The 1977 French Grand Prix at Dijon-Prenois on 3 July gave John Watson one of the rougher near-misses of his Formula 1 career. He led for most of the race in the Brabham-Alfa Romeo, only for the car to falter on the final lap. Mario Andretti, chasing in the Lotus, swept past and won.
Watson had started from pole and seemed set to give Brabham its first win since the Bernie Ecclestone era had begun to turn the team into a serious force. The BT45B was powered by Alfa Romeo’s flat-12 engine, a thirsty and heavy unit, but one with enough pace to put Watson at the front. Dijon, shorter and more compact than many French Grand Prix venues, rewarded rhythm, traction and the ability to keep the car underneath you through its flowing sections.
Andretti waits for the problem
Andretti did not dominate the race, but he stayed close enough to punish any weakness. That weakness arrived almost at the worst possible time for Watson. The Brabham suffered fuel-pickup trouble on the last lap, slowing sharply and leaving Andretti to take a victory that looked opportunistic only because he had been close enough to see the chance.
Watson still finished second, which is a poor consolation when the win has been visible for so long. James Hunt completed the podium for McLaren. The result helped Andretti’s season and added another win to the Lotus 78, the ground-effect car that was beginning to reshape Formula 1 thinking even before the Lotus 79 made the concept cleaner the following year.
For Watson, Dijon became part of a career pattern that was better than its raw win total suggests. He would later win Grands Prix for Penske and McLaren, including famous drives from deep grid positions, but the French Grand Prix remained one that got away. The timing made it painful. A failure with ten laps remaining is bad. A failure on the final lap is the sport showing unnecessary precision.
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