1978 Austrian Grand Prix

1978 Austrian Grand Prix
Race 12 of 16 in the 1978 Formula One season
Race details
Date	13 August 1978
Official name	XVI Großer Preis von Österreich
Location	Österreichring
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	5.942 km (3.692 miles)
Distance	54 laps, 320.814 km (199.368 miles)
Weather	Wet
Pole position
Driver	Ronnie Peterson	Lotus-Ford
Time	1:37.71
Fastest lap
Driver	Ronnie Peterson	Lotus-Ford
Time	1:43.12
Podium
First	Ronnie Peterson	Lotus-Ford
Second	Patrick Depailler	Tyrrell-Ford
Third	Gilles Villeneuve	Ferrari
Lap leaders

The 1978 Austrian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 13 August 1978 at Österreichring. This was the last win for Ronnie Peterson before his death at the 1978 Italian Grand Prix, and was also the last win for a Swedish Formula One driver, as of 2024.

*Positions in red indicate entries that failed to qualify or pre-qualify.

The crowds for the Austrian GP were full of Niki Lauda fans; but for them Lauda qualified only 12th as the Lotus cars again took the front row, with Ronnie Peterson on pole. The surprise in qualifying was Jean-Pierre Jabouille who qualified his turbocharged Renault third. The race started at 2:00 pm local, the start saw Peterson lead into the first corner, with Carlos Reutemann snatching second from Mario Andretti. Andretti tried to get the place back later in the lap, but the two collided and Andretti retired after his car spun into the barriers while Reutemann lost a couple of places to Patrick Depailler and Jody Scheckter. On the third lap, Scheckter slid off and crashed into Andretti's abandoned Lotus, damaging both cars. On the fourth lap, a heavy rainshower hit the track and Reutemann spun off and was beached but the marshals push-started his car as it was in a dangerous position, while Nelson Piquet and Héctor Rebaque crashed out. At the end of lap six, Gilles Villeneuve headed for the pits for rain tyres having executed a monumental spin, and next lap Jabouille lost control of the Renault, managed to gather it all up and also stopped for rain tyres, while Emerson Fittipaldi was into the pits and Pironi spun off and knocked the nose cone off his Tyrrell but rejoined. Peterson finished lap seven in full control of the situation and when the last car had gone through the officials decided to stop the race and the red and black flags were held out, meaning "Race to stop and restart at a later time." After the decision had been made Peterson spun off onto the grass and got stuck, so it was Depailler who arrived first at the red and black flags. As the rain poured down, the race was stopped. It was clearly stated that the Grand Prix would now be considered a two-part race, the first part having run for seven laps and the starting grid for the 47-lap second part would be in the order in which the competitors completed lap seven. Only those cars that arrived back at the pits under their own power would be allowed to start in the second part and there would be no changing to spare cars, though repairs and resetting of suspension and brakes for rain conditions would be allowed, and naturally everyone fitted rain tyres. During the red flag, Rebaque's was towed back by the marshals undamaged but could not join the restart, though Peterson and Reutemann drove their cars back, having been extricated from the grass verges. Patrese's Arrows was towed in with the nose cone damage, and should have been wheeled away along with Rebaque's Lotus but in the confusion the Arrows management sneaked the car into the pit lane and started repairing it, even though it was illegal. The restart was timed for 3:00 pm giving everyone adequate time to prepare their cars for a really wet track. At 2:40 pm. the pit road was to be opened to allow cars to set off on a warm-up lap, and it was to shut at 2:50 pm and anyone left behind would be out of the second part of the race. It was all quite clear, but there was some discussion as to whether Peterson and Reutemann had received outside assistance driving the first part of the race, even though they had driven their cars back to the pits. With Peterson on pole position and Reutemann in last position, having spun off on lap 5, it was a delicate situation, but was resolved by allowing them both to restart, though Reutemann would be considered to be two laps behind at the start of the second race. There should have been 21 cars lined up in pairs for the second part with Andretti, Scheckter, Rebaque and Piquet already out but there were 22 cars on new grid due to the Arrows team's shady tactics for Patrese.^[1]

The race restarted at 3:15 pm after the rain relented, and once again Peterson led followed by Depailler and Lauda. As the track began to dry, Peterson started to pull away, and behind, Reutemann was on a charge and passed Lauda for third but he was black-flagged for receiving outside assistance, and Lauda crashed out soon after, leaving Gilles Villeneuve third. The drivers changed to slicks but the top 3 remained the same and stayed so till the end; Peterson winning ahead of Depailler, with Villeneuve taking his first ever podium.

