decided to move forward Giacomelli and Cheever were able to continue for the time being, though both retired later in the race, and Reutemann had retired soon afterwards with gearbox problems. Fittipaldi just managed to squeeze through the carnage, and the marshals somehow got the track cleared before the leaders came around, avoiding a red flag to stop the race. While Piquet continued to run unchallenged in front, Depailler was struggling with fading brakes on his Alfa Romeo. On lap 18, Jones caught and passed him on the outside of the hairpin to take second place. Meanwhile, Giacomelli was working his way back up through the field ahead of an extended battle between Regazzoni, Fittipaldi and John Watson. Gilles Villeneuve had managed to get the ill handling Ferrari into a good fourth place but his transmission failed on lap 46 and he was out of the race. After pitting for tires on lap 47, Giacomelli rejoined in 12th place, just ahead of Jones, but about to be lapped by the Williams for the second time, and he continued his reckless on-track conduct. As Jones moved inside to pass the Italian entering the hairpin at the end of the straight, Giacomelli turned in and Jones struck the Alfa Romeo's rear wheel, bending the steering arm on the Williams and putting Jones out of the race. This left Piquet with a lead of more than a minute over Patrese and Arnoux, and he began to ease off, allowing some cars to unlap themselves. Lap 50 saw a horrific accident which would ultimately end the career of Clay Regazzoni, the brakes on his Ensign N180 car failed on the long start finish straight, unable to reduce speed, he hit the stationary Brabham of Ricardo Zunino which had been left at the run off of the hairpin since lap 1, and then head on into a concrete wall. The accident left him paralyzed from the waist down. Regazzoni later sued the race organisers, but lost the case. On lap 63, Arnoux had his right rear tire go completely flat, and by the time he was able to make it back to the pits for a replacement, he had dropped all the way to ninth place. Watson now began to challenge Fittipaldi for third, and even get around him briefly, but gearbox troubles allowed the Brazilian to retake the position and then pull away. Watson,