Spanish GP 1979

APRIL 29, 1979

Spanish GP, 1979

In the three weeks between Long Beach and the Spanish GP, the Race of Champions at Brands Hatch featured another victory for Gilles Villeneuve and then the teams were at Jarama for the fifth round of the World Championship. Lotus had the new 80 ready for Mario Andretti while Renault had a new RS10 and Williams had a pair of the new FW07s. McLaren had modified the M28 after a disappointing start to the year.

The Kauhsen team made its first appearance with driver Gianfranco Brancatelli but the car was a long way off the pace and failed to qualify as did Arturo Merzario in his A2 and Derek Daly in his Ensign.

At the front the Ligiers were back on top again with Jacques Laffite taking pole position from Patrick Depailler. Villeneuve was third quickest with Andretti fourth in the new Lotus. Jody Scheckter was fifth in his Ferrari with Niki Lauda and Nelson Piquet sixth and seventh in their Brabhams. Then came Carlos Reutemann in an old Lotus 79 and the top 10 was rounded off by Jean-Pierre Jabouille in the new Renault and Didier Pironi's Tyrrell.

At the start Depailler took the lead from Laffite while Villeneuve tried to challenge the Ligiers and dropped behind the fast-starting Reutemann. Keen to win back his place Villeneuve spun and dropped down the order. Laffite tried to find a way to pass Depailler but eventually missed a gear and blew up his engine. This left Reutemann second with Scheckter third until lap 60 when he dropped behind Lauda. The Austrian then went out with an engine failure so Scheckter regained the position only to lose it a few laps later to Andretti. Scheckter thus had to settle for fourth place with Jarier fifth and Pironi sixth.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
25 Patrick Depailler Ligier-Cosworth  75 1h39m11.840s  
Carlos Reutemann Lotus-Cosworth  75 1h39m32.780s  
Mario Andretti Lotus-Cosworth  75 1h39m39.150s  
11 Jody Scheckter Ferrari  75 1h39m40.520s  
Jean-Pierre Jarier Tyrrell-Cosworth  75 1h39m42.230s  12 
Didier Pironi Tyrrell-Cosworth  75 1h40m00.270s  10 
12 Gilles Villeneuve Ferrari  75 1h40m04.150s  
30 Jochen Mass Arrows-Cosworth  75 1h40m26.680s  17 
16 Rene Arnoux Renault  74  11 
10 29 Riccardo Patrese Arrows-Cosworth  74  16 
11 14 Emerson Fittipaldi Copersucar-Cosworth  74  19 
12 17 Jan Lammers Shadow-Cosworth  73  24 
13 Patrick Tambay McLaren-Cosworth  72  20 
14 Hans-Joachim Stuck ATS-Cosworth  69  21 
Niki Lauda Brabham-Alfa Romeo  63 Water Leak 
31 Hector Rebaque Lotus-Cosworth  58 Engine 23 
27 Alan Jones Williams-Cosworth  54 Gear Selection 13 
18 Elio de Angelis Shadow-Cosworth  52 Engine 22 
28 Clay Regazzoni Williams-Cosworth  32 Engine 14 
20 James Hunt Wolf-Cosworth  26 Brakes 15 
John Watson McLaren-Cosworth  21 Engine 18 
15 Jean-Pierre Jabouille Renault  21 Turbo Leak 
26 Jacques Laffite Ligier-Cosworth  15 Engine 
Nelson Piquet Brabham-Alfa Romeo  15 Fuel Metering Unit 
nq 22 Derek Daly Ensign-Cosworth    25 
nq 24 Arturo Merzario Merzario-Cosworth    26 
nq 36 Gianfranco Brancatelli Kauhsen-Cosworth    27