1977 Austrian Grand Prix

Austria  1977 Austrian Grand Prix
Race details
Race 12 of 17 in the 1977 Formula One season
Date August 14, 1977
Location Österreichring
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 5.941 km (3.692 mi)
Distance 54 laps, 320.814 km (199.368 mi)
Weather Wet, then drying
Pole position
Driver Ferrari
Time 1:39.32
Fastest lap
Driver United Kingdom John Watson Brabham-Alfa Romeo
Time 1:40.96 on lap 52
Podium
First Shadow-Ford
Second Ferrari
Third Brabham-Alfa Romeo

The 1977 Austrian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at the Österreichring on August 14, 1977. It was the tenth Austrian Grand Prix since the race was first held in 1963. It was held over 54 laps of the six kilometre venue for a race distance of 320 kilometres. Since the 1976 a chicane called "Hella-Licht" had been added to the track, replacing the very fast Vost-Hugel Kurve.

The race saw the first Formula One victory of future World Champion Alan Jones. The Australian driver took his Shadow DN8 to a twenty-second victory over local hero Niki Lauda in his Ferrari 312T2. It would be the only race victory for Shadow Racing Cars during its eight-year Formula One history. Third was Hans Joachim Stuck in his Brabham BT45B.

Race report

Rain had fallen immediately prior to the race start leaving the track wet but would not rain during the race. Tyre choice was split between wets and slicks. Mario Andretti led early until the engine failed in his Lotus 78. The track was drying by this time. Gunnar Nilsson and Jones had starred in the early laps on the wet track. Nilsson moving from 16th to second and Jones progressed from his 14th grid position to fourth. James Hunt became the race leader. Nilsson pitted to replace his ruined wet tyres on his Lotus 78 while Jones moved past Hans Joachim Stuck's Brabham and Jody Scheckter's Wolf WR3 into second position. Jones would not have progressed further but for an engine failure in Hunt's McLaren M26 late in the race. Nilsson recovered from his pitstop to third until an engine failure claimed its second Lotus of the day. Lauda's poor handling Ferrari came on as the track dried and he moved into second while Stuck survived to claim the final podium position. Scheckter spun off leaving Carlos Reutemann in the second Ferrari 312T2 to finish fourth ahead of Ronnie Peterson in the Tyrrell P34 and the second McLaren of Jochen Mass claimed the final championship point in sixth. Despite the changeable condition, 16 cars finished the race with 17 classified. The seventeenth was Emilio de Villota, who crashed his privately entered McLaren M23 in the closing stages while on his 51st lap.

It had been seven years since the last victory by an Australian (Jack Brabham in the 1970 South African Grand Prix). Jones' win had no effect the championship points race. Lauda's second place, coupled with retirements to Scheckter, Andretti and Hunt significantly strengthened Lauda's grip on the championship, expanding his lead to 16 points.

Classification

Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 17 Australia Alan Jones Shadow-Ford 54 1:37:16.49 14 9
2 11 Austria Niki Lauda Ferrari 54 +20.13 secs 1 6
3 8 Germany Hans Joachim Stuck Brabham-Alfa Romeo 54 +34.5 secs 4 4
4 12 Argentina Carlos Reutemann Ferrari 54 +34.75 secs 5 3
5 3 Sweden Ronnie Peterson Tyrrell-Ford 54 +72.09 secs 15 2
6 2 Germany Jochen Mass McLaren-Ford 53 +1 lap 9 1
7 24 United Kingdom Rupert Keegan Hesketh-Ford 53 +1 lap 20
8 7 United Kingdom John Watson Brabham-Alfa Romeo 53 +1 lap 12
9 27 Belgium Patrick Nève March-Ford 53 +1 lap 22
10 30 United States Brett Lunger McLaren-Ford 53 +1 lap 17
11 28 Brazil Emerson Fittipaldi Fittipaldi-Ford 53 +1 lap 23
12 33 Austria Hans Binder Penske-Ford 53 +1 lap 19
13 4 France Patrick Depailler Tyrrell-Ford 53 +1 lap 10
14 34 France Jean-Pierre Jarier Penske-Ford 52 +2 laps 18
15 19 Italy Vittorio Brambilla Surtees-Ford 52 +2 laps 13
16 18 Australia Vern Schuppan Surtees-Ford 52 +2 laps 25
17 36 Spain Emilio de Villota McLaren-Ford 50 Accident 26
Ret 20 South Africa Jody Scheckter Wolf-Ford 45 Spun Off 8
Ret 1 United Kingdom James Hunt McLaren-Ford 43 Engine 2
Ret 23 France Patrick Tambay Ensign-Ford 41 Engine 7
Ret 6 Sweden Gunnar Nilsson Lotus-Ford 38 Engine 16
Ret 16 Italy Arturo Merzario Shadow-Ford 29 Gearbox 21
Ret 26 France Jacques Laffite Ligier-Matra 21 Oil Leak 6
Ret 5 United States Mario Andretti Lotus-Ford 11 Engine 3
Ret 10 South Africa Ian Scheckter March-Ford 2 Accident 24
Ret 22 Switzerland Clay Regazzoni Ensign-Ford 0 Accident 11
DNQ 38 United Kingdom Brian Henton March-Ford
DNQ 39 United Kingdom Ian Ashley Hesketh-Ford
DNQ 25 Mexico Héctor Rebaque Hesketh-Ford
DNQ 9 Brazil Alex Ribeiro March-Ford
Source:[1]

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings
Pos Driver Points
1 Austria Niki Lauda 54
2 South Africa Jody Scheckter 38
3 Argentina Carlos Reutemann 34
4 United States Mario Andretti 32
5 United Kingdom James Hunt 22

Constructors' Championship standings
Pos Constructor Points
1 Italy Ferrari 71 (73)
2 United Kingdom Lotus-Ford 47
3 Canada Wolf-Ford 38
4 United Kingdom McLaren-Ford 35
5 United Kingdom Brabham-Alfa Romeo 27

References

  1. "1977 Austrian Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 21 October 2014. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
Previous race:
1977 German Grand Prix
FIA Formula One World Championship
1977 season
Next race:
1977 Dutch Grand Prix
Previous race:
1976 Austrian Grand Prix
Austrian Grand Prix Next race:
1978 Austrian Grand Prix
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/9/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.