1979 Italian Grand Prix

The 1979 Italian Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on 9 September 1979 at Monza.

Monza was revamped for 1979, including a re-surfaced track; and run-off areas were added to the Curva Grande and the Lesmo Curves.

This race saw the return of Alfa Romeo to the World Championship, with a new 179 chassis for Bruno Giacomelli and the old 177 for Vittorio Brambilla; who was back in action for the first time since the crash at Monza the previous season. Ensign decided to give Formula 2 champion Marc Surer a run in its car in place of Patrick Gaillard, while Hector Rebaque had his HR100 chassis ready for the first time.

As expected the Renaults, powered by turbo engines, were quick in practice and took the front row of the grid with Jean-Pierre Jabouille ahead of René Arnoux. Then came Jody Scheckter, Alan Jones, Gilles Villeneuve and Clay Regazzoni. The top 10 was completed by Jacques Laffite, Nelson Piquet, Niki Lauda and Mario Andretti.

Equally as expected the Renaults were slow off the start line and so Scheckter grabbed the lead from Arnoux. Behind then Villeneuve grabbed third while Laffite made a good start to get into fourth place. Jones dropped to the back of the field. On the second lap Arnoux was able to pass Scheckter to take the lead and for the next few laps the five front-runners were nose-to-tail, while Regazzoni ran in a lonely sixth position. That lasted until lap 13 when Arnoux's car began to misfire and he retired leaving Scheckter, Villeneuve, Laffite and Jabouille by themselves. 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 Jean-Pierre Jarier (Tyrrell) picking up the other points.

A one-two Ferrari finish clinched the drivers title for Scheckter in Ferrari's "home race".