1978: Mario squeezed in another attempt at Indianapolis during his full-time Formula One effort. Mario planned to qualify at Indianapolis during the first weekend of time trials (which was an off-week for Formula One). He was quickly up to speed during practice at Indy, running an "unofficial" track record of 203.482 mph. He went into the weekend as a favorite for the pole, but the first two days of time trials were rained out. He was forced to leave and go back to Europe for the Belgian Grand Prix. During the second weekend of time trials, Mike Hiss was drafted as a substitute, and qualified the car for Mario (he qualified 8th fastest). Mario himself won at Belgium. On race day, Mario got back in the cockpit and the car was moved to the back of the field due to the driver change. Only 19 laps into the race, Mario was forced to the pits due to a coil wire failure. He lost 8 laps while the team attempted to change spark plug wires. The team also believed they had suffered damaged valves. Mario was effectively out of contention very early on, and nursing a sour engine the rest of the day, he finished the race 15 laps down. However, he was able to make up for this by winning the 1978 Formula One World Championship after finishing third in 1977, behind South African Driver Jody Scheckter and Austrian driver Niki Lauda, who finished 2nd and 1st in 1977 respectively.