Swedish GP 1975
Swedish GP, 1975
A fortnight after the Belgian GP (Niki Lauda's second consecutive victory) the F1 circus gathered again at Anderstorp in Sweden. There were some changes in the driver lineup with Mario Andretti back in action having missed the Belgian race because of commitments at Indianapolis. Torsten palm was back in action in his Polar Caravans Hesketh. Frank Williams had two new drivers. Arturo Merzario had left the team and was replaced by Irishman Damien Magee while Jacques Laffite was racing in F2 at Hockenheim and so Ian Scheckter was hired to drive the second car. Graham Hill had also replaced Francois Migault with Vern Schuppan. Qualifying resulted in pole position for Vittorio Brambilla's March (which had led in Belgium) with Patrick Depailler second in his Tyrrell. Third position went to Jean-Pierre Jarier's Shadow and fourth to Carlos Reutemann (Brabham). Then came Lauda followed by Jody Scheckter (Tyrrell), Tom Pryce (Shadow), John Watson (Surtees) and Ronnie Peterson (Lotus). Clay Regazzoni was 11th and Emerson Fittipaldi 12th. In the race Brambilla took the lead with Depailler, Jarier, Reutemann, Pace and Lauda in pursuit. In the early laps the only change was that Reutemann overtook Jarier. On the 15th lap, however, Depailler went out with a brake problem and on the next lap Brambilla began to drop back with overheating tires. He was overtaken by Reutemann and decided to pit. This left Jarier second and Pace third with Lauda in fourth position ahead of Regazzoni and Andretti. On lap 39 Jarier went out with engine failure and so Pace made it a Brabham 1-2 but three laps later he spun off. Lauda was suddenly second and he began to close on Reutemann, who was suffering from oversteer. Lauda closed in and on lap 70 he went ahead and went on to win his third consecutive victory. Reutemann finished second with Regazzoni third, Andretti fourth, Mark Donohue fifth in his Penske and Tony Brise sixth in the Hill.