Giacomelli, Cheever and Lauda. Behind this group, amazingly, came the charging McLaren of John Watson, having stormed through nearly the entire field from seventeenth place on the original grid. When Cheever and Lauda both overtook Giacomelli as he got sideways exiting a corner, Watson was quickly nose to tail behind Giacomelli and struggling to get through. On Lap 30, with Rosberg leading by 15 seconds, Watson passed Giacomelli, but the Italian counterattacked a moment later when the McLaren went wide. Giacomelli tried to force his way through on the inside, but his left front wheel hit Watson's right rear, and Giacomelli ended up in the wall. Pironi had been holding up both Lauda and Cheever, but when Watson latched on to them, he passed all three on the same lap to take over second place, thirteen seconds behind Rosberg. In two laps, the gap was down to seven seconds, then two seconds, and at the end of Lap 37, Watson was two seconds up, as Rosberg had lost third gear. Overall, however, on combined time, Rosberg was still eighteen seconds ahead, so he attempted merely to stay close to the McLaren. Meanwhile, Lauda, inspired perhaps by his teammate, had passed both Cheever and Pironi, and now also approached Rosberg. Likely knowing the Williams was in trouble, he unwisely made a late dive down the inside of Turn One. He locked his wheels, hit the wall and broke his suspension, leaving Cheever in third place. Secure in the lead, Watson was able to back off as Rosberg struggled with fuel feed problems and worn tires, in addition to his ailing gearbox, and dropped all the way back to fifth on the track, fourth on combined time. With an average speed of only 78 mph, the two-hour time limit was reached well short of the intended 76 laps, and Watson took his second win of the season which was the first Detroit Grand Prix, at America's sixth different Formula One venue. American Eddie Cheever claimed second for his best Grand Prix finish, ahead of Pironi in third. Despite a mountain of teething problems with the new circuit, the organizers of the race received excellent reviews for their efforts, and a new American city had made its entrance to Formula One. With two US races already run in 1982, one still remained, as, for the first time ever, one country would host three