Laffite: Hot at the top!

At the 1979 Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos, the Ligier team dominated with their well-born Ligier JS11, designed by French engineer Gérard Ducarouge.

Jacques Laffite (picture above), dominated the race weekend and made the most of his superb and efficient JS11 by taking pole position, smashing Jarier’s (Shadow) 1975 pole time by a massive 7 seconds, setting fastest lap and leading every lap of the race up to the finish. The French ace finished the race completely exhausted, such was the heat that day, in the suburbs of Sao Paolo.

Laffite’s team mate Patrick Depailler started and finished second, scoring the first and only one-two of Ligier’s history. Jacques Laffite and the Ligier team completed their domination of the South American fortnight, Laffite also dominantly won in Argentina (picture below).