15, de Cesaris was held up by Raul Boesel's March in the chicane entering Shoreline Drive as he came up to lap him. This gave Lauda the momentum he needed to sweep by into the lead at the end of the straight, and the Austrian immediately began to pull away. At the same time, Rosberg and Villeneuve were in the middle of a smashing battle over fourth place, behind John Watson. Over several laps, Rosberg closed the gap to Villeneuve until, on lap 19, he was right on the Ferrari's tail. On the next lap, the Williams edged briefly ahead between the hairpin and the new chicane, but the Ferrari's horsepower advantage allowed Villeneuve to retake the position down the Shoreline Drive straight. Rosberg repeated his pass in the same spot on the following lap, and this time was able to fight off Villeneuve's attempt to outbrake him into the right-hander at the end of the straight. Villeneuve, in fact, overshot the corner and slid up the escape road. Piquet was just about to slip by when Villeneuve jumped back on the track in front of him and salvaged his hold on fifth place. Meanwhile, Andretti had advanced from fourteenth on the grid to ninth in the second Williams, with a best lap faster than teammate Rosberg's. On lap 19, however, he lost it in the "marbles" of tire rubber that were collecting off-line and damaged his suspension against the wall in Turn 4. Rosberg continued, his eyes now on Watson's McLaren. Watson had jumped from eleventh on the grid to third in just eight laps, taking advantage of the softer Michelin tire compound he had chosen. For six laps, the two cars were nose to tail, until Watson had to give way on lap 27 as his softer tires went off. Rosberg quickly pulled away and Watson stopped for new rubber just two laps later. At the front, Lauda suddenly increased his lead over de Cesaris from five seconds to 10 around lap 30, when the Alfa developed brake trouble. Apparently content now with second place, but possibly distracted by smoke from an engine fire, the Italian lost concentration and shockingly flew off the road into the Turn Five wall on lap 34, ripping off two wheels and the right sidepod. This left Lauda almost a full minute ahead of Rosberg, with only Villeneuve, Alboreto and Cheever also on