Motor racing...and in the French Grand Prix on Sunday (1 July) two French drivers scored stunning home-ground success. Jean-Pierre Jabouille, in a turbocharger Renault formula one car, took the winner's laurels while Rene Arnoux, driving the same marque, took third place. Their victories ended a run of bad luck that has cost the French team dear since they first entered the world championship two years ago.

SYNOPSIS: Twenty-seven drivers were at the grid for the start of the major world championship event....the 65th French Grand Prix.

Canadian Gilles Villeneuve, in a Ferrari, was the early leader in the race, with Jabouille a close second and Arnoux not far behind in fifth place.

The twisting Dijon circuit, covering 3.8 kilometres (2.4 miles), is notorious for the strain caused to drivers' neck muscles by high centrifugal forces, and some of the competitors fitted special collars to their helmets to relieve the discomfort.

They faced 80 laps of difficult bends -- and for a good part of the race no-one could get ahead of Villeneuve.

South African Jody Scheckter??? dropped from third to eighth place after a pit stop for a change of ty??? in the 55th lap. He returned to the race to find Jabouille now in the lead and Arnoux in third position.

Jabouille later noted that in these last few laps he felt 'overwhelming joy and 'great anxiety' at the same time. But his luck held and he took the chequered flag.

Villeneuve and Arnoux then staged a suspenseful battle for second place...with Villeneuve just edging out his rival before a clearly patisan crowd.