While Scheckter's Wolf was able to rejoin the track well ahead of the bunching pack, Patrese moved back in just ahead of James Hunt, who feinted left and collided with Peterson, with Vittorio Brambilla, Carlos Reutemann, Hans-Joachim Stuck, Patrick Depailler, Didier Pironi, Derek Daly, Clay Regazzoni and Brett Lunger all involved in the ensuing melee.

Pironi lifted his hand to signal the problem, but there was no action for signalling the yellow to abort the start.

James Hunt was overtaken on the right hand side by Riccardo Patrese and Hunt instinctly veered left and hit the rear right wheel of Peterson's Lotus 78, with Vittorio Brambilla, Hans-Joachim Stuck, Patrick Depailler, Didier Pironi, Derek Daly, Clay Regazzoni and Brett Lunger all involved in the ensuing melee.

Daly moved back up to 6th on lap 33 when Jones dropped back even further with his own technical problems, but the Irishman was under severe pressure from Didier Pironi in the other Tyrrell.

The recovering Depailler fought his way past first team mate Pironi and then Derek Daly to take back 6th place on laps 47 and 48, just when trouble was beginning for fellow Frenchman Jean-Pierre Jarier, leading the race for Lotus, which first became apparent when Jacques Laffite was able to unlap himself in the Ligier.

Laffite's Ligier team mate Didier Pironi was third, completing an all France podium.

The race was won by French driver Didier Pironi driving a Ligier JS11 / 15.

Piquet was one point behind Jones with Pironi just one point further behind.

Jones took up the lead again until Pironi forced his way into a lead which was clouded over a jumped start for which he was eventually assigned a 60 second penalty.

Didier Pironi held the lead until late in the race, before dropping back due to mechanical trouble, and was passed by Nelson Piquet, who eventually won the race.

The prelude to the race was notable for a strike action by the Grand Prix Drivers ' Association, led by Niki Lauda and Didier Pironi, in protest at the new superlicense conditions imposed by FISA, which would have tied the drivers to a single team for up to three years.

Villeneuve believed that Pironi was simply trying to spice up an otherwise dull race, and duly re-passed his teammate, assuming that he would then hold station for the remainder of the race.

He was quoted afterwards as saying, " I'll never speak to Pironi again in my life.

Some suggest that he was specifically aiming to beat Pironi due to bitterness at being passed by him two weeks earlier in the closing stages of San Marino, when Villeneuve believed Pironi had been ordered to remain behind him.

This was the first race following the death of Gilles Villeneuve at the Belgian Grand Prix ; consequently Ferrari entered only one driver, Didier Pironi.

Riccardo Paletti was killed at the start of the race, when his car ran into the back of the stationary Ferrari of Didier Pironi who had stalled on the grid.

Didier Pironi set the fastest practice time, but was seriously injured in qualifying for this Grand Prix and never raced in Formula One again.

With the track wet thanks to persistent showers, Pironi was on a quick lap when his Ferrari hit the back of Alain Prost's slow moving Renault at high speed, vaulting over the top of it.

Since Ferrari never withdrew the injured Pironi, pole position was left empty at the start.

De Angelis joyfully celebrated his maiden win, while Rosberg had boosted his championship chances despite missing out on his maiden win by such an agonizingly small margin, moving ahead of John Watson into second place in the championship, which was effectively the lead as the official championship leader Didier Pironi was out for the rest of the season with leg injuries.

Then, almost the length of the pit straight back, was Pironi, who had traded places with Villeneuve ( fifth and third ) but was now holding up a line of cars as Piquet desperately tried to get by.

Prost continued to fall back and eventually pitted, while a furious dice continued behind Rosberg, now over second place, between Pironi, Giacomelli, Cheever and Lauda.

Meanwhile, Lauda, inspired perhaps by his teammate, had passed both Cheever and Pironi, and now also approached Rosberg.

The accident came less than two weeks after an intense argument with his team-mate, Didier Pironi, over Pironi's move to pass Villeneuve at the preceding San Marino Grand Prix.

At the 1982 Monaco Grand Prix Didier Pironi retired on the final lap with electrical trouble on his Ferrari.

