The 1979 French Grand Prix: First Turbo Victory and the Most Famous Fight in F1 History

The 1979 French Grand Prix at Dijon-Prenois occupies a unique place in Formula 1 history. Officially, it is remembered as the day Renault secured the first-ever victory for a turbocharged engine in Formula 1. Emotionally, however, it is etched into memory for something even greater: the breathtaking late-race duel between Gilles Villeneuve and René Arnoux, widely regarded as one of the greatest wheel-to-wheel battles the sport has ever witnessed.

From the very start, the race carried the weight of expectation. On French soil, Renault arrived with its radical RS10 turbo, a machine that symbolized the future of Formula 1 but had so often been undermined by fragility. When the lights went out, Gilles Villeneuve produced a flawless launch, slicing between both Renaults to seize the lead into the first corner. While Jean-Pierre Jabouille settled into pursuit, René Arnoux suffered a dreadful start, tumbling down the order and immediately turning his afternoon into a recovery mission.

Villeneuve initially controlled the pace, building a narrow cushion while Jabouille shadowed him closely. Behind them, Arnoux delivered one of the most aggressive comeback drives of the season, carving past Alan Jones, Jacques Laffite and Niki Lauda to return to contention. Mechanical attrition soon reshaped the field: Mario Andretti struggled with braking issues, Jochen Mass lost bodywork, and Lauda spun out, underlining the brutal demands of Dijon’s fast sweeps.

As the race settled, Jabouille began relentlessly closing the gap to the Ferrari. Traffic delayed his attempts, but on lap 46 a perfectly timed run through the backmarkers finally released the Renault into clean air. Jabouille surged ahead and, with the RS10 at full song, pulled away to write history. When he crossed the line, he delivered the first Formula 1 victory for a turbo engine, a breakthrough that would redefine the technical direction of the sport for decades.

Yet, remarkably, Jabouille’s triumph became almost secondary. Behind him, Villeneuve—now on worn tyres and fading brakes—fell into the sights of Arnoux. What followed over the final ten laps transcended statistics. The Ferrari and Renault swapped positions repeatedly, ran wheel-to-wheel through multiple corners, locked brakes, touched tyres, and somehow survived. Their last two laps alone contained more overtaking, counterattacks and near-collisions than many entire races.

When the flag finally fell, Villeneuve held second place by mere inches. Jabouille had secured Renault’s technological milestone, but Dijon would forever belong to the Villeneuve versus Arnoux duel—a moment when courage, control and raw instinct combined to produce one of Formula 1’s most enduring images.