1979 British Grand Prix

  1979 British Grand Prix

Race details
Race 9 of 15 in the 1979 Formula One season
Date	14 July 1979
Official name	XXXII Marlboro British Grand Prix
Location	Silverstone Circuit, Northamptonshire, United Kingdom
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	4.719 km (2.932 mi)
Distance	68 laps, 320.871 km (199.380 mi)
Weather	Dry
Pole position
Driver	Alan Jones	Williams-Ford
Time	1:11.88
Fastest lap
Driver	Clay Regazzoni	Williams-Ford
Time	1:14.40 on lap 39
Podium
First	Clay Regazzoni	Williams-Ford
Second	René Arnoux	Renault
Third	Jean-Pierre Jarier	Tyrrell-Ford

The 1979 British Grand Prix (formally the XXXII Marlboro British Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held at Silverstone on 14 July 1979. It was the ninth race of the 1979 Formula One season.

Report

Qualifying

Qualifying saw Alan Jones take his and the Williams team's first pole position by 0.6 seconds from Jean-Pierre Jabouille in the Renault. Nelson Piquet took third in the Brabham with the second Williams of Clay Regazzoni alongside him on the second row, while René Arnoux in the second Renault and Niki Lauda in the second Brabham made up the third row. Completing the top ten were John Watson in the McLaren, the Lotuses of Carlos Reutemann and Mario Andretti, and Jacques Laffite in the Ligier. The Ferraris disappointed, with championship leader Jody Scheckter only managing 11th and Gilles Villeneuve 13th.

Race

At the start of the race, Regazzoni charged into the lead, but was repassed by team-mate Jones and Jabouille before the end of the first lap. Andretti and the Ferraris also made fast starts, running close to Piquet, Lauda and Arnoux. At the end of lap 2, Piquet made a mistake at Woodcote and spun off, before Andretti dropped out with a broken wheel bearing on lap 4. Then Lauda encountered brake problems which eventually led to his retirement on lap 13, leaving Arnoux fourth with Scheckter fifth and Villeneuve dutifully following the South African.

Up at the front, Jones established a commanding lead over Jabouille, who was struggling on Michelin tyres that were wearing quickly. On lap 17, the Frenchman pitted for new tyres, promoting Regazzoni to second. However, disaster struck for Jabouille when, after a long stop, part of his front wing got caught in an air hose and was broken off as he accelerated. He was forced to return to the pits for repairs, during which his turbo overheated.^[1]

At half-distance, Jones still led comfortably, with Regazzoni still second and well clear of Arnoux, and Laffite moving ahead of the Ferraris into fourth. Then, approaching Woodcote at the end of lap 39, Jones's engine failed, a water pump problem causing it to overheat.^[2] Six laps later, Laffite also retired with engine trouble. This left only four drivers on the lead lap - Regazzoni, Arnoux, Scheckter and Villeneuve - with Jean-Pierre Jarier up to fifth in his Tyrrell and Watson sixth.

The Ferraris were also struggling on Michelins, and Villeneuve pitted for new tyres on lap 50, before stopping with fuel vaporization problems five laps from the end. Scheckter, meanwhile, was lapped by Regazzoni on lap 56, before Jarier and Watson passed him in the closing laps.^[1]

Regazzoni eventually took the chequered flag 24 seconds ahead of Arnoux, giving Williams their first Formula One victory. It was also the fifth and final win for the popular Swiss driver. After Jarier, Watson and Scheckter came Jacky Ickx, taking the final point in the second Ligier.

Classification

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	28	Clay Regazzoni	Williams-Ford	68	1:26:11.17	4	9
2	16	René Arnoux	Renault	68	+ 24.28	5	6
3	4	Jean-Pierre Jarier	Tyrrell-Ford	67	+ 1 Lap	16	4
4	7	John Watson	McLaren-Ford	67	+ 1 Lap	7	3
5	11	Jody Scheckter	Ferrari	67	+ 1 Lap	11	2
6	25	Jacky Ickx	Ligier-Ford	67	+ 1 Lap	17	1
7	8	Patrick Tambay	McLaren-Ford	66	Out of Fuel	18
8	2	Carlos Reutemann	Lotus-Ford	66	+ 2 Laps	8
9	31	Héctor Rebaque	Lotus-Ford	66	+ 2 Laps	24
10	3	Didier Pironi	Tyrrell-Ford	66	+ 2 Laps	15
11	17	Jan Lammers	Shadow-Ford	65	+ 3 Laps	21
12	18	Elio de Angelis	Shadow-Ford	65	+ 3 Laps	12
13	22	Patrick Gaillard	Ensign-Ford	65	+ 3 Laps	23
14	12	Gilles Villeneuve	Ferrari	63	Fuel System	13
Ret	29	Riccardo Patrese	Arrows-Ford	45	Gearbox	19
Ret	26	Jacques Laffite	Ligier-Ford	44	Engine	10
Ret	20	Keke Rosberg	Wolf-Ford	44	Fuel System	14
Ret	27	Alan Jones	Williams-Ford	38	Water Pump	1
Ret	30	Jochen Mass	Arrows-Ford	37	Gearbox	20
Ret	14	Emerson Fittipaldi	Fittipaldi-Ford	25	Engine	22
Ret	15	Jean-Pierre Jabouille	Renault	21	Turbo	2
Ret	5	Niki Lauda	Brabham-Alfa Romeo	12	Brakes	6
Ret	1	Mario Andretti	Lotus-Ford	3	Wheel	9
Ret	6	Nelson Piquet	Brabham-Alfa Romeo	1	Spun Off	3
DNQ	9	Hans-Joachim Stuck	ATS-Ford
DNQ	24	Arturo Merzario	Merzario-Ford
Source:[3]

Notes

• Lap Leaders: Alan Jones 38 laps (1-38); Clay Regazzoni 30 laps (39-68).
• Jones's pole-position time in his ground-effect Williams FW07 was some 6.6 seconds faster than the pole time set in the previous Grand Prix at Silverstone, two years before, by James Hunt in his non-ground-effect McLaren M26.

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Jody Scheckter 32 (36) 2 Gilles Villeneuve 26 3 Jacques Laffite 24 4 Patrick Depailler 20 (22) 5 Carlos Reutemann 20 (25)

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Ferrari 62 2 Ligier-Ford 47 3 Lotus-Ford 37 4 Williams-Ford 23 5 Tyrrell-Ford 21

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. Only the best 4 results from the first 7 races and the best 4 results from the last 8 races counted towards the Drivers' Championship. Numbers without parentheses are Championship points; numbers in parentheses are total points scored.

References

1. "1979 British Grand Prix report". Motor Sport. London. August 1979. Retrieved 23 October 2013.
2. "Grand Prix results: British GP, 1979". Grandprix.com. Retrieved 23 October 2013.
3. "1979 British Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 3 July 2014. Retrieved 23 December 2015.