Race · Round 2 of 15 · 4 February 1979

1979 Brazilian Grand Prix

Jacques Laffite won for Ligier from pole at Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace (Interlagos). 9 of the starters were not classified.

Dry · High of 24 °C, 3.9 mm of rain on the day (modelled, Open-Meteo)

How it is modelled

ERA5's reanalysis, through Open-Meteo, of the circuit's whole local day and not the race's hours, for the grid cell the circuit sits in and not the track, so a shower can be missing from it. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026. Neither the European Commission nor ECMWF is responsible for any use that may be made of the Copernicus information or data it contains.

Circuit: Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace (Interlagos)Sao Paulo, Brazil
Winner: Jacques LaffiteLigier
Pole: Jacques Laffite
Fastest lap: Jacques Laffite
Entries: 2615 classified

Classification

Classification
Pos	Driver	Constructor	Chassis	Grid	Laps	Out	Points	FL
1	Jacques Laffite	Ligier	JS11	1	40	Finished	9	fastest lap
2	Patrick Depailler	Ligier	JS11	2	40	Finished	6
3	Carlos Reutemann	Team Lotus	—	3	40	Finished	4
4	Didier Pironi	Tyrrell	009	8	40	Finished	3
5	Gilles Villeneuve	Ferrari	—	5	39	Finished	2
6	Jody Scheckter	Ferrari	—	6	39	Finished	1
7	Jochen Mass	Arrows	—	19	39	Finished	0
8	John Watson	McLaren	—	14	39	Finished	0
9	Riccardo Patrese	Arrows	—	16	39	Finished	0
10	Jean-Pierre Jabouille	Renault	—	7	39	Finished	0
11	Emerson Fittipaldi	Fittipaldi	—	9	39	Finished	0
12	Elio de Angelis	Shadow	DN9	20	39	Finished	0
13	Derek Daly	Ensign	—	23	39	Finished	0
14	Jan Lammers	Shadow	DN9	21	39	Finished	0
15	Clay Regazzoni	Williams	—	17	38	Finished	0
DNF	Alan Jones	Williams	—	13	33	Fuel system	0
DNF	Hans-Joachim Stuck	ATS	—	24	31	Steering	0
DNF	Rene Arnoux	Renault	—	11	28	Spun off	0
DNF	Patrick Tambay	McLaren	—	18	7	Collision	0
DNF	James Hunt	Walter Wolf Racing	—	10	7	Steering	0
DNF	Nelson Piquet	Brabham	—	22	5	Accident	0
DNF	Niki Lauda	Brabham	—	12	5	Gearbox	0
DNF	Mario Andretti	Team Lotus	—	4	2	Fuel leak	0
DNF	Jean-Pierre Jarier	Tyrrell	009	15	0	Electrical	0
DNQ	Héctor Rebaque	Team Lotus	79	—	—	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 interlagos-1 · 7.873 km · 26 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
Jacques Laffite	1	1	40
Patrick Depailler	2	2	40
Carlos Reutemann	3	3	40
Didier Pironi	8	4	40
Gilles Villeneuve	5	5	39
Jody Scheckter	6	6	39
Jochen Mass	19	7	39
John Watson	14	8	39
Riccardo Patrese	16	9	39
Jean-Pierre Jabouille	7	10	39
Emerson Fittipaldi	9	11	39
Elio de Angelis	20	12	39
Derek Daly	23	13	39
Jan Lammers	21	14	39
Clay Regazzoni	17	15	38
Alan Jones	13	DNF	33
Hans-Joachim Stuck	24	DNF	31
Rene Arnoux	11	DNF	28
Patrick Tambay	18	DNF	7
James Hunt	10	DNF	7
Nelson Piquet	22	DNF	5
Niki Lauda	12	DNF	5
Mario Andretti	4	DNF	2
Jean-Pierre Jarier	15	DNF	0

Qualifying

Qualifying
Pos	Driver	Constructor	No.	Time	Gap	≈ Distance	Interval
1	Jacques Laffite	Ligier	26	2:23.070	—	0 m	—
2	Patrick Depailler	Ligier	25	2:23.990	+0.920	51 m	+0.920
3	Carlos Reutemann	Team Lotus	2	2:24.150	+1.080	60 m	+0.160
4	Mario Andretti	Team Lotus	1	2:24.280	+1.210	67 m	+0.130
5	Gilles Villeneuve	Ferrari	12	2:24.340	+1.270	71 m	+0.060
6	Jody Scheckter	Ferrari	11	2:24.480	+1.410	78 m	+0.140
7	Jean-Pierre Jabouille	Renault	15	2:24.850	+1.780	99 m	+0.370
8	Didier Pironi	Tyrrell	3	2:25.160	+2.090	116 m	+0.310
9	Emerson Fittipaldi	Fittipaldi	14	2:26.250	+3.180	177 m	+1.090
10	James Hunt	Walter Wolf Racing	20	2:26.370	+3.300	184 m	+0.120
11	Rene Arnoux	Renault	16	2:26.430	+3.360	187 m	+0.060
12	Niki Lauda	Brabham	5	2:27.570	+4.500	250 m	+1.140
13	Alan Jones	Williams	27	2:27.670	+4.600	256 m	+0.100
14	John Watson	McLaren	7	2:27.820	+4.750	264 m	+0.150
15	Jean-Pierre Jarier	Tyrrell	4	2:27.890	+4.820	268 m	+0.070
16	Riccardo Patrese	Arrows	29	2:28.080	+5.010	279 m	+0.190
17	Clay Regazzoni	Williams	28	2:28.880	+5.810	323 m	+0.800
18	Patrick Tambay	McLaren	8	2:29.390	+6.320	352 m	+0.510
19	Jochen Mass	Arrows	30	2:29.420	+6.350	353 m	+0.030
20	Elio de Angelis	Shadow	18	2:30.290	+7.220	402 m	+0.870
21	Jan Lammers	Shadow	17	2:31.600	+8.530	475 m	+1.310
22	Nelson Piquet	Brabham	6	2:31.640	+8.570	477 m	+0.040
23	Derek Daly	Ensign	22	2:31.780	+8.710	485 m	+0.140
24	Hans-Joachim Stuck	ATS	9	2:32.270	+9.200	512 m	+0.490
25	Héctor Rebaque	Team Lotus	31	2:32.660	+9.590	534 m	+0.390
26	Arturo Merzario	Merzario	24	2:34.080	+11.010	613 m	+1.420

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

How it is derived: distance

Distance at the session-best lap’s average speed, on the layout raced that year.

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.

Where this comes from

Round: 2 of 1979
Grand Prix: Brazilian Grand Prix
Dates: 4 Feb 1979
Layout raced: Original long circuit · 7.96 km · 26 turns
Format: Standard weekend
Constructor: Ligier
Entrant: Ligier-Ford
Confidence: reference

The layout raced and its figures are this register’s, from its own sources; the figures under the race’s drawing are F1DB’s, and at some circuits the two disagree.