[3][4] Villeneuve's biographer Gerald Donaldson quotes Ferrari race engineer Mauro Forghieri as saying that the Canadian, although pressing on in his usual fashion, was returning to the pits on his last set of qualifying tyres when the accident occurred.

With eight minutes of the session left, Villeneuve came over the rise after the first chicane and found Jochen Mass in the March travelling much more slowly through Butte, the left-handed bend before the Terlamenbocht corner.

[7] The first doctor arrived on the scene within 35 seconds to find that Villeneuve was not breathing, although his pulse continued throughout; he was intubated and ventilated before being transferred to the circuit medical centre and then by helicopter to University St Raphael Hospital where a fatal fracture of the neck was diagnosed.

[9] John Watson won the race after taking the lead on the penultimate lap from Keke Rosberg, who was struggling on worn tires.

Niki Lauda finished third on the road but was disqualified when his car was found to be underweight in post-race scrutineering,[9] and so the final podium place went to Eddie Cheever.