1976 British Grand Prix
The Grand Prix of Great Britain in 1976 was on July 18 held at the Brands Hatch Circuit, and was the ninth race of the Formula 1 season 1976.
- 3.1 Start -up
- 3.2 race
- 4.1 Drivers' Championship
- 4.2 Constructors' Championship
Reports
Background
According to the annual exchange with the Silverstone Circuit where the British Grand Prix the previous year had been discharged, the race in 1976 was again held at Brands Hatch, where several slight alterations had been made in the meantime during the improving security.
Some guest starter supplemented the usual participants. Among them was the debutante Divina Galica also the first time since the opening race of the season in Brazil, a woman again. Since Lella Lombardi returned to the list of participants at the wheel of one of the customer of the team Brabham Racing RAM, 1 two women were reported at the same time for a Grand Prix this weekend for the first and so far only time in the history of Formula One. Mike Wilds was provided a private Shadow DN3 available for his home race. Bob Evans was at the wheel of the second Brabham of RAM teams to his only appearance of the season.
While Chris Amon returned to the cockpit of the Ensign team, the team Walter Wolf Racing and Copersucar - Fittipaldi reduced their commitment for reasons of cost, only one vehicle.
Training
Niki Lauda secured in the Ferrari 312T2 pole position ahead of James Hunt in the McLaren M23 and Mario Andretti in the ever- competitive expectant Lotus 77 Clay Regazzoni completed in the second Ferrari on the second row ahead of Patrick Depailler in Tyrrell P34 and Chris Amon with the Ensign N176 again showed a convincing performance in training. Among the four cars which completed the top ten, three of the four plant - March were.
In addition to Mike Wilds both participating women and Jacky Ickx failed to qualify for one of the 26 starting places. For Ickx this was the last mission of the team Wolf- Williams.
Race
The two lying in the lead Ferrari collided immediately after the start in the first corner, which led to a spin Regazzoni. Hunt tried to avoid this, but this did not succeed. His McLaren lost after contact with the Ferrari brief contact with the ground, a rollover, however, did. Jacques Laffite crashed into the barriers after he was also collides with the opposite direction of travel oriented car of Regazzoni. The rest of the field passed the accident site with no problems. Nevertheless, the jury decided, due to the numerous lying on the track debris to stop the race with the red flag. Meanwhile, Hunt was driving with a damaged suspension to its box and used in this way a shortcut.
During the interruption, there was disagreement about whether Regazzoni and Laffite, who were both uninjured, were allowed to compete with their spare cars to reboot, even though they were eliminated at the time of the racing crash. Both teams decided to participate again. Hunt's car could be repaired before the restart, but was no longer considered eligible to start due to the acronym chosen by Hunt on the way to the pits as. Favored by vocal protests of the audience attending Hunt finally received yet by the race re- start authorization.
The second launch attempt, in which also Lauda was able to maintain at the top, reached the first car with no problems through the first corners. In the back of the field but collided Bob Evans and Guy Edwards and Patrick Depailler and Hans- Joachim Stuck. For Edwards and stucco, this meant the end of the race.
The ranking at the top with Lauda before Hunt, Regazzoni, Jody Scheckter and Ronnie Peterson remained constant during the first few laps until Peterson fell back behind Vittorio Brambilla. This was in the 15th round mount on the box new tires, so the fifth rank of Arturo Merzario was taken. Due to the technically -related losses Regazzoni and Brambillas and the other falling back Peterson Gunnar Nilsson came to fourth place ahead of Tom Pryce.
Because of transmission problems Lauda was slower in the second half of the race. Hunt caught up, overtook the Austrians in round 45 and eventually won the race well ahead of this. Scheckter crossed the finish line in third and John Watson, favored by the failure Nilsson, fourth.
After the race, Ferrari presented a protest against Hunt's victory, because it is actually no longer the restart would be allowed to participate. The protest was initially rejected. A final decision was, however, only about two months later, in September 1976: Niki Lauda was subsequently declared the winner of the race and James Hunt disqualified. The participation of Clay Regazzoni and Jacques Laffite at the restart was judged in retrospect as also unlawful. Since both had the race anyway but not finished, this remained without effect.
Message list
Classifications
Line-up
Race
WM stands after the race
The first six of the race were 9, 6, 4, 3, 2 and 1 point (s).