1979 United States Grand Prix

1979 United States Grand Prix
Race 15 of 15 in the 1979 Formula One season
Race details
Date	October 7, 1979
Official name	XXII Toyota United States Grand Prix
Location	Watkins Glen Grand Prix Race Course Watkins Glen, New York
Course	Permanent road course
Course length	5.435 km (3.377 miles)
Distance	59 laps, 320.67 km (199.24 miles)
Weather	Rain with temperatures reaching a maximum of 15 °C (59 °F); Wind speeds up to 27.78 km/h (17.26 mph)[1]
Pole position
Driver	Alan Jones	Williams-Ford
Time	1:35.615
Fastest lap
Driver	Nelson Piquet	Brabham-Ford
Time	1:40.054 on lap 51
Podium
First	Gilles Villeneuve	Ferrari
Second	René Arnoux	Renault
Third	Didier Pironi	Tyrrell-Ford
Lap leaders

The 1979 United States Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on October 7, 1979 at the Watkins Glen Grand Prix Race Course in Watkins Glen, New York.^[2] It was the fifteenth and final race of the 1979 World Championship of F1 Drivers and the 1979 International Cup for F1 Constructors. This event was also referred to as the United States Grand Prix East in order to distinguish it from the United States Grand Prix West held on April 8, 1979 in Long Beach, California.

The 59-lap race took place in wet conditions, and was won by Gilles Villeneuve, driving a Ferrari. René Arnoux finished second in a Renault, with Didier Pironi third in a Tyrrell-Ford. The win, Villeneuve's third of the season, enabled him to secure second place in the Drivers' Championship behind team-mate Jody Scheckter.

This was the final Formula One race for the 1969 and 1970 championship runner-up Jacky Ickx, Alex Ribeiro, Arturo Merzario and former Brabham driver Hans-Joachim Stuck, as well as the final race for the Wolf team. Villeneuve's win was also to be the final one for a car with a flat-12 engine and the three points scored by Elio de Angelis would be the last points scored by the Shadow team.

Summary

By the time the teams got to Watkins Glen for the last race of the 1979 season, Jody Scheckter had already clinched the Drivers' Championship, while his Ferrari team had secured the Constructors' Championship.

On Friday, the rain was heavy enough all day that only a few cars made any serious attempt at a lap time. Of the six that did actually record a time, Gilles Villeneuve was fastest by over nine seconds.

Saturday started bright and sunny, and Alan Jones topped the charts in his Williams for the entire session. He ended up 1.3 seconds quicker than the Brabham of Brazilian Nelson Piquet, who gained the front row in his first drive at Watkins Glen. Scheckter had trouble with the engine in his race car and traffic with his spare, and ended up 16th, one spot ahead of the previous season's champion, Mario Andretti.

The forecast for Sunday was a 50% chance of rain. About twenty minutes before the start, the rain came, and all but two of the cars started with rain tires. The two that did not were Piquet and Andretti, who, in 17th spot on the grid, had nothing to lose by the gamble.

At the start, Piquet suffered with wheelspin on his slicks and was left behind. Scheckter took an outside line through turn one, but he got pushed onto the grass and had to wait for the entire field to go by before re-entering. Keke Rosberg spun and recovered, but he forced Bruno Giacomelli off behind him and into retirement with a bent steering arm. After one lap, the order was Villeneuve, Jones, Carlos Reutemann, Jacques Laffite, Jean-Pierre Jabouille, Clay Regazzoni, René Arnoux, Didier Pironi, John Watson and Jean-Pierre Jarier. After two laps, Villeneuve had extended his lead to five seconds.

By lap three, Jacky Ickx, in his last Grand Prix, had moved his Ligier from 24th to twelfth. As he closed on Derek Daly's Tyrrell approaching the turn before the pit entrance, however, he bumped Daly from behind and went off. His teammate, Jacques Laffite, running in fifth place, spun off on the next lap at the same place. Reutemann crashed out on lap seven from third place when his fire extinguisher sensing unit came loose and interfered with his pedals. The other Lotus, driven by Andretti, decided his gamble to start on slicks had not worked and pitted for wets, since it was still raining. He returned in 20th, but retired soon after when his gearbox became permanently lodged in fourth.

