1977 South African Grand Prix

 1977 South African Grand Prix

Racing data
3rd of 17 races in the 1977 automobile world championship
Surname:	XI Grand Prix of South Africa
Date:	March 5th 1977
Place:	Midrand
Course:	Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit
Length:	320.112 km in 78 laps of 4.104 km
Weather:	cloudy but warm
Pole position
Driver:	James Hunt	McLaren
Time:	1: 15.96 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	John Watson	Brabham
Time:	1: 17.63 min
Podium
First:	Niki Lauda	Ferrari
Second:	Jody Scheckter	wolf
Third:	Patrick Depailler	Tyrrell

The 1977 South African Grand Prix took place on March 5 at the Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit , a racetrack between Johannesburg and Pretoria , and was the third race of the 1977 Automobile World Championship .

Reports

background

During the six weeks between the Brazilian Grand Prix and the third round of the World Cup in South Africa, March factory driver Ian Scheckter was injured in an accident at a Formula Atlantic race. He was then represented by Hans-Joachim Stuck .

The Copersucar team reduced its commitment to just one car for Emerson Fittipaldi . In return, the two private teams Chesterfield and RAM enriched the field of participants, each with a March 761 vehicle with Brett Lunger and Boy Hayje at the wheel.

Contrary to tradition, no local guest starters took part in the South African Grand Prix for the first time.

training

For the third time in a row, pole position went to reigning world champion James Hunt , who was the only one to achieve a lap time of less than 1:16 minutes this weekend. He was followed on the grid by Brabham driver Carlos Pace, ahead of Niki Lauda in a Ferrari and Patrick Depailler in a Tyrrell . The third row was formed by Wolf pilot Jody Scheckter and Mario Andretti on Lotus . So there were six different vehicles on the first six starting positions. Only in seventh place followed with Ronnie Peterson the second Tyrrell next to Carlos Reutemann in the second Ferrari.

run

While Hunt took the lead from first place on the grid, pace fell behind Lauda, ​​Scheckter and Depailler due to excessive wheelspin. Jochen Mass and Mario Andretti lay behind him .

Lauda, ​​who had followed Hunt closely during the first laps, took the lead at the beginning of the seventh lap and never gave it up until the finish. Hunt fell back and was overtaken by Scheckter on lap 18.

Due to a defect in the fuel pump, Renzo Zorzi had to park his Shadow on the 22nd lap on the left edge of the start-finish straight. Two marshals standing on the opposite side recognized that a fire was developing on the car and crossed the route to put it out. At the same time, Hans-Joachim Stuck and Tom Pryce approached the spot that they could not see in time due to a hill in front of them. While Stuck was just able to avoid the marshals, Pryce collided with one of the two at high speed. The man was thrown into the air and killed. The fire extinguisher he was carrying hit Pryce's helmet, killing him too. His car shot then unchecked the start-finish straight along until it at the end with the Ligier of Jacques Laffite collided. This remained unharmed. Despite the terrible accident that had been filmed by television cameras, the race was not abandoned.

On the 67th lap, Hunt finally fell back to fourth place behind Depailler. Lauda won, even though debris from Pryce's car got into the cooling vents of his engine, causing the engine temperature to rise steadily.

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Marlboro Team McLaren	1	James Hunt	McLaren M23	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	G
	2	Jochen Mass
Eleven Team Tyrrell	3	Ronnie Peterson	Tyrrell P34		G
	4th	Patrick Depailler
John Player Team Lotus	5	Mario Andretti	Lotus 78		G
	6th	Gunnar Nilsson
Martini Racing	7th	John Watson	Brabham BT45	Alfa Romeo 115-12 3.0 F12	G
	8th	Carlos Pace	Brabham BT45B
Hollywood March Racing	9	Alex Ribeiro	March 761B	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	G
Team Rothmans International	10	Hans-Joachim Stuck
Scuderia Ferrari SpA SEFAC	11	Niki Lauda	Ferrari 312T2	Ferrari 015 3.0 F12	G
	12	Carlos Reutemann
Rotary Watches Stanley BRM	14th	Larry Perkins	BRM P201B	BRM P200 3.0 V12	G
Shadow Racing Team	16	Tom Pryce	Shadow DN8	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	G
	17th	Renzo Zorzi
Durex Team Surtees	18th	Hans Binder	Surtees TS19		G
Beta Team Surtees	19th	Vittorio Brambilla
Walter Wolf Racing	20th	Jody Scheckter	Wolf WR1		G
Team Tissot Ensign with Castrol	22nd	Clay Regazzoni	Ensign N177		G
Ligier Gitanes	26th	Jacques Laffite	Ligier JS7	Matra MS76 3.0 V12	G
Copersucar-Fittipaldi	28	Emerson Fittipaldi	Copersucar FD04	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	G
Chesterfield Racing	30th	Brett Lunger	March 761		G
RAM Racing / F&S Properties	33	Boy Hayje			G

