Swedish GP 1977

Swedish GP, 1977

There was much excitement in Sweden as a result of Gunnar Nilsson's victory in Belgium a few days earlier. The field was much the same as it had been in Zolder although Riccardo Patrese was away racing Formula 2 cars at Mugello and so team manager Jacky Oliver had a run in the Shadow. RAM Racing expanded to two cars with a second March 761 being entered for Finland's Mikko Kozarowitsky.

In qualifying things were complicated somewhat by Goodyear's decision to bring different tire compounds. The American company was aware that Michelin would soon be entering F1 with the new Renault team and wanted to be prepared. In the end, however, the tires made little difference as Mario Andretti was again on pole for Lotus with John Watson second in the Brabham-Alfa Romeo, just as they had been in Zolder. Third on the grid was James Hunt in the McLaren M26 with championship leader Jody Scheckter alongside him in the Wolf. Then came Hans Stuck's Brabham, Patrick Depailler's Tyrrell, Nilsson's Lotus and Jacques Laffite in the Ligier-Matra. The top 10 was completed by Jochen Mass in a McLaren M23 and Ronnie Peterson in the second six-wheeler Tyrrell. Niki Lauda, who was one point behind Scheckter in the title race, was 13th.

At the start Watson once again beat Andretti away from the start with Scheckter briefly second before the Lotus driver took control. On the second lap he took the lead from Watson and the order then remained unchanged until lap 30 when Scheckter tried to pass Watson and the two collided. Scheckter retired and Watson had to go into the pits. This put Hunt up to second place but he had Depailler, Mass, Laffite and Reutemann right behind him. Laffite now began the charge and in the space of five laps passed Mass, Depailler and Hunt to take second place. He then set off after Andretti who was 15secs ahead. While this was happening Mass overtook Depailler and Hunt to take third and was followed through by Reutemann.

With two laps to go Andretti ran into a fuel metering problem and arrived in the pits. Laffite took the lead to win the first all-French victory in the 27 year history of the World Championship. Mass was second with Reutemann third, Depailler fourth and Watson fifth. Andretti recovered to finish sixth.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
26 Jacques Laffite Ligier-Matra  72 1h46m55.520s  
Jochen Mass McLaren-Cosworth  72 1h47m03.969s  
12 Carlos Reutemann Ferrari  72 1h47m09.889s  12 
Patrick Depailler Tyrrell-Cosworth  72 1h47m11.828s  
John Watson Brabham-Alfa Romeo  72 1h47m14.255s  
Mario Andretti Lotus-Cosworth  72 1h47m20.797s  
22 Clay Regazzoni Ensign-Cosworth  72 1h47m26.786s  14 
34 Jean-Pierre Jarier Penske-Cosworth  72 1h48m00.087s  17 
16 Jackie Oliver Shadow-Cosworth  72 1h48m17.999s  16 
10 Hans-Joachim Stuck Brabham-Alfa Romeo  71  
11 30 Brett Lunger March-Cosworth  71  22 
12 James Hunt McLaren-Cosworth  71  
13 24 Rupert Keegan Hesketh-Cosworth  71  24 
14 31 David Purley Lec-Cosworth  70  19 
15 27 Patrick Neve March-Cosworth  69  20 
16 25 Harald Ertl Hesketh-Cosworth  68  23 
17 17 Alan Jones Shadow-Cosworth  67  11 
18 28 Emerson Fittipaldi Copersucar-Cosworth  66  18 
19r Gunnar Nilsson Lotus-Cosworth  64 Wheel Bearing 
10 Ian Scheckter March-Cosworth  61 Cv Joint 21 
19 Vittorio Brambilla Surtees-Cosworth  52 Fuel Pressure 13 
11 Niki Lauda Ferrari  47 Handling 15 
20 Jody Scheckter Wolf-Cosworth  29 Accident 
Ronnie Peterson Tyrrell-Cosworth  Ignition 10 
nq Alex-Dias Ribeiro March-Cosworth    25 
nq 36 Emilio de Villota McLaren-Cosworth    26 
nq 18 Larry Perkins Surtees-Cosworth    27 
nq 33 Boy (Johan Gerard) Hayje March-Cosworth    28 
nq 39 Hector Rebaque Hesketh-Cosworth    29 
nq 35 Conny Andersson Stanley BRM-BRM    30 
nq 32 Mikko Kozarowitsky March-Cosworth    31