";s:4:"text";s:5546:" The two Ferraris were out ahead and interest centered on the battle for third with Jarier under pressure from Depailler, Andretti and Jones.
Scheckter was left behind and started at the very back of the field. The McLaren M28 is a Formula One racing car built and run by McLaren in the 1979 Formula One World Championship.Powered by a naturally-aspirated Ford Cosworth 3-litre engine, the M28 was designed and wind tunnel tested during the latter half of 1978, at around the same time as Ronnie Peterson was mooted to join the team for the following season. After Peterson was killed McLaren turned to John Watson, who was out of work having been dropped by Brabham. The engine was however very powerful. Tyrrell was struggling for money as Elf had decided to put its money behind Renault and First National City Travelers Checks had decided not to continue. With Laffite having spun off because of a puncture, Reutemann moved to fifth.
Piquet then took the place but he too suffered engine failure and so the position went to John Watson (McLaren) with Jochen Mass of Arrows in sixth place, just ahead of Lees.
Behind then Villeneuve grabbed third while Laffite made a good start to get into fourth place.
Later in the race Jabouille dropped away with engine trouble and Laffite stopped with a similar problem and so third place went to Regazzoni with Lauda, Andretti and Jarier picking up the other points. Jones shadowed Villeneuve for the early part of the race and eventually slipped ahead at the hairpin, the two cars banging wheels.
After another long break, this time for three weeks, the Spanish Grand Prix was next, at the tight and twisty Jarama circuit near the Spanish capital of Madrid, starting a trilogy of Grands Prix at tight and twisty circuits. The chicane didn't slow down the cars much and the new corner proved to be more of a nuisance than a reduction in danger. Renault's first victory and the first for a turbocharged engine marked an important turning point in F1 history. With the 'M28' introduced at the start of the 1979 season, McLaren were among the very last of the top teams in Formula 1 to embrace 'ground effect' aerodynamics. With ATS withdrawing Hans Stuck because of a fight with Goodyear only Gaillard and Merzario failed to qualify. On Saturday, during one of the periods when it stopped raining and the track dried out, Jones took pole again from Nelson Piquet in the new Brabham BT49 in his first ever visit to Watkins Glen. Jabouille's challenge faded with his tires and on lap 17 Regazzoni moved to second place and Jabouille then headed for the pits. The order settled for a while and then Laffite slipped ahead of Jones and on lap 19 took the lead. The Williams driver managed to get ahead of Andretti and all three then overtook Jarier and so as the race went into its closing stages Jones was challenging Depailler. Zunino qualified 19th and Hector Rebaque put his own HR100 chassis 22nd. F1 arrived at the beach-side Zandvoort circuit near Amsterdam, and the fast Zandvoort circuit had been modified with an awkward chicane placed between both of the most dangerous parts of the track, the very fast Hondenvlak and Tunnel Oost corners.
The tenth race of the year was held in Germany, and on the ultra-fast, straight dominated Hockenheim circuit near Stuttgart, where the entry was the same as it had been at Silverstone. Since the dominant Ligier performances in South America the opposition had been working hard to perfect ground-effect technolog. As usual the Renaults were slow off the line and so Scheckter grabbed the lead from Arnoux. For the next few laps it was quiet as Villeneuve closed the gap to the leader while Lauda ran third under pressure from Depailler, Laffite, Pironi, Jones and the rest. The entry was the same as it had been in Hockenheim but there had been a change at Tyrrell with Derek Daly being brought in to stand-in for the unwell Jean-Pierre Jarier. The next race was the illustrious Monaco GP, Jody Scheckter's victory in Belgium had moved the South African to the top of the standings in the World Championship with 25 points but he was only a point clear of Jacques Laffite with Lotus's Carlos Reutemann (21) and Gilles Villeneuve and Patrick Depailler (20 apiece). Piquet ran fourth but then moved ahead of Regazzoni to take third. Jones's hopes of victory ended on lap 40 with electrical failure and as Laffite had fallen behind Depailler again it was the second Ligier driver who went back into the lead until lap 47 when he understeered off into the barriers at the first corner and Laffite went back into the lead. Pironi got ahead but then spun and found himself behind again.
Arnoux's lead lasted until lap 13 when Arnoux's car began to misfire and he dropped away leaving Scheckter, Villeneuve, Laffite and Jabouille by themselves. The second row featured the Lotuses of Carlos Reutemann and Mario Andretti and the third row featured the Ferraris of Gilles Villeneuve and Jody Scheckter. Clay Regazzoni finished 3rd, ahead of Lauda, Andretti and Jarier. Arrows hired Jochen Mass to partner Riccardo Patrese and continued with the A1 chassis, although the bullet-nosed A2 was under development. Behind them came Scheckter and Fittipaldi.
At the start Jones took the lead but Arnoux found himself in a sandwich with Regazzoni on the inside and Jabouille and Villeneuve on the outside.