Race · Round 3 of 15 · 3 March 1979

1979 South African Grand Prix

Gilles Villeneuve won for Ferrari from 3rd on the grid at Kyalami. 10 of the starters were not classified.

Circuit: KyalamiMidrand, South Africa
Winner: Gilles VilleneuveFerrari
Pole: Jean-Pierre Jabouille
Fastest lap: Gilles Villeneuve
Entries: 2614 classified

Classification

Classification
Pos	Driver	Constructor	Chassis	Grid	Laps	Out	Points	FL
1	Gilles Villeneuve	Ferrari	—	3	78	Finished	9	fastest lap
2	Jody Scheckter	Ferrari	—	2	78	Finished	6
3	Jean-Pierre Jarier	Tyrrell	009	9	78	Finished	4
4	Mario Andretti	Team Lotus	—	8	78	Finished	3
5	Carlos Reutemann	Team Lotus	—	11	78	Finished	2
6	Niki Lauda	Brabham	—	4	77	Finished	1
7	Nelson Piquet	Brabham	—	12	77	Finished	0
8	James Hunt	Walter Wolf Racing	—	13	77	Finished	0
9	Clay Regazzoni	Williams	—	22	76	Finished	0
10	Patrick Tambay	McLaren	—	17	75	Finished	0
11	Riccardo Patrese	Arrows	—	16	75	Finished	0
12	Jochen Mass	Arrows	—	20	74	Finished	0
13	Emerson Fittipaldi	Fittipaldi	—	18	74	Finished	0
14	Héctor Rebaque	Team Lotus	79	23	71	Engine	0
DNF	Rene Arnoux	Renault	—	10	67	Tyre	0
DNF	Alan Jones	Williams	—	19	63	Suspension	0
DNF	John Watson	McLaren	—	14	61	Ignition	0
DNF	Hans-Joachim Stuck	ATS	—	24	57	Accident	0
DNF	Jean-Pierre Jabouille	Renault	—	1	47	Engine	0
DNF	Jacques Laffite	Ligier	JS11	6	45	Accident	0
DNF	Didier Pironi	Tyrrell	009	7	25	Throttle	0
DNF	Elio de Angelis	Shadow	DN9	15	16	Accident	0
DNF	Patrick Depailler	Ligier	JS11	5	4	Accident	0
DNF	Jan Lammers	Shadow	DN9	21	2	Accident	0
DNQ	Derek Daly	Ensign	—	—	—	DNQ	0
DNQ	Arturo Merzario	Merzario	—	—	—	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
Gilles Villeneuve	3	1	78
Jody Scheckter	2	2	78
Jean-Pierre Jarier	9	3	78
Mario Andretti	8	4	78
Carlos Reutemann	11	5	78
Niki Lauda	4	6	77
Nelson Piquet	12	7	77
James Hunt	13	8	77
Clay Regazzoni	22	9	76
Patrick Tambay	17	10	75
Riccardo Patrese	16	11	75
Jochen Mass	20	12	74
Emerson Fittipaldi	18	13	74
Héctor Rebaque	23	14	71
Rene Arnoux	10	DNF	67
Alan Jones	19	DNF	63
John Watson	14	DNF	61
Hans-Joachim Stuck	24	DNF	57
Jean-Pierre Jabouille	1	DNF	47
Jacques Laffite	6	DNF	45
Didier Pironi	7	DNF	25
Elio de Angelis	15	DNF	16
Patrick Depailler	5	DNF	4
Jan Lammers	21	DNF	2

Qualifying

Qualifying
Pos	Driver	Constructor	No.	Time	Gap	Interval
1	Jean-Pierre Jabouille	Renault	15	1:11.800	—	—
2	Jody Scheckter	Ferrari	11	1:12.040	+0.240	+0.240
3	Gilles Villeneuve	Ferrari	12	1:12.070	+0.270	+0.030
4	Niki Lauda	Brabham	5	1:12.120	+0.320	+0.050
5	Patrick Depailler	Ligier	25	1:12.150	+0.350	+0.030
6	Jacques Laffite	Ligier	26	1:12.260	+0.460	+0.110
7	Didier Pironi	Tyrrell	3	1:12.330	+0.530	+0.070
8	Mario Andretti	Team Lotus	1	1:12.360	+0.560	+0.030
9	Jean-Pierre Jarier	Tyrrell	4	1:12.550	+0.750	+0.190
10	Rene Arnoux	Renault	16	1:12.690	+0.890	+0.140
11	Carlos Reutemann	Team Lotus	2	1:12.750	+0.950	+0.060
12	Nelson Piquet	Brabham	6	1:13.070	+1.270	+0.320
13	James Hunt	Walter Wolf Racing	20	1:14.210	+2.410	+1.140
14	John Watson	McLaren	7	1:14.440	+2.640	+0.230
15	Elio de Angelis	Shadow	18	1:14.440	+2.640	+0.000
16	Riccardo Patrese	Arrows	29	1:14.540	+2.740	+0.100
17	Patrick Tambay	McLaren	8	1:14.580	+2.780	+0.040
18	Emerson Fittipaldi	Fittipaldi	14	1:14.610	+2.810	+0.030
19	Alan Jones	Williams	27	1:14.640	+2.840	+0.030
20	Jochen Mass	Arrows	30	1:15.000	+3.200	+0.360
21	Jan Lammers	Shadow	17	1:15.350	+3.550	+0.350
22	Clay Regazzoni	Williams	28	1:15.680	+3.880	+0.330
23	Héctor Rebaque	Team Lotus	31	1:16.150	+4.350	+0.470
24	Hans-Joachim Stuck	ATS	9	1:16.310	+4.510	+0.160
25	Derek Daly	Ensign	22	1:16.640	+4.840	+0.330
26	Arturo Merzario	Merzario	24	1:18.140	+6.340	+1.500

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.

Everything filed under 1979 South African 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.

Where this comes from

Round: 3 of 1979
Grand Prix: South African Grand Prix
Dates: 3 Mar 1979
Layout raced: —
Format: Standard weekend
Constructor: Ferrari
Entrant: Ferrari
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.