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Tyre	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	6	Ronnie Peterson	Lotus-Ford	G	54	1:41:21.57	1	9
2	4	Patrick Depailler	Tyrrell-Ford	G	54	+47.44 secs	13	6
3	12	Gilles Villeneuve	Ferrari	M	54	+1:39.76	11	4
4	14	Emerson Fittipaldi	Fittipaldi-Ford	G	53	+1 Lap	6	3
5	26	Jacques Laffite	Ligier-Matra	G	53	+1 Lap	5	2
6	19	Vittorio Brambilla	Surtees-Ford	G	53	+1 Lap	21	1
7	2	John Watson	Brabham-Alfa Romeo	G	53	+1 lap	10
8	30	Brett Lunger	McLaren-Ford	G	52	+2 Laps	17
9	31	René Arnoux	Martini-Ford	G	52	+2 Laps	26
NC	17	Clay Regazzoni	Shadow-Ford	G	50	+4 Laps	22
NC	32	Keke Rosberg	Wolf-Ford	G	49	+5 Laps	25
DSQ	22	Derek Daly	Ensign-Ford	G	41	Push start	19
Ret	8	Patrick Tambay	McLaren-Ford	G	40	Accident	14
Ret	16	Hans-Joachim Stuck	Shadow-Ford	G	33	Accident	23
Ret	15	Jean-Pierre Jabouille	Renault	M	31	Gearbox	3
DSQ	11	Carlos Reutemann	Ferrari	M	28	Push start	4
Ret	1	Niki Lauda	Brabham-Alfa Romeo	G	27	Accident	12
Ret	3	Didier Pironi	Tyrrell-Ford	G	20	Accident	9
Ret	7	James Hunt	McLaren-Ford	G	7	Accident	8
Ret	27	Alan Jones	Williams-Ford	G	7	Accident	15
Ret	35	Riccardo Patrese	Arrows-Ford	G	7	Accident	16
Ret	23	Harald Ertl	Ensign-Ford	G	7	Accident	24
Ret	25	Héctor Rebaque	Lotus-Ford	G	4	Accident	18
Ret	29	Nelson Piquet	McLaren-Ford	G	4	Accident	20
Ret	20	Jody Scheckter	Wolf-Ford	G	3	Accident	7
Ret	5	Mario Andretti	Lotus-Ford	G	0	Accident	2
DNQ	37	Arturo Merzario	Merzario-Ford	G
DNQ	9	Jochen Mass	ATS-Ford	G
DNQ	18	Rupert Keegan	Surtees-Ford	G
DNQ	10	Hans Binder	ATS-Ford	G
DNPQ	36	Rolf Stommelen	Arrows-Ford	G
PO	18	Brian Henton	Surtees-Ford	G		Keegan's car
Source:[2][3]

• This was the 10th fastest lap and 1st Grand Slam set by a Swedish driver.
• This was the 1st podium finish for a Canadian driver.
• This was Ronnie Peterson's 2nd win of the Austrian Grand Prix, becoming the first driver to win the Austrian Grand Prix multiple times. Since the inaugural 1964 Austrian Grand Prix, there were nine different winners.
• This was the 3rd win of the Austrian Grand Prix for Lotus. It broke the previous record set by Ferrari at the 1970 Austrian Grand Prix.
• This was the 100th fastest lap set by a Ford-powered car.

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Mario Andretti 54 2 Ronnie Peterson 45 3 Patrick Depailler 32 4 Carlos Reutemann 31 5 Niki Lauda 31 Source: [4]

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Lotus-Ford 76 2 Brabham-Alfa Romeo 40 3 Tyrrell-Ford 36 4 Ferrari 35 5 Ligier-Matra 16 Source: [4]

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.