Race · Round 1 of 16 · 15 January 1978

1978 Argentine Grand Prix

Mario Andretti won for Team Lotus from pole at Autodromo Oscar Galvez. 6 of the starters were not classified.

Circuit: Autodromo Oscar GalvezBuenos Aires, Argentina
Winner: Mario AndrettiTeam Lotus
Pole: Mario Andretti
Fastest lap: Gilles Villeneuve
Entries: 2718 classified

Classification

Classification
Pos	Driver	Constructor	Chassis	Grid	Laps	Out	Points	FL
1	Mario Andretti	Team Lotus	—	1	52	Finished	9
2	Niki Lauda	Brabham	—	5	52	Finished	6
3	Patrick Depailler	Tyrrell	008	10	52	Finished	4
4	James Hunt	McLaren	M26	6	52	Finished	3
5	Ronnie Peterson	Team Lotus	—	3	52	Finished	2
6	Patrick Tambay	McLaren	M26	9	52	Finished	1
7	Carlos Reutemann	Ferrari	—	2	52	Finished	0
8	Gilles Villeneuve	Ferrari	—	7	52	Finished	0	fastest lap
9	Emerson Fittipaldi	Fittipaldi	F5A	17	52	Finished	0
10	Jody Scheckter	Walter Wolf Racing	—	15	52	Finished	0
11	Jochen Mass	ATS	—	13	52	Finished	0
12	Jean-Pierre Jarier	ATS	—	11	51	Finished	0
13	Brett Lunger	McLaren	—	24	51	Finished	0
14	Didier Pironi	Tyrrell	008	23	51	Finished	0
15	Clay Regazzoni	Shadow	—	16	51	Finished	0
16	Jacques Laffite	Ligier	—	8	50	Engine	0
17	Hans-Joachim Stuck	Shadow	—	18	50	Finished	0
18	Vittorio Brambilla	Surtees	—	12	50	Finished	0
DNF	John Watson	Brabham	—	4	41	Engine	0
DNF	Alan Jones	Williams	FW06	14	36	Fuel system	0
DNF	Danny Ongais	Ensign	N177	21	35	Distributor	0
DNF	Lamberto Leoni	Ensign	N177	22	28	Engine	0
DNF	Arturo Merzario	Merzario	A1	20	9	Differential	0
DNF	Rupert Keegan	Surtees	—	19	4	Overheating	0
DNQ	Héctor Rebaque	Team Lotus	78	—	—	DNQ	0
DNQ	Eddie Cheever	Theodore	TR1	—	—	DNQ	0
DNQ	Divina Galica	Hesketh	308E	—	—	DNQ	0

A blank chassis is a season the team ran more than one design and no source says which car raced here.

F1DB layout buenos-aires-3 · 5.968 km · 16 turns, F1DB’s figures
F1DB, CC BY 4.0 · drawn by Jules Roy
The outline is F1DB’s, for every layout; the trace is OpenStreetMap’s, where it exists.

Grid to flag

Lines run from grid slot to result, ending at the last lap completed. A dashed line ending in a cross is a driver not classified. Nothing between is recorded, so a crossing is not an overtake at that lap.

Grid to flag
Driver	Grid	Result	Laps
Mario Andretti	1	1	52
Niki Lauda	5	2	52
Patrick Depailler	10	3	52
James Hunt	6	4	52
Ronnie Peterson	3	5	52
Patrick Tambay	9	6	52
Carlos Reutemann	2	7	52
Gilles Villeneuve	7	8	52
Emerson Fittipaldi	17	9	52
Jody Scheckter	15	10	52
Jochen Mass	13	11	52
Jean-Pierre Jarier	11	12	51
Brett Lunger	24	13	51
Didier Pironi	23	14	51
Clay Regazzoni	16	15	51
Jacques Laffite	8	16	50
Hans-Joachim Stuck	18	17	50
Vittorio Brambilla	12	18	50
John Watson	4	DNF	41
Alan Jones	14	DNF	36
Danny Ongais	21	DNF	35
Lamberto Leoni	22	DNF	28
Arturo Merzario	20	DNF	9
Rupert Keegan	19	DNF	4

