villeneuve reached the first chicane before Andretti and Lauda. Jabouille followed before Jones, Watson, Laffite, Scheckter, Peterson and Hunt. Riccardo Patrese was in the thick tumult on the wrong side of the track and had to gentle braking of the chicane can pull inward. There, however, Hunt is not granted him the necessary space, which led to the collision of the two. Peterson's Lotus was then thrown a contact with Hunt's car into the barriers, bounced back onto the track and burst into flames. In the following mass collision, the two pilots Shadow Clay Regazzoni and Hans- Joachim Stuck, the Tyrrell factory driver Didier Pironi and Patrick Depailler, and Vittorio Brambilla, Derek Daly and Brett Lunger were involved, all of whom had no chance to dodge. Through the air flying debris stucco met at the helm. Brambilla was even hit by a torn-off wheel and seriously injured. Hunt, Regazzoni and Depailler attracted Peterson, who was fully conscious, from his burning car. Paramedics arrived a few minutes later one at the scene. With serious leg fractures Peterson was transported along with Brambilla to a hospital in Milan. The race was now broken with the red flag.
As the 19 remaining drivers who had to change into their T -Cars due to excessive damage to their emergency vehicles in part, the formation lap completed to restart, Jody Scheckter lost in one of the two Lesmo curves a wheel and slammed violently into the barriers. Andretti, Hunt, Lauda, Reutemann and Fittipaldi then visited the accident site and refused to start, unless the barriers would not be repaired. Due to the necessary repair work the restart delayed to just before 18 clock.
Villeneuve and Andretti went with an early start in the race rebooted. In the 35th round of the truncated to 40 rounds race Andretti took the lead, as Villeneuve had to contend with deteriorating brakes and tires. After Jabouille was eliminated due to an engine failure, Lauda took the third place. Watson finished fourth ahead of Reutemann, Laffite and Tambay. However, this finish did not exist, as the early launch of Andretti and Villeneuve were penalized with a time penalty in hindsight what the two on the sixth and seventh threw back. Lauda was therefore declared the winner.
Due to the fact that Peterson was in the hospital, despite the world champion title won no victory celebrations at Lotus took place. The news that he had not suffered serious burns and his leg injuries were not life-threatening, after all, cared for relief.
However, during an operation in the early hours of Monday, there were complications. Ronnie Peterson fell into a coma and eventually died unexpectedly. Mario Andretti learned this when he wanted to visit in the hospital his colleagues.
Riccardo Patrese was thought to be responsible of the disaster. Only a few years later a court ruled on the basis of video recordings that James Hunt was rather.
Message list
1 Ronnie Peterson crashed in the warm- up with the Lotus 79 and then started with the Lotus 78 in the race. 2 Harald Ertl was reported this weekend, both for the team and for Sachs Racing ATS.
Classifications
Line-up
3 Harald Ertl denied the pre-qualification for the team Sachs Racing and the regular training for ATS. 4 During the prequalification no thousandths of a second were measured.
Race
5 Mario Andretti cruised before Gilles Villeneuve as the finish line first. However, both pilots were given a retrospective time penalty for a jump start.
WM stands after the race
The first six of the race were 9, 6, 4, 3, 2 and 1 point (s).