Depailler has first win
NZPA-Reuter Monte Carlo
Patrick Depailler finally realised his potential as a top-class racing driver by winning the Monaco grand prix yesterday, his first Formula One success in 68 attempts. The 33-y ear-old Frenchhad always threatened to perform well since he started grand prix racing in 1972 but he was dogged by constant bad luck. Before yesterday’s win he had been second in seven grand prix races. Often victory slipped through his fingers at the very last moment and he began to think he was doomed to be the eternal runner-up.
But his Monaco victory has given him a great boost as well as hoisting him to the top of the current world
drivers’ championship. With five of the 16 grand prix races over he has 23 points, five more than Carlos Reutemann (Argentina) and Mario Andretti (U.S.). The Frenchman went into the lead at the halfway point when the front-runner, John Watson, of Ireland, made a mistake and got boxed in by some backmarkers. Depailler never looked back. The current world champion, Niki Lauda, of Austria, was second in a Brabham, the South African Jody Schecketer third in a Wolf and Watson fourth in another Brabham. Two relative newcomers to Formula One racing, Didier Pironi (France, Tyrrell) and Ricardo Patrese (Italy, Arrows Ford), took fifth and sixth places.
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Press, 9 May 1978, Page 44
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222Depailler has first win Press, 9 May 1978, Page 44
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