The gap between Villeneuve and Jones varied, with Regazzoni quite a bit back in third. When the rain became heavier, the Ferrari's Michelins performed better; when it slacked off, the intermediate surface favored the Goodyears on the Williams. On lap 20, Scheckter, now in third after fighting his way back from last place, pitted for slicks, as did Regazzoni. Scheckter later said that it was still too early, as he began sliding around down the straight, but the lap time comparison with Villeneuve helped the Ferrari crew to decide when to bring Villeneuve in.

On lap 21, Rosberg caught up with Pironi and tried to overtake on the inside. He could not hold his line, and when he slid wide, he took the Tyrrell with him. Pironi was able to continue, but Rosberg retired with a damaged gearbox. Beginning on lap 25, most of the cars came in for slicks, except the three leaders, Villeneuve, Jones and Arnoux. As the circuit continued to dry, Jones cut into Villeneuve's lead, taking off two seconds per lap. By lap 31, Jones was on his tail, and then quickly past. In two laps, he was 3.1 seconds clear. Villeneuve came in to change tires on lap 34, and returned 39.5 seconds behind Jones.

The Williams crew prepared to fit Jones' car with slicks as he came in on lap 37. After some difficulty removing the right rear, the racing manager waved the jacks away and the car out. As the mechanic on the right rear shouted and waved that he was not finished, the car sped from the pits. At the beginning of the back straight, the wheel came off and Jones retired.

Villeneuve now led Scheckter by almost a lap. Arnoux lost two positions, to fifth, when he pitted for tires, but regained third place, ahead of Daly and Pironi, in two laps. On lap 48, Scheckter felt his car floating about and thought he had a puncture. He decided to go one more lap, but never made it back. The tire shredded and he retired, leaving only nine cars still running. Daly spun off from fourth, and Piquet, after setting fastest lap of the race in pursuit of John Watson's McLaren, dropped out with a broken driveshaft five laps from the flag.

Villeneuve coasted home, allowing Elio de Angelis and Hans-Joachim Stuck to unlap themselves, but finishing with a 48-second margin over Arnoux. Later, Villeneuve revealed that he had been nursing the car with failing oil pressure for the final 25 laps. The American Shadow team celebrated de Angelis' fourth place, his only points of the year. The win by Villeneuve was his third, matching champion Scheckter's total, securing a one-two finish in the Drivers' Championship.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos.	Driver	Constructor	Time
1	Alan Jones	Williams–Ford	1:35.615
2	Nelson Piquet	Brabham–Ford	+1.299
3	Gilles Villeneuve	Ferrari	+1.333
4	Jacques Laffite	Ligier–Ford	+1.451
5	Clay Regazzoni	Williams–Ford	+1.513
6	Carlos Reutemann	Lotus–Ford	+2.257
7	René Arnoux	Renault	+2.580
8	Jean-Pierre Jabouille	Renault	+2.603
9	Ricardo Zunino	Brabham–Ford	+2.894
10	Didier Pironi	Tyrrell–Ford	+3.208
11	Jean-Pierre Jarier	Tyrrell–Ford	+3.330
12	Keke Rosberg	Wolf–Ford	+3.420
13	John Watson	McLaren–Ford	+3.618
14	Hans-Joachim Stuck	ATS–Ford	+3.714
15	Derek Daly	Tyrrell–Ford	+3.853
16	Jody Scheckter	Ferrari	+3.961
17	Mario Andretti	Lotus–Ford	+4.529
18	Bruno Giacomelli	Alfa Romeo	+4.662
19	Riccardo Patrese	Arrows–Ford	+4.722
20	Elio de Angelis	Shadow–Ford	+5.010
21	Marc Surer	Ensign–Ford	+5.020
22	Patrick Tambay	McLaren–Ford	+5.116
23	Emerson Fittipaldi	Fittipaldi–Ford	+5.126
24	Jacky Ickx	Ligier–Ford	+5.139
Cut-off
25	Vittorio Brambilla	Alfa Romeo	+5.174
26	Jochen Mass	Arrows–Ford	+5.209
27	Jan Lammers	Shadow–Ford	+6.473
28	Héctor Rebaque	Rebaque–Ford	+7.445
29	Alex Ribeiro	Fittipaldi–Ford	+9.568
30	Arturo Merzario	Merzario–Ford	+13.703
Source:[3]

