1979 British Grand Prix
Following two back-to-back wins, Ferrari's
Alan Jones had taken the championship lead from his teammate and he was looking to extend his lead on the super-fast Silverstone Circuit. Once again, there was an unveiling of new car as Renault had finally completed the work on their new chassis, the RS10. After
Gilles Villeneuve's two podiums early in the season, the French team had had serious reliability issues.
René Arnoux in particular had suffered badly and was still yet to score a points finish.
Pre-qualifying
Alfa Romeos looked clearly the best team in pre-qualifying.
Harald Ertl was fastest and
Clay Regazzoni third fastest after setting his time early in the session. Shadow was the other team to progress, thanks to
Bobby Rahal's improved pace. The American youngster hasn't been at his best in qualifying sessions this season but was this time able to defeat his French teammate comfortably. Ensigns failed to pre-qualify for t he sixth time this season.
Qualifying
The results of the qualifying session were relatively straight-forward. The Ferraris locked the front row and this time it was Jones who got the pole. Renault's new RS10 chassis looked very strong and the French outfit locked the second row.
Derek Daly was a slight surprise in fifth, beating the Williams' in 6th and 7th. Clay Regazzoni improved massively from his pre-qualifying lap and got himself up to 8th place and in great position to score Alfa Romeo's first points of the season. McLarens and
Cheever in the other Lotus completed the top-11.
Copersucar Fittipaldi has been unable to develop their chassis at the same rate as their rivals.
Niki Lauda however is able to get the maximum performance out of the car, this time 12th place was what he achieved. His teammate
Rupert Keegan wasn't as competitive and wasn't able to qualify for the race after setting a disappointing 27th fastest time.
Most disappointing performance however was the one by Tyrrell.
Scheckter's 13th and
Pironi's 16th places are not what the team sitting second in the championship standings is looking for. Ligiers, Brabhams, Arrowses, Wolves and Rebaques completed the grid with Shadow's Rahal being the last one to qualify.
Race
Pole sitter Jones got away nicely from the line and remained in the lead.
Reutemann besides him got off slower and dropped down to fourth behind Villeneuve and
Piquet who had a cracking start from sixth in the grid. Arnoux was fifth and Alfa Romeo's Regazzoni sixth before Daly,
de Angelis and the McLarens.
By the end of first lap Cheever had gone past the McLarens into P9 and tried an opportunistic move on de Angelis into turn 1 of second lap. De Angelis wasn't expecting the move and the two made contact. The Williams driver spun and got collected by
Fittipaldi. Both retired and the Brazilian double world champion's luck just doesn't seem to change. Meanwhile further up the field Reutemann was struggling slightly and had dropped to sixth behind Arnoux and Regazzoni.
As usual, there was a lot of shuffling in the following laps. First casualty was Villeneuve whose fragile Renault engine suffered a painful death. Championship contender Scheckter was having an appaling race in 11th and his day ended in a crash. His teammate Pironi had much better speed, the Frenchman was up to 8th after first round of pit stops in lap 30. Top-6 at this moment was Jones, Daly, Arnoux, Reutemann, Regazzoni and Cheever. Piquet had had a longer pit stop and was down to 7th. Lauda,
Rosberg and
Tambay were battling with Pironi for 8th place.
Jones's lead didn't last long and this time he can only blame himself. The Australian crashed his Ferrari in lap 38 and wasn't able to continue. Soon there was a Ferrari back in the lead as Reutemann had found his pace, perhaps thanks to new tyres and was suddenly leading the race after second round of pit stops. Piquet too had fought back and was fighting fiercely for second with Daly. Arnoux's Renault had lost its oil pressure, adding to the disappointing début of the new car. His retirement meant that Regazzoni was now in fourth but Cheever was closing on him. Tambay and Rosberg were battling for sixth but two laps later Rosberg pulled to the side of the road too after failed gearbox in lap 48.
In the closing laps Daly, who had got past Piquet earlier, was closing on race leader Reutemann but the Argentinean was able to hold the Irishman within a safe distance and claimed his fourth win of the season. Daly was second and Piquet third. Cheever gave his everything trying to get past Regazzoni but the experienced Alfa driver defended tremendously and got Alfa Romeo the team's first points in nearly 30 years! Niki Lauda had a solid drive for sixth after passing Tambay with a few laps to go. Brabhams in 8th and 10th had one of their best races this season but they will surely not be too happy about it. Thanks to Regazzoni's three points the prestigious team has now dropped down to 13th in the championship standings.
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