Swedish GP 1976

Swedish GP, 1976

The teams rushed north from Monaco to Sweden and there was little time for modifications to be made. Team Lotus was back to two cars again as Mario Andretti had returned from the Indianapolis 500 which had caused him to miss the Monaco race. Brett Lunger was also back in action, Surtees having completed a new car for him. Williams had only one car as Jacky Ickx was busy winning the Le Mans 24 Hours. RAM Racing was back with Loris Kessel and Denmark's Jac Nelleman in the second car (although he was the unlucky man who failed to qualify). Penske had the new PC4 on hand for John Watson.

Team Lotus had been working to develop the new Lotus 77 and Mario Andretti showed that the car had potential as he qualified second, just behind Jody Scheckter in the Tyrrell six-wheeler. Chris Amon was a remarkable third on the grid in the Ensign while Patrick Depailler was fourth fastest in the second Tyrrell. Usual front-runner Niki Lauda (Ferrari) was fifth with Lotus's Gunnar Nilsson sixth. Then came James Hunt (McLaren), Jacques Laffite (Ligier), Carlos Pace (Brabham-Alfa Romeo) and Ronnie Peterson (March).

At the start it was Andretti who took the lead from Scheckter, Depailler and Amon. Nilsson blew his chances with a spun into the pit wall and moment later the team was informed that Andretti was being penalized one minute for jumping the start. Andretti's only choice to was push as hard as possible and try to create a gap of more than a minute. The race was very dull with the only changes coming when a driver retired. Amon went out of fourth place on lap 39 when his suspension failed and he crashed. On lap 46 Andretti disappeared with an engine failure, leaving the Tyrrells running 1-2 at the front.

Third place fell to Lauda with Laffite fourth, Hunt fifth, while Regazzoni charged in the closing laps to pass Pace and Peterson to claim sixth.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
Jody Scheckter Tyrrell-Cosworth P34 72 1h46m53.729s  
Patrick Depailler Tyrrell-Cosworth P34 72 1h47m13.495s  
Niki Lauda Ferrari 312T2 72 1h47m27.595s  
26 Jacques Laffite Ligier-Matra JS5 72 1h47m49.548s  
11 James Hunt McLaren-Cosworth M23 72 1h47m53.212s  
Clay Regazzoni Ferrari 312T2 72 1h47m54.095s  11 
10 Ronnie Peterson March-Cosworth 761 72 1h47m57.222s  
Carlos Pace Brabham-Alfa Romeo BT45 72 1h48m05.342s  10 
16 Tom Pryce Shadow-Cosworth DN5B 71  12 
10 Vittorio Brambilla March-Cosworth 761 71  15 
11 12 Jochen Mass McLaren-Cosworth M23 71  13 
12 17 Jean-Pierre Jarier Shadow-Cosworth DN5B 71  14 
13 19 Alan Jones Surtees-Cosworth TS19 71  18 
14r 35 Arturo Merzario March-Cosworth 761 70 Engine 19 
15 18 Brett Lunger Surtees-Cosworth TS19 70  24 
24 Harald Ertl Hesketh-Cosworth 308D 54 Spin 23 
34 Hans-Joachim Stuck March-Cosworth 761 52 Engine 20 
Mario Andretti Lotus-Cosworth 77 45 Engine 
22 Chris Amon Ensign-Cosworth N176 38 Suspension/ Accident 
21 Michel Leclere Wolf Williams-Cosworth FW05 20 Engine 25 
37 Larry Perkins Boro-Cosworth N175 18 Engine 22 
30 Emerson Fittipaldi Copersucar-Cosworth FD04 10 Handling 21 
32 Loris Kessel Brabham-Cosworth BT44B Accident 26 
Gunnar Nilsson Lotus-Cosworth 77 Accident 
Carlos Reutemann Brabham-Alfa Romeo BT45 Engine 16 
28 John Watson Penske-Cosworth PC4 Throttle Jammed/ Accident 17