The departure of Alesi and Berger from Ferrari to Benetton also spelt the end of the number 27 and 28 era for Ferrari that stretched back to 1981 with Gilles Villeneuve and Didier Pironi only interrupted by the signing of 1989 world champion Alain Prost for the 1990 season.

There were uncharacteristically bad performances from Reutemann, who took third in the championship with Ferrari, but could only qualify 11th, and the Tyrrells of Patrick Depailler and Didier Pironi, both also regular points scorers but down in 13th and 18th.

Pole-sitter Jabouille had made a poor start and dropped to fourth, with both Ligier JS11 / 15s and Gilles Villeneuve in his Ferrari 312T5 getting past ; however, Jabouille's horsepower advantage on the high-altitude circuit meant that he passed both Ligiers ; Jacques Laffite immediately on the Retao straight, Didier Pironi at the fast Arquibacanas corner before the pit straight at the end of the first lap and took the lead from Villeneuve at the end of the Reta Oposta into the Curva do Sol.

Despite the Renaults of René Arnoux and Alain Prost qualifying 1-2, their cars failed in the race leaving Ferrari occupying the top two positions with Gilles Villeneuve leading Didier Pironi.

Villeneuve believed this order also meant that the cars were to maintain position on the track, with Villeneuve ahead of Pironi.

On the last lap, Didier Pironi led into the tunnel and ran out of fuel, Andrea de Cesaris also ran out of fuel before he could take over the lead, and Derek Daly, the next leader, already had a car with no front or back wing-and then a damaged gearbox which seized up before he could start the final lap.

Pironi and de Cesaris were classified 2nd and 3rd, with Daly sixth.

It had been a tragic season with the deaths of Gilles Villeneuve and Riccardo Paletti, and the career-ending injuries of Didier Pironi.

The team became highly successful in the early 1980s with Laffite, Patrick Depailler and Didier Pironi driving.

Lap 17 was a bad one for Ferrari as Piquet finally passed Pironi for fourth, and Villeneuve retired with a broken driveshaft.

Laffite's retirement interrupted an extended battle with Pironi, Cheever and Andretti for fourth place.

Andretti passed Cheever for fifth on lap 43, then traded fourth several times with Pironi, before finally taking the position for good on lap 54.

On lap 21, Rosberg caught up with Pironi and tried to overtake on the inside.

Pironi was able to continue, but, while Rosberg made it back to the pits, he retired there with a damaged gearbox.

Jones won by four seconds over his Argentinian team mate Carlos Reutemann with French driver Didier Pironi finishing third in his Ligier JS11 / 15.

Jean-Pierre Jabouille's Renault RE20 broke its transmission at the start and Jones picked his way past Pironi then the second Renault of René Arnoux before finally catching Laffite on lap 34.

Jones expanded his lead out to six points over Piquet but more significantly 14 points ahead of René Arnoux and Pironi.

They were followed by René Arnoux in the other Renault, Jones's Argentine teammate Carlos Reutemann, French driver Jacques Laffite, Brazilian Nelson Piquet ( Brabham BT49 ), Frenchman Didier Pironi ( Ligier JS11 / 15 ), and Finn Keke Rosberg in a Fittipaldi F8.

Ferrari and Renault retained their race-winning line ups of Villeneuve and Didier Pironi and Alain Prost and René Arnoux, respectively.

Prost again took the lead off the grid, and one lap later he led Rosberg, Pironi, Giacomelli, Cheever, René Arnoux, Lauda and Mansell.

At the end of the first lap, de Cesaris led by two seconds, followed by Arnoux, Lauda, Bruno Giacomelli, Villeneuve, Alain Prost, Didier Pironi, Rosberg, Piquet, Michele Alboreto, John Watson, Cheever and Andretti.

After one lap, the order was Villeneuve, Jones, Carlos Reutemann, Jacques Laffite, Jean-Pierre Jabouille, Clay Regazzoni, René Arnoux, Didier Pironi, John Watson and Jean-Pierre Jarier.

Arnoux lost two positions, to fifth, when he pitted for tires, but regained third place, ahead of Daly and Pironi, in just two laps.