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Gunnar Nilsson’s day

15. Nov 2020 
by Ziv Knoll
3384 views

For the 1977 season, Lotus retained Swede Gunnar Nilsson alongside Mario Andretti and the pair worked on developing the new ground-effect Lotus 78 imagined by Colin Chapman and Peter Wright.

At the Belgian Grand Prix held at Zolder, seventh round of the season, Andretti took pole with a massive 1.5 sec advantage on John Watson (Brabham-Alfa) confirming the superiority of the Lotus 78. Nilsson was third nearly 2 sec adrift.

Rain was pouring and Andretti had a poor start while Watson took the lead at the first corner. The American convinced of the superiority of his equipment, but too impatient, tried a move and the two collided and were out of the race before the end of the first lap!

Gunnar Nilsson was now in the lead and drove superbly in treacherous conditions, fending off none other than Niki Lauda in his Ferrari, and took a well deserved win. It would be the sole win in 32 Formula One Grand Prix starts for the Swede.

As a 16 year old, I was lucky to witness this victory from the Zolder grandstands. I was there!

In 1978, Gunnar Nilsson was diagnosed with cancer. As soon as the illness was determined to be terminal, he created the Gunnar Nilsson Cancer Foundation. He died in October 1978, he was just 30 years old.

Source: DR

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