Race · Round 3 of 16 · 4 March 1978

1978 South African Grand Prix

Ronnie Peterson won for Team Lotus from 11th on the grid at Kyalami. 14 of the starters were not classified.

Circuit: KyalamiMidrand, South Africa
Winner: Ronnie PetersonTeam Lotus
Pole: Niki Lauda
Fastest lap: Mario Andretti
Entries: 3012 classified

Classification

Classification
Pos	Driver	Constructor	Chassis	Grid	Laps	Out	Points	FL
1	Ronnie Peterson	Team Lotus	—	11	78	Finished	9
2	Patrick Depailler	Tyrrell	008	12	78	Finished	6
3	John Watson	Brabham	—	10	78	Finished	4
4	Alan Jones	Williams	FW06	18	78	Finished	3
5	Jacques Laffite	Ligier	—	14	78	Finished	2
6	Didier Pironi	Tyrrell	008	13	77	Finished	1
7	Mario Andretti	Team Lotus	—	2	77	Finished	0	fastest lap
8	Jean-Pierre Jarier	ATS	—	17	77	Finished	0
9	Rolf Stommelen	Arrows	—	21	77	Finished	0
10	Héctor Rebaque	Team Lotus	78	22	77	Finished	0
11	Brett Lunger	McLaren	—	19	76	Finished	0
12	Vittorio Brambilla	Surtees	—	20	76	Finished	0
DNF	Riccardo Patrese	Arrows	—	7	63	Engine	0
DNF	Jody Scheckter	Walter Wolf Racing	—	5	59	Spun off	0
DNF	Patrick Tambay	McLaren	M26	4	56	Accident	0
DNF	Carlos Reutemann	Ferrari	—	9	55	Spun off	0
DNF	Gilles Villeneuve	Ferrari	—	8	55	Oil leak	0
DNF	Niki Lauda	Brabham	—	1	52	Engine	0
DNF	Rupert Keegan	Surtees	—	23	52	Engine	0
DNF	Jochen Mass	ATS	—	16	43	Engine	0
DNF	Arturo Merzario	Merzario	A1	26	39	Suspension	0
DNF	Jean-Pierre Jabouille	Renault	RS01	6	38	Engine	0
DNF	Keke Rosberg	Theodore	TR1	24	15	Clutch	0
DNF	Emerson Fittipaldi	Fittipaldi	F5A	15	8	Transmission	0
DNF	Eddie Cheever	Hesketh	308E	25	8	Oil leak	0
DNF	James Hunt	McLaren	M26	3	5	Engine	0
DNQ	Rene Arnoux	Martini	MK23	—	—	DNQ	0
DNQ	Clay Regazzoni	Shadow	—	—	—	DNQ	0
DNQ	Lamberto Leoni	Ensign	N177	—	—	DNQ	0
DNQ	Hans-Joachim Stuck	Shadow	—	—	—	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 kyalami-1 · 4.094 km · 9 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
Ronnie Peterson	11	1	78
Patrick Depailler	12	2	78
John Watson	10	3	78
Alan Jones	18	4	78
Jacques Laffite	14	5	78
Didier Pironi	13	6	77
Mario Andretti	2	7	77
Jean-Pierre Jarier	17	8	77
Rolf Stommelen	21	9	77
Héctor Rebaque	22	10	77
Brett Lunger	19	11	76
Vittorio Brambilla	20	12	76
Riccardo Patrese	7	DNF	63
Jody Scheckter	5	DNF	59
Patrick Tambay	4	DNF	56
Carlos Reutemann	9	DNF	55
Gilles Villeneuve	8	DNF	55
Niki Lauda	1	DNF	52
Rupert Keegan	23	DNF	52
Jochen Mass	16	DNF	43
Arturo Merzario	26	DNF	39
Jean-Pierre Jabouille	6	DNF	38
Keke Rosberg	24	DNF	15
Emerson Fittipaldi	15	DNF	8
Eddie Cheever	25	DNF	8
James Hunt	3	DNF	5

Qualifying

Qualifying
Pos	Driver	Constructor	No.	Time	Gap	Interval
1	Niki Lauda	Brabham	1	1:14.650	—	—
2	Mario Andretti	Team Lotus	5	1:14.900	+0.250	+0.250
3	James Hunt	McLaren	7	1:15.140	+0.490	+0.240
4	Patrick Tambay	McLaren	8	1:15.300	+0.650	+0.160
5	Jody Scheckter	Walter Wolf Racing	20	1:15.320	+0.670	+0.020
6	Jean-Pierre Jabouille	Renault	15	1:15.360	+0.710	+0.040
7	Riccardo Patrese	Arrows	35	1:15.480	+0.830	+0.120
8	Gilles Villeneuve	Ferrari	12	1:15.500	+0.850	+0.020
9	Carlos Reutemann	Ferrari	11	1:15.520	+0.870	+0.020
10	John Watson	Brabham	2	1:15.620	+0.970	+0.100
11	Ronnie Peterson	Team Lotus	6	1:15.940	+1.290	+0.320
12	Patrick Depailler	Tyrrell	4	1:15.970	+1.320	+0.030
13	Didier Pironi	Tyrrell	3	1:16.380	+1.730	+0.410
14	Jacques Laffite	Ligier	26	1:16.400	+1.750	+0.020
15	Emerson Fittipaldi	Fittipaldi	14	1:16.470	+1.820	+0.070
16	Jochen Mass	ATS	9	1:16.600	+1.950	+0.130
17	Jean-Pierre Jarier	ATS	10	1:17.120	+2.470	+0.520
18	Alan Jones	Williams	27	1:17.160	+2.510	+0.040
19	Brett Lunger	McLaren	30	1:17.300	+2.650	+0.140
20	Vittorio Brambilla	Surtees	19	1:17.320	+2.670	+0.020
21	Rolf Stommelen	Arrows	36	1:17.490	+2.840	+0.170
22	Héctor Rebaque	Team Lotus	25	1:17.500	+2.850	+0.010
23	Rupert Keegan	Surtees	18	1:17.570	+2.920	+0.070
24	Keke Rosberg	Theodore	32	1:17.620	+2.970	+0.050
25	Eddie Cheever	Hesketh	24	1:17.830	+3.180	+0.210
26	Arturo Merzario	Merzario	37	1:18.150	+3.500	+0.320
27	Rene Arnoux	Martini	31	1:18.210	+3.560	+0.060
28	Clay Regazzoni	Shadow	17	1:18.300	+3.650	+0.090
29	Lamberto Leoni	Ensign	22	1:18.380	+3.730	+0.080
30	Hans-Joachim Stuck	Shadow	16	1:18.450	+3.800	+0.070

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.

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.

1 more photograph

Where this comes from

Round: 3 of 1978
Grand Prix: South African Grand Prix
Dates: 4 Mar 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.