Race · Round 9 of 16 · 2 July 1978

1978 French Grand Prix

Mario Andretti won for Team Lotus from 2nd on the grid at Circuit Paul Ricard. 8 of the starters were not classified.

Circuit: Circuit Paul RicardLe Castellet, France
Winner: Mario AndrettiTeam Lotus
Pole: John Watson
Fastest lap: Carlos Reutemann
Entries: 2918 classified

Classification

Classification
Pos	Driver	Constructor	Chassis	Grid	Laps	Out	Points	FL
1	Mario Andretti	Team Lotus	—	2	54	Finished	9
2	Ronnie Peterson	Team Lotus	—	5	54	Finished	6
3	James Hunt	McLaren	M26	4	54	Finished	4
4	John Watson	Brabham	—	1	54	Finished	3
5	Alan Jones	Williams	FW06	14	54	Finished	2
6	Jody Scheckter	Walter Wolf Racing	—	7	54	Finished	1
7	Jacques Laffite	Ligier	—	10	54	Finished	0
8	Riccardo Patrese	Arrows	—	12	54	Finished	0
9	Patrick Tambay	McLaren	M26	6	54	Finished	0
10	Didier Pironi	Tyrrell	008	16	54	Finished	0
11	Hans-Joachim Stuck	Shadow	—	20	53	Finished	0
12	Gilles Villeneuve	Ferrari	—	9	53	Finished	0
13	Jochen Mass	ATS	—	25	53	Finished	0
14	Rene Arnoux	Martini	MK23	18	53	Finished	0
15	Rolf Stommelen	Arrows	—	21	53	Finished	0
16	Keke Rosberg	ATS	—	26	52	Finished	0
17	Vittorio Brambilla	Surtees	—	19	52	Finished	0
18	Carlos Reutemann	Ferrari	—	8	49	Finished	0	fastest lap
DNF	Brett Lunger	McLaren	—	24	45	Engine	0
DNF	Emerson Fittipaldi	Fittipaldi	F5A	15	43	Suspension	0
DNF	Rupert Keegan	Surtees	—	23	40	Engine	0
DNF	Bruno Giacomelli	McLaren	M26	22	28	Engine	0
DNF	Patrick Depailler	Tyrrell	008	13	10	Engine	0
DNF	Niki Lauda	Brabham	—	3	10	Engine	0
DNF	Clay Regazzoni	Shadow	—	17	4	Electrical	0
DNF	Jean-Pierre Jabouille	Renault	RS01	11	1	Engine	0
DNQ	Arturo Merzario	Merzario	A1	—	—	DNQ	0
DNQ	Derek Daly	Ensign	N177	—	—	DNQ	0
DNQ	Héctor Rebaque	Team Lotus	78	—	—	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 paul-ricard-1 · 5.809 km · 14 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	2	1	54
Ronnie Peterson	5	2	54
James Hunt	4	3	54
John Watson	1	4	54
Alan Jones	14	5	54
Jody Scheckter	7	6	54
Jacques Laffite	10	7	54
Riccardo Patrese	12	8	54
Patrick Tambay	6	9	54
Didier Pironi	16	10	54
Hans-Joachim Stuck	20	11	53
Gilles Villeneuve	9	12	53
Jochen Mass	25	13	53
Rene Arnoux	18	14	53
Rolf Stommelen	21	15	53
Keke Rosberg	26	16	52
Vittorio Brambilla	19	17	52
Carlos Reutemann	8	18	49
Brett Lunger	24	DNF	45
Emerson Fittipaldi	15	DNF	43
Rupert Keegan	23	DNF	40
Bruno Giacomelli	22	DNF	28
Patrick Depailler	13	DNF	10
Niki Lauda	3	DNF	10
Clay Regazzoni	17	DNF	4
Jean-Pierre Jabouille	11	DNF	1

Qualifying

Qualifying
Pos	Driver	Constructor	No.	Time	Gap	Interval
1	John Watson	Brabham	2	1:44.410	—	—
2	Mario Andretti	Team Lotus	5	1:44.460	+0.050	+0.050
3	Niki Lauda	Brabham	1	1:44.710	+0.300	+0.250
4	James Hunt	McLaren	7	1:44.920	+0.510	+0.210
5	Ronnie Peterson	Team Lotus	6	1:44.980	+0.570	+0.060
6	Patrick Tambay	McLaren	8	1:45.070	+0.660	+0.090
7	Jody Scheckter	Walter Wolf Racing	20	1:45.200	+0.790	+0.130
8	Carlos Reutemann	Ferrari	11	1:45.350	+0.940	+0.150
9	Gilles Villeneuve	Ferrari	12	1:45.550	+1.140	+0.200
10	Jacques Laffite	Ligier	26	1:45.680	+1.270	+0.130
11	Jean-Pierre Jabouille	Renault	15	1:45.730	+1.320	+0.050
12	Riccardo Patrese	Arrows	35	1:46.320	+1.910	+0.590
13	Patrick Depailler	Tyrrell	4	1:46.370	+1.960	+0.050
14	Alan Jones	Williams	27	1:46.400	+1.990	+0.030
15	Emerson Fittipaldi	Fittipaldi	14	1:46.700	+2.290	+0.300
16	Didier Pironi	Tyrrell	3	1:47.120	+2.710	+0.420
17	Clay Regazzoni	Shadow	17	1:48.550	+4.140	+1.430
18	Rene Arnoux	Martini	31	1:48.680	+4.270	+0.130
19	Vittorio Brambilla	Surtees	19	1:48.680	+4.270	+0.000
20	Hans-Joachim Stuck	Shadow	16	1:48.890	+4.480	+0.210
21	Rolf Stommelen	Arrows	36	1:49.140	+4.730	+0.250
22	Bruno Giacomelli	McLaren	33	1:49.530	+5.120	+0.390
23	Rupert Keegan	Surtees	18	1:49.540	+5.130	+0.010
24	Brett Lunger	McLaren	30	1:49.550	+5.140	+0.010
25	Jochen Mass	ATS	9	1:49.900	+5.490	+0.350
26	Keke Rosberg	ATS	10	1:50.090	+5.680	+0.190
27	Arturo Merzario	Merzario	37	1:50.110	+5.700	+0.020
28	Derek Daly	Ensign	22	1:50.190	+5.780	+0.080
29	Héctor Rebaque	Team Lotus	25	1:50.400	+5.990	+0.210

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.

Where this comes from

Round: 9 of 1978
Grand Prix: French Grand Prix
Dates: 2 Jul 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.