Qualifying

Qualifying
Pos	Driver	Constructor	No.	Time	Gap	Interval
1	Mario Andretti	Team Lotus	5	1:47.750	—	—
2	Carlos Reutemann	Ferrari	11	1:47.840	+0.090	+0.090
3	Ronnie Peterson	Team Lotus	6	1:48.390	+0.640	+0.550
4	John Watson	Brabham	2	1:48.420	+0.670	+0.030
5	Niki Lauda	Brabham	1	1:48.700	+0.950	+0.280
6	James Hunt	McLaren	7	1:48.720	+0.970	+0.020
7	Gilles Villeneuve	Ferrari	12	1:48.970	+1.220	+0.250
8	Jacques Laffite	Ligier	26	1:49.130	+1.380	+0.160
9	Patrick Tambay	McLaren	8	1:49.470	+1.720	+0.340
10	Patrick Depailler	Tyrrell	4	1:49.690	+1.940	+0.220
11	Jean-Pierre Jarier	ATS	10	1:49.770	+2.020	+0.080
12	Vittorio Brambilla	Surtees	19	1:49.910	+2.160	+0.140
13	Jochen Mass	ATS	9	1:50.060	+2.310	+0.150
14	Alan Jones	Williams	27	1:50.110	+2.360	+0.050
15	Jody Scheckter	Walter Wolf Racing	20	1:50.350	+2.600	+0.240
16	Clay Regazzoni	Shadow	17	1:50.450	+2.700	+0.100
17	Emerson Fittipaldi	Fittipaldi	14	1:50.820	+3.070	+0.370
18	Hans-Joachim Stuck	Shadow	16	1:51.160	+3.410	+0.340
19	Rupert Keegan	Surtees	18	1:51.420	+3.670	+0.260
20	Arturo Merzario	Merzario	37	1:51.680	+3.930	+0.260
21	Danny Ongais	Ensign	22	1:51.710	+3.960	+0.030
22	Lamberto Leoni	Ensign	23	1:51.940	+4.190	+0.230
23	Didier Pironi	Tyrrell	3	1:51.990	+4.240	+0.050
24	Brett Lunger	McLaren	30	1:52.270	+4.520	+0.280
25	Héctor Rebaque	Team Lotus	25	1:52.520	+4.770	+0.250
26	Eddie Cheever	Theodore	32	1:53.250	+5.500	+0.730
27	Divina Galica	Hesketh	24	1:56.690	+8.940	+3.440

Before knock-out qualifying arrived in 2006 there is one time per driver; from 2006, the best lap of each of the three sessions.

Pit stops

Pit stops are recorded from 1994. F1DB, the source of every stop here, holds none before then, so this race has no stints to draw.

Photographs from this race

Filed on Wikimedia Commons under this race's own category, each shown with the photographer and licence its terms require. The filing is the Commons editors' and has not been checked here.

At the 1978 Argentine Grand Prix — 1978 Argentine Grand Prix Reutemann · Revista Corsa · Public domain

Everything filed under 1978 Argentine Grand Prix on Wikimedia Commons

The cars in this race

The photograph each car's Wikipedia article leads with, from Wikimedia Commons: taken wherever and whenever that was, not necessarily at this race.

A photograph marked unchecked has a file name that does not name the car it is shown for. Most are still the right car, filed under the driver rather than the machine — but nobody has confirmed these one by one.

Where this comes from

Round: 1 of 1978
Grand Prix: Argentine Grand Prix
Dates: 15 Jan 1978
Layout raced: —
Format: Standard weekend
Constructor: Team Lotus
Entrant: Lotus-Ford
Confidence: reference

No layout is recorded for this round: this register has no layout timeline for the circuit, and a blank here is better than a guess.