The 1978 United States Grand Prix West (officially the Long Beach Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held on April 2, 1978, at Long Beach Street Circuit.
Summary Carlos Reutemann took over at the halfway mark from Ferrari teammate Gilles Villeneuve, when the Canadian crashed out of the lead, and won by eleven seconds. It was the second American victory for the Argentine, who also won for Brabham at Watkins Glen in 1974. American Mario Andretti finished second to maintain a share of the Championship lead with Reutemann.
At the start of the weekend, though only 22 cars would make the grid, there were 30 entries, requiring a one-hour pre-qualifying session on Friday morning for the eight non-FICA members. From these eight, the fastest four would join the rest of the field in qualifying for one of the 22 starting spots.
Niki Lauda, who had placed his Ferrari on pole for the previous year's race, again set the early pace, this time in a Brabham. Late in the Friday morning session, however, Reutemann suddenly jumped to the top of the sheets with a 1:20.99 and eventually posted the day's best of 1:20.636. As usual at Long Beach, a number of drivers suffered from broken gearboxes, and on Saturday, though the weather was better, no one was able to better Reutemann's time. The first three rows of the final grid were occupied by just three teams, as Villeneuve completed the all-Ferrari front row, Brabham teammates Lauda and John Watson were third and fifth, and the Lotus pair of Andretti and Ronnie Peterson were fourth and sixth.
75,000 fans showed up for the race on Sunday. The start had been moved from in front of the pits on Ocean Boulevard to the curving "straight" on Shoreline Drive in order to avoid another first corner tangle. The strategy seemed to work, as everyone got through cleanly, though John Watson's late braking maneuver down the inside caused him to exit wide from the hairpin and force polesitter Reutemann wide with him, so Villeneuve tucked into the lead as they exited.
After one lap, the order was Villeneuve, Watson, Lauda, Reutemann, Andretti, Alan Jones, James Hunt and Peterson. In the lead of a Grand Prix for the first time, Villeneuve was driving superbly, as he began to extend his lead. On lap six, Hunt struck the wall at the apex of the last turn before the pit straight and knocked his right front wheel off. Three laps later, Watson retired from second with a blown engine. Andretti was dropping back in fourth, having chosen the wrong Goodyears and a poor top gear, and Jones was closing on him quickly. On lap 19, the Williams went through and took off after Reutemann.
With Villeneuve's lead at two seconds, Reutemann was pushing Lauda hard for second place. Suddenly, on lap 28, the Brabham went straight on at Turn One, looking as if his brakes had failed. Lauda stopped safely, however, stepped out and removed his helmet. An electrical failure had cut the motor. Meanwhile, Jones had caught up to Reutemann, and the top three were separated by just 2.5 seconds.
On lap 39, just before the halfway point, Villeneuve came up to lap Clay Regazzoni, who was in a battle with Jean-Pierre Jabouille's Renault. Rather than wait until the straight, the Canadian tried to get by in the twisty section leading up to Ocean Boulevard. There simply wasn't room, however, and, when Regazzoni braked earlier than Villeneuve expected, the Ferrari's right front wheel hit the left rear of the Shadow and was launched over the white car into the wall. Fortunately, no one was hurt.
This left Reutemann in the lead, ahead of Jones, then a long gap back to Andretti. Lap after lap, Jones hounded Reutemann, but the Ferrari was too fast down the straight for him to get by. On about lap 47, with Jones still on the Ferrari's tail, the front wings of the Williams strangely flopped down, the result of a fabrication failure. Jones continued to battle, but began losing around a second a lap. Adding to the Aussie's misery, his fuel pressure began fluctuating. His head jerked back and forth as the engine sputtered and, sometimes, cut out entirely. As one car after another passed, the struggling Williams fell all the way to eighth place. Recording the fastest lap of the race on lap 27 and repassing Emerson Fittipaldi on the last lap for seventh place were his only consolations after a spectacular drive.
Reutemann cruised to the finish, maintaining a twelve to fifteen second gap over Andretti, who had a similar cushion over Patrick Depailler in third.
Classification
Pre-qualifying Pos No Driver Constructor Time Gap 1 36 Rolf Stommelen Arrows-Ford 1:23.540 — 2 35 Riccardo Patrese Arrows-Ford 1:23.840 +0.300 3 37 Arturo Merzario Merzario-Ford 1:24.729 +1.189 4 30 Brett Lunger McLaren-Ford 1:25.076 +1.536 5 32 Keke Rosberg Theodore-Ford 1:25.785 +2.245 6 25 Héctor Rebaque Lotus-Ford 1:26.128 +2.588 7 39 Danny Ongais Shadow-Ford 1:26.150 +2.610 8 24 Derek Daly Hesketh-Ford 1:26.615 +3.075 *Positions in red indicate entries that failed to pre-qualify.
