1978 South African Grand Prix
The Grand Prix of South Africa 1978 took place on March 4th place at the Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit and was the third race of the Formula 1 season 1978.
- 3.1 Start -up
- 3.2 race
- 4.1 Drivers' Championship
- 4.2 Constructors' Championship
Reports
Background
Six weeks elapsed between the Brazilian Grand Prix and the 300th Grand Prix World Championship history, which took place in South Africa. During this time, several race cars were completed, which should replace the previous year's models. Among them were the Ferrari 312T3 and the Brabham BT46. In addition, the new team Automobiles Martini, which began an in-house design with the designation MK23 occurred first appearance. Moreover, since Arrows with Rolf Stommelen expanded as a second pilot plant his commitment to two vehicles and also took the Renault team again fought a total of 30 pilots at one of the 26 possible starting positions.
The hapless Divina Galica was at Hesketh Racing replaced by Eddie Cheever. Its place in Theodore Racing took the Finnish debutant Keke Rosberg. With Martini pilot René Arnoux, there was another newcomer this weekend.
The fact that Danny Ongais explained his short Formula 1 career to be over, it took at Ensign to shut down the commitment to just one car.
Training
Niki Lauda showed by reaching the pole position impressively the potential of the new Brabham. However, it should turn out to be the last pole of his Formula 1 career. Mario Andretti, who competed with the still competitive year-old car Lotus type 78, qualified for the second place ahead of the two McLaren M26 of James Hunt and Patrick Tambay. The third row was made up of the local hero Jody Scheckter together on Wolf and Jean -Pierre Jabouille in turbo -powered Renault RS01.
Cheever, who qualified as the 25th, at the age of 20 years, one month and 22 days to the then third youngest driver who was allowed to take part in a Formula 1 GP.
Race
Andretti was going Scheckter, Lauda, Hunt and Jabouille lead. Riccardo Patrese and John Watson followed in sixth and seventh place.
In the fifth round, Hunt retired due to an engine failure. Patrese had recently overtaken Jabouille and was by now in fourth place. Until 27 round he fought his way to the front up to the top. Since Andretti and Scheckter fell back due to tire problems, came Depailler Patrick, who had previously overtaken Lauda, to second place.
Due to an engine failure at Lauda's Brabham on lap 52 Andretti took back a third. Even the leading Patrese was the victim of an engine failure, so Depailler in the 64th round took over the top position. Also the engine was in the final laps of the race early signs of engine damage in the form of reinforced smoke emissions. The Frenchman was able to finish the race though, but had to be beaten after a tight duel Ronnie Peterson by less than half a second pass. Andretti had at the end can no longer fight for the victory, as he had to drive to refuel the box. Watson was third ahead of Alan Jones, Jacques Laffite and Didier Pironi.
Message list
Classifications
Line-up
Race
WM stands after the race
The first six of the race were 9, 6, 4, 3, 2 and 1 point (s).