after coming fifth at jarama, facetti suffered more bad luck in estoril with a slipping clutch. as a result, saw facetti/finotto lose the championship lead. they retire with fuel feed problems on the österreichring. but, returned to winning way when the series visited czechoslovakia, when they trashed the opposition, finishing over an 11 km lap ahead of series leader, grano. when the pair suffered an engine failure on the nürburgring, they left the series only to return again in 1979.