Qualifying Pos No Driver Constructor Time Gap 1 11 Carlos Reutemann Ferrari 1:20.636 — 2 12 Gilles Villeneuve Ferrari 1:20.836 +0.200 3 1 Niki Lauda Brabham-Alfa Romeo 1:20.937 +0.301 4 5 Mario Andretti Lotus-Ford 1:21.188 +0.552 5 2 John Watson Brabham-Alfa Romeo 1:21.244 +0.608 6 6 Ronnie Peterson Lotus-Ford 1:21.474 +0.838 7 7 James Hunt McLaren-Ford 1:21.738 +1.102 8 27 Alan Jones Williams-Ford 1:21.935 +1.299 9 35 Riccardo Patrese Arrows-Ford 1:22.006 +1.370 10 20 Jody Scheckter Wolf-Ford 1:22.163 +1.527 11 8 Patrick Tambay McLaren-Ford 1:22.234 +1.598 12 4 Patrick Depailler Tyrrell-Ford 1:22.414 +1.778 13 15 Jean-Pierre Jabouille Renault 1:22.491 +1.855 14 26 Jacques Laffite Ligier-Matra 1:22.630 +1.994 15 14 Emerson Fittipaldi Fittipaldi-Ford 1:22.790 +2.154 16 9 Jochen Mass ATS-Ford 1:23.106 +2.470 17 19 Vittorio Brambilla Surtees-Ford 1:23.212 +2.576 18 36 Rolf Stommelen Arrows-Ford 1:23.291 +2.655 19 10 Jean-Pierre Jarier ATS-Ford 1:23.419 +2.783 20 17 Clay Regazzoni Shadow-Ford 1:23.454 +2.818 21 37 Arturo Merzario Merzario-Ford 1:23.589 +2.953 22 18 Rupert Keegan Surtees-Ford 1:23.677 +3.041 23 16 Hans-Joachim Stuck Shadow-Ford 1:23.733 +3.097 24 3 Didier Pironi Tyrrell-Ford 1:23.792 +3.156 25 30 Brett Lunger McLaren-Ford 1:23.795 +3.159 26 22 Lamberto Leoni Ensign-Ford 1:24.008 +3.372 *Positions in red indicate entries that failed to qualify.
Race Pos No Driver Constructor Tyre Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 11 Carlos Reutemann Ferrari 80 1:52:01.301 1 9 2 5 Mario Andretti Lotus-Ford 80 +11.061 secs 4 6 3 4 Patrick Depailler Tyrrell-Ford 80 +28.951 secs 12 4 4 6 Ronnie Peterson Lotus-Ford 80 +45.603 secs 6 3 5 26 Jacques Laffite Ligier-Matra 80 +1:22.884 14 2 6 35 Riccardo Patrese Arrows-Ford 79 +1 Lap 9 1 7 27 Alan Jones Williams-Ford 79 +1 Lap 8 8 14 Emerson Fittipaldi Fittipaldi-Ford 79 +1 Lap 15 9 36 Rolf Stommelen Arrows-Ford 79 +1 Lap 18 10 17 Clay Regazzoni Shadow-Ford 79 +1 Lap 20 11 10 Jean-Pierre Jarier ATS-Ford 75 +5 Laps 19 12 8 Patrick Tambay McLaren-Ford 74 Accident 11 20 Jody Scheckter Wolf-Ford 59 Accident 10 19 Vittorio Brambilla Surtees-Ford 50 Transmission 17 15 Jean-Pierre Jabouille Renault 43 Turbo 13 12 Gilles Villeneuve Ferrari 38 Accident 2 1 Niki Lauda Brabham-Alfa Romeo 27 Ignition 3 3 Didier Pironi Tyrrell-Ford 25 Gearbox 22 37 Arturo Merzario Merzario-Ford 17 Gearbox 21 9 Jochen Mass ATS-Ford 11 Brakes 16 2 John Watson Brabham-Alfa Romeo 9 Engine 5 7 James Hunt McLaren-Ford 5 Accident 7 18 Rupert Keegan Surtees-Ford Practice Accident 16 Hans-Joachim Stuck Shadow-Ford Practice Accident 30 Brett Lunger McLaren-Ford 22 Lamberto Leoni Ensign-Ford 32 Keke Rosberg Theodore-Ford 25 Héctor Rebaque Lotus-Ford 39 Danny Ongais Shadow-Ford 24 Derek Daly Hesketh-Ford
Notes
This was the Formula One World Championship debut for Irish driver Derek Daly. This was the 1st fastest lap set by Williams.
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 4 1 Carlos Reutemann 18 1 2 Mario Andretti 18 1 3 Ronnie Peterson 14 4 Patrick Depailler 14 2 5 Niki Lauda 10Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Lotus-Ford 27 2 2 Ferrari 18 3 Tyrrell-Ford 15 2 4 Brabham-Alfa Romeo 14 5 Fittipaldi-Ford 6Source:
Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
References
Further reading Rob Walker (July, 1978). "3rd United States Grand Prix West: Road Show". Road & Track, 135–140.