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Tyre	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	12	Gilles Villeneuve	Ferrari	M	59	1:52:17.734	3	9
2	16	René Arnoux	Renault	M	59	+ 48.787	7	6
3	3	Didier Pironi	Tyrrell-Ford	G	59	+ 53.199	10	4
4	18	Elio de Angelis	Shadow-Ford	G	59	+ 1:30.512	20	3
5	9	Hans-Joachim Stuck	ATS-Ford	G	59	+ 1:41.259	14	2
6	7	John Watson	McLaren-Ford	G	58	+ 1 Lap	13	1
7	14	Emerson Fittipaldi	Fittipaldi-Ford	G	54	+ 5 Laps	23
Ret	6	Nelson Piquet	Brabham-Ford	G	53	Transmission	2
Ret	33	Derek Daly	Tyrrell-Ford	G	52	Spun Off	15
Ret	11	Jody Scheckter	Ferrari	M	48	Tyre	16
Ret	29	Riccardo Patrese	Arrows-Ford	G	44	Suspension	19
Ret	27	Alan Jones	Williams-Ford	G	36	Wheel	1
Ret	22	Marc Surer	Ensign-Ford	G	32	Engine	21
Ret	28	Clay Regazzoni	Williams-Ford	G	29	Accident	5
Ret	5	Ricardo Zunino	Brabham-Ford	G	25	Spun Off	9
Ret	15	Jean-Pierre Jabouille	Renault	M	24	Engine	8
Ret	20	Keke Rosberg	Wolf-Ford	G	20	Accident	12
Ret	8	Patrick Tambay	McLaren-Ford	G	20	Engine	22
Ret	4	Jean-Pierre Jarier	Tyrrell-Ford	G	18	Accident	11
Ret	1	Mario Andretti	Lotus-Ford	G	16	Gearbox	17
Ret	2	Carlos Reutemann	Lotus-Ford	G	6	Spun Off	6
Ret	26	Jacques Laffite	Ligier-Ford	G	3	Spun Off	4
Ret	25	Jacky Ickx	Ligier-Ford	G	2	Spun Off	24
Ret	35	Bruno Giacomelli	Alfa Romeo	G	0	Spun Off	18
DNQ	36	Vittorio Brambilla	Alfa Romeo	G
DNQ	30	Jochen Mass	Arrows-Ford	G
DNQ	17	Jan Lammers	Shadow-Ford	G
DNQ	31	Héctor Rebaque	Rebaque-Ford	G
DNQ	19	Alex Ribeiro	Fittipaldi-Ford	G
DNQ	24	Arturo Merzario	Merzario-Ford	G
Source:[4][5]

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Jody Scheckter 51 (60) 2 Gilles Villeneuve 47 (53) 3 Alan Jones 40 (43) 4 Jacques Laffite 36 5 Clay Regazzoni 29 (32) Source:[6]

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Ferrari 113 2 Williams-Ford 75 3 Ligier-Ford 61 4 Lotus-Ford 39 5 Tyrrell-Ford 28 Source:[6]

• 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

Further reading

• Rob Walker (January, 1980). "21st United States Grand Prix: Muddier Matters". Road & Track, 104-107.