1976 Grand Prix of South Africa
Racing data | ||
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2nd of 16 races of the 1976 Automobile World Championship | ||
Surname: | X Grand Prix of South Africa | |
Date: | March 6, 1976 | |
Place: | Midrand | |
Course: | Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit | |
Length: | 320.112 km in 78 laps of 4.104 km
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Weather: | sunny and warm | |
Pole position | ||
Driver: | James Hunt | McLaren-Ford |
Time: | 1: 16.10 min | |
Fastest lap | ||
Driver: | Niki Lauda | Ferrari |
Time: | 1: 17.94 min | |
Podium | ||
First: | Niki Lauda | Ferrari |
Second: | James Hunt | McLaren-Ford |
Third: | Jochen Mass | McLaren-Ford |
The 1976 South African Grand Prix took place on March 6th at the Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit and was the second race of the 1976 World Automobile Championship .
Reports
background
During the five weeks between the opening race in Brazil and the second round of the World Cup in South Africa, there were several driver changes to report. Ronnie Peterson had decided to leave the Lotus team and signed a regular driver contract with Team March , for which he had already competed from 1970 to 1972 . In return, March released his Formula 2 driver Gunnar Nilsson , who then succeeded Peterson at Lotus and thus made his Formula 1 debut. As a result of Peterson's engagement, Lella Lombardi no longer had a March cockpit available.
Since Mario Andretti had decided to contest the South African GP for Parnelli , Lotus needed a second new driver and found him in Bob Evans , who had been under contract with the now no longer competing factory team BRM last year . Frank Williams replaced Renzo Zorzi with Michel Leclère on his team .
The Surtees team returned to the field with a newly developed TS19 car and a new main sponsor . Brett Lunger was hired as a regular driver. With Ensign and Hesketh , two other teams that had missed the season opener intervened for the first time this season. Chris Amon and Harald Ertl , who had already been active for the respective team last year , competed as drivers .
Contrary to the habits of the past few years, Ian Scheckter was only a single local guest starter who competed in his home race. Jody Scheckter's brother drove a privately used Tyrrell 007 .
training
During the training there were discussions about the legality of plastic aprons used by the McLaren and Penske teams. These can be seen as the first signs of developments regarding the ground effect on racing cars, from which the so-called "wing cars" developed in the following years.
The practice resulted in an identical front row as before at the Brazilian Grand Prix with James Hunt on pole position next to Niki Lauda in second place on the grid. Its gap to the fastest lap time of third-placed John Watson was already more than two tenths of a second. This was followed by Jochen Mass , Vittorio Brambilla , Patrick Depailler and Tom Pryce .
run
Shortly after the start, Lauda, Mass and Brambilla passed Hunt. Depailler followed in front of Peterson. Ian Scheckter's race ended after a few meters due to a collision with Leclère. This, however, was able to continue the race.
In the second round, Brambilla won a three-way battle against Mass and Hunt for second place. After Mass had let his teammate Hunt past, he took up the pursuit of Brambilla. However, it wasn't until the fifth lap that he managed to overtake Brambilla. At this point the leading Lauda was already around ten seconds ahead of his pursuers.
A collision between Peterson and Depailler had put Pryce in fifth place. When Brambilla fell behind him and Mass a little later, he was in fourth place. The order at the top then remained constant over several laps. Only when Pryce had to make a pit stop on lap 44 did he lose fourth place to Clay Regazzoni . However, this was canceled nine laps later due to an engine failure and had to give Jody Scheckter fourth place.
The final phase of the race became more exciting because Lauda had to struggle with a creeping puncture during the last laps and was therefore no longer able to drive at the limit. Hunt came within 1.3 seconds of Lauda before the checkered flag fell.
