1979 United States Grand Prix
| Race details | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 15 of 15 in the 1979 Formula One season | |||
 |
|||
| Date | October 7, 1979 | ||
| Official name | XXII Toyota United States Grand Prix | ||
| Location |
Watkins Glen Grand Prix Race Course Watkins Glen, New York |
||
| Course | Permanent road course | ||
| Course length | 5.435 km (3.377 mi) | ||
| Distance | 59 laps, 320.67 km (199.24 mi) | ||
| Weather | Rain with temperatures reaching a maximum of 59 °F (15 °C); wind speeds up to 15 miles per hour (24 km/h) | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | Williams-Ford | ||
| Time | 1:35.615 | ||
| Fastest lap | |||
| Driver |
 Nelson Piquet
|
Brabham-Ford | |
| Time | 1:40.054 on lap 51 | ||
| Podium | |||
| First | Ferrari | ||
| Second | Renault | ||
| Third | Tyrrell-Ford | ||
The 1979 United States Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on October 7, 1979, at the Watkins Glen Grand Prix Race Course in Watkins Glen, New York. This event was also referred to as the United States Grand Prix East in order to distinguish it from the United States Grand Prix West held on April 8, 1979, in Long Beach, California.
This was the final Formula One race for the 1969 and 1970 championship runner-up Jacky Ickx and former Brabham driver Hans-Joachim Stuck.
By the time the teams got to Watkins Glen for the last race of the 1979 season, Jody Scheckter and his Ferrari team had already clinched the Driver's and Constructor's championships. It would be the South African's only title. Scheckter's Canadian teammate Gilles Villeneuve won at Watkins Glen by a comfortable margin on the rainy track, and took second in the Championship.
On Friday, the rain was heavy enough all day that only a few cars made any serious attempt at a lap time. Of the six that did actually record a time, Villeneuve was fastest by over nine seconds.
Saturday started bright and sunny, and Alan Jones topped the charts in his Williams for the entire session. He ended up 1.3 seconds quicker than the Brabham of Brazilian Nelson Piquet, who gained the front row in his first drive at Watkins Glen. The new World Champion, Scheckter, had trouble with the engine in his race car and traffic with his spare and ended up sixteenth, one spot ahead of the previous season's champion, Mario Andretti.
The forecast for Sunday was a fifty percent chance of rain. About twenty minutes before the start, the rain came, and all but two of the cars started with rain tires. The two were Nelson Piquet and Mario Andretti, who, in seventeenth spot on the grid, had nothing to lose by the gamble.
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