Classifications

Starting grid

Item	driver	constructor	time	Ø speed	begin
01	James Hunt	McLaren-Ford	1: 15.96	194.502 km / h	01
02	Carlos Pace	Brabham-Alfa Romeo	1: 16.01	194.374 km / h	02
03	Niki Lauda	Ferrari	1: 16.29	193.661 km / h	03
04th	Patrick Depailler	Tyrrell-Ford	1: 16.33	193.560 km / h	04th
05	Jody Scheckter	Wolf-Ford	1: 16.35	193.509 km / h	05
06th	Mario Andretti	Lotus Ford	1: 16.38	193.433 km / h	06th
07th	Ronnie Peterson	Tyrrell-Ford	1: 16.44	193.281 km / h	07th
08th	Carlos Reutemann	Ferrari	1: 16.54	193.028 km / h	08th
09	Emerson Fittipaldi	Copersucar-Ford	1: 16.64	192.777 km / h	09
10	Gunnar Nilsson	Lotus Ford	1: 16.65	192.751 km / h	10
11	John Watson	Brabham-Alfa Romeo	1: 16.71	192.601 km / h	11
12	Jacques Laffite	Ligier-Matra	1: 16.74	192.525 km / h	12
13	Jochen Mass	McLaren-Ford	1: 16.99	191.900 km / h	13
14th	Vittorio Brambilla	Surtees-Ford	1: 17.08	191.676 km / h	14th
15th	Tom Pryce	Shadow Ford	1: 17.11	191.602 km / h	15th
16	Clay Regazzoni	Ensign-Ford	1: 17.21	191.353 km / h	16
17th	Alex Ribeiro	March-Ford	1: 17.44	190.785 km / h	17th
18th	Hans-Joachim Stuck	March-Ford	1: 17.49	190.662 km / h	18th
19th	Hans Binder	Surtees-Ford	1: 18.07	189.246 km / h	19th
20th	Renzo Zorzi	Shadow Ford	1: 18.42	188.401 km / h	20th
21st	Boy Hayje	March-Ford	1: 19.59	185.631 km / h	21st
22nd	Larry Perkins	BRM	1: 21.77	180.682 km / h	22nd
23	Brett Lunger	March-Ford	1: 24.35	175.156 km / h	23

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	Niki Lauda	Ferrari	78	0	1: 42: 21.6	03	1: 17.68
02	Jody Scheckter	Wolf-Ford	78	0	+ 5.2	05	1: 17.86
03	Patrick Depailler	Tyrrell-Ford	78	0	+ 5.7	04th	1: 17.98
04th	James Hunt	McLaren-Ford	78	0	+ 9.5	01	1: 17.85
05	Jochen Mass	McLaren-Ford	78	0	+ 19.9	13	1: 18.21
06th	John Watson	Brabham-Alfa Romeo	78	0	+ 20.2	11	1: 17.63
07th	Vittorio Brambilla	Surtees-Ford	78	0	+ 23.6	14th	1: 18.00
08th	Carlos Reutemann	Ferrari	78	0	+ 26.7	08th	1: 18.00
09	Clay Regazzoni	Ensign-Ford	78	0	+ 46.2	16	1: 18.39
10	Emerson Fittipaldi	Copersucar-Ford	78	0	+1: 11.7	09	1: 18.18
11	Hans Binder	Surtees-Ford	77	0	+ 1 lap	19th	1: 19.33
12	Gunnar Nilsson	Lotus Ford	77	0	+ 1 lap	10	1: 18.23
13	Carlos Pace	Brabham-Alfa Romeo	76	2	+ 2 rounds	02	1: 17.88
14th	Brett Lunger	March-Ford	76	0	+ 2 rounds	23	1: 19.95
15th	Larry Perkins	BRM	73	0	+ 5 rounds	22nd	1: 22.64
-	Alex Ribeiro	March-Ford	66	0	DNF	17th	1: 18.65	Engine failure
-	Hans-Joachim Stuck	March-Ford	55	0	DNF	18th	1: 18.45	Engine failure
-	Mario Andretti	Lotus Ford	43	0	DNF	06th	1: 18.13	collision
-	Boy Hayje	March-Ford	33	0	DNF	21st	1: 21.21	Gearbox damage
-	Jacques Laffite	Ligier-Matra	22nd	0	DNF	12	1: 18.31	accident
-	Tom Pryce	Shadow Ford	22nd	0	DNF	15th	1: 17.91	deadly accident
-	Renzo Zorzi	Shadow Ford	21st	0	DNF	20th	1: 19.72	defective fuel pump
-	Ronnie Peterson	Tyrrell-Ford	05	0	DNF	07th	1: 18.50	defective fuel supply

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

Item driver constructor Points 01  Jody Scheckter wolf 15th 02  Carlos Reutemann Ferrari 13 03  Niki Lauda Ferrari 13 04th  James Hunt McLaren 9 05  Carlos Pace Brabham 6th 06th  Emerson Fittipaldi Copersucar 6th 07th  Patrick Depailler Tyrrell 4th

Item driver constructor Points 08th  Gunnar Nilsson lotus 2 09  Jochen Mass McLaren 2 10  Mario Andretti lotus 2 11  Renzo Zorzi Shadow 1 12  Clay Regazzoni Ensign 1 13  John Watson Brabham 1

Constructors' championship

Item constructor Points 01  Ferrari 22nd 02  wolf 15th 03  McLaren 9 04th  Brabham 7th 05  Copersucar 6th

Item constructor Points 06th  Tyrrell 4th 07th  lotus 4th 08th  Ensign 1 09  Shadow 1

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "Training"  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Motorsportarchiv.de; accessed on June 16, 2012)  
2. ^ "Report" (accessed on June 16, 2012)
3. ↑ "World Cup stands"  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Motorsportarchiv.de; accessed on June 16, 2012)  

Web links

• Race result on the official Formula 1 website