Registration list
Classifications
Starting grid
Item | driver | constructor | time | Ø speed | begin |
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1 | James Hunt | McLaren-Ford | 1: 16.10 | 194.145 km / h | 1 |
2 | Niki Lauda | Ferrari | 1: 16.20 | 193.890 km / h | 2 |
3 | John Watson | Penske-Ford | 1: 16.43 | 193.306 km / h | 3 |
4th | Jochen Mass | McLaren-Ford | 1: 16.45 | 193.256 km / h | 4th |
5 | Vittorio Brambilla | March-Ford | 1: 16.64 | 192.777 km / h | 5 |
6th | Patrick Depailler | Tyrrell-Ford | 1: 16.77 | 192.450 km / h | 6th |
7th | Tom Pryce | Shadow Ford | 1: 16.84 | 192.275 km / h | 7th |
8th | Jacques Laffite | Ligier-Matra | 1: 16.88 | 192.175 km / h | 8th |
9 | Clay Regazzoni | Ferrari | 1: 16.94 | 192.025 km / h | 9 |
10 | Ronnie Peterson | March-Ford | 1: 17.03 | 191.801 km / h | 10 |
11 | Carlos Reutemann | Brabham-Alfa Romeo | 1: 17.09 | 191.651 km / h | 11 |
12 | Jody Scheckter | Tyrrell-Ford | 1: 17.18 | 191.428 km / h | 12 |
13 | Mario Andretti | Parnelli-Ford | 1: 17.25 | 191.254 km / h | 13 |
14th | Carlos Pace | Brabham-Alfa Romeo | 1: 17.26 | 191.230 km / h | 14th |
15th | Jean-Pierre Jarier | Shadow Ford | 1: 17.35 | 191.007 km / h | 15th |
16 | Ian Scheckter | Tyrrell-Ford | 1: 17.40 | 190.884 km / h | 16 |
17th | Hans-Joachim Stuck | March-Ford | 1: 17.44 | 190.785 km / h | 17th |
18th | Chris Amon | Ensign-Ford | 1: 17.73 | 190.073 km / h | 18th |
19th | Jacky Ickx | Williams-Ford | 1: 18.13 | 189.100 km / h | 19th |
20th | Brett Lunger | Surtees-Ford | 1: 18.36 | 188.545 km / h | 20th |
21st | Emerson Fittipaldi | Copersucar-Ford | 1: 18.40 | 188.449 km / h | 21st |
22nd | Michel Leclère | Williams-Ford | 1: 18.82 | 187.445 km / h | 22nd |
23 | Bob Evans | Lotus Ford | 1: 19.35 | 186.193 km / h | 23 |
24 | Harald Ertl | Hesketh-Ford | 1: 22.11 | 179.934 km / h | 24 |
25th | Gunnar Nilsson | Lotus Ford | 1: 22.70 | 178.651 km / h | 25th |
run
Item | driver | constructor | Round | Stops | time | begin | Fastest lap | Failure reason |
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1 | Niki Lauda | Ferrari | 78 | 0 | 1: 42: 18.4 | 2 | 1: 17.94 | |
2 | James Hunt | McLaren-Ford | 78 | 0 | + 1.3 | 1 | 1: 18.08 | |
3 | Jochen Mass | McLaren-Ford | 78 | 0 | + 45.9 | 4th | 1: 18.65 | |
4th | Jody Scheckter | Tyrrell-Ford | 78 | 0 | +1: 08.4 | 12 | 1: 18.38 | |
5 | John Watson | Penske-Ford | 77 | 0 | + 1 lap | 3 | 1: 18.94 | |
6th | Mario Andretti | Parnelli-Ford | 77 | 0 | + 1 lap | 13 | 1: 19.15 | |
7th | Tom Pryce | Shadow Ford | 77 | 1 | + 1 lap | 7th | 1: 18.73 | |
8th | Vittorio Brambilla | March-Ford | 77 | 0 | + 1 lap | 5 | 1: 18.49 | |
9 | Patrick Depailler | Tyrrell-Ford | 77 | 0 | + 1 lap | 6th | 1: 18.60 | |
10 | Bob Evans | Lotus Ford | 77 | 0 | + 1 lap | 23 | 1: 19.84 | |
11 | Brett Lunger | Surtees-Ford | 77 | 0 | + 1 lap | 20th | 1: 19.83 | |
12 | Hans-Joachim Stuck | March-Ford | 76 | 0 | + 2 rounds | 17th | 1: 19.86 | |
13 | Michel Leclère | Williams-Ford | 76 | 0 | + 2 rounds | 22nd | 1: 20.08 | |
14th | Chris Amon | Ensign-Ford | 76 | 0 | + 2 rounds | 18th | 1: 19.00 | |
15th | Harald Ertl | Hesketh-Ford | 74 | 0 | + 4 rounds | 24 | 1: 22.70 | |
16 | Jacky Ickx | Williams-Ford | 73 | 0 | + 5 rounds | 19th | 1: 20.03 | |
17th | Emerson Fittipaldi | Copersucar-Ford | 70 | 0 | DNF | 21st | 1: 18.92 | Engine failure |
- | Clay Regazzoni | Ferrari | 52 | 0 | DNF | 9 | 1: 18.88 | Engine failure |
- | Jacques Laffite | Ligier-Matra | 49 | 0 | DNF | 8th | 1: 19.28 | Engine failure |
- | Jean-Pierre Jarier | Shadow Ford | 28 | 0 | DNF | 15th | 1: 19.82 | defective water cooler |
- | Carlos Pace | Brabham-Alfa Romeo | 22nd | 0 | DNF | 14th | 1: 19.37 | Oil pressure loss |
- | Gunnar Nilsson | Lotus Ford | 18th | 0 | DNF | 25th | 1: 20.00 | Clutch damage |
- | Carlos Reutemann | Brabham-Alfa Romeo | 16 | 0 | DNF | 11 | 1: 19.42 | Oil pressure loss |
- | Ronnie Peterson | March-Ford | 15th | 0 | DNF | 10 | 1: 18.79 | collision |
- | Ian Scheckter | Tyrrell-Ford | 0 | 0 | DNF | 16 | - | collision |
World Cup stands after the race
The first six of the race got 9, 6, 4, 3, 2 and 1 point (s) respectively.
Driver ranking
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Constructors' championship
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Individual evidence
- ^ "Training" ( Memento from March 15, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (Motorsportarchiv.de; accessed on February 18, 2012)
- ^ "Report" (accessed on February 18, 2012)
- ^ "World Cup stands" ( Memento from March 16, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (Motorsportarchiv.de; accessed on February 18, 2012)