Canadian GP 1976

Canadian GP, 1976

With three races to go in the World Championship Niki Lauda (Ferrari) and James Hunt (McLaren) were 17 points apart (Hunt's disqualification from the British GP having been confirmed after the Italian GP). Hunt was not giving up, however, and took pole position in dominant fashion. The McLaren team decided to concentrate on the old M23s rather than continue to develop the difficult M26. Ferrari had left Carlos Reutemann out of the lineup and ran only two cars for Lauda and Clay Regazzoni while there had been a change at Brabham with Larry Perkins having been hired to stand in for Reutemann. Williams turned up with Chris Amon in a second car but after a spin he was hit by Harald Ertl's Hesketh and both cars seriously damaged. Amon suffered bruising to his legs and Ertl to his back. Otto Stuppacher appeared again but he was well off the pace and failed to qualify.

Alongside Hunt on the front row was Monza winner Ronnie Peterson (March) with his team mate Vittorio Brambilla third ahead of Patrick Depailler (Tyrrell). Mario Andretti (Lotus) shared the third row with Lauda while Jody Scheckter (Tyrrell) and Hans Stuck (March) were on row four ahead of Jacques Laffite (Ligier) and Carlos Pace in the Brabham-Alfa Romeo. Clay Regazzoni was a disappointing 11th in his Ferrari.

At the start Peterson made a better start than Hunt and took the lead while Depailler beat Brambilla into the second corner to grab third. Andretti was fifth with Scheckter and Lauda behind him. By the end of the first lap Brambilla had been pushed down to fifth by Andretti and on the fourth lap he fell behind Scheckter as well.

On the ninth lap Hunt took the lead, while further back Lauda moved ahead of Brambilla to get into sixth place. Peterson was unable to keep up the pace and dropped behind Depailler, Andretti, Scheckter, Lauda and Jochen Mass in quick succession. he would finish a distant ninth.

The order remained unchanged until lap 59 when Lauda began to suffer handling problems and he let Mass, Regazzoni and Pace pass him.

Hunt's victory was thus complete and the World Championship gap closed to just eight points. Depailler finished second with Andretti third, Scheckter fourth, Mass fifth and Regazzoni sixth, just ahead of Pace.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
1 11 James Hunt McLaren-Cosworth M23 80 1h40m09.626s  1 
2 4 Patrick Depailler Tyrrell-Cosworth P34 80 1h40m15.957s  4 
3 5 Mario Andretti Lotus-Cosworth 77 80 1h40m19.992s  5 
4 3 Jody Scheckter Tyrrell-Cosworth P34 80 1h40m29.371s  7 
5 12 Jochen Mass McLaren-Cosworth M23 80 1h40m51.437s  11 
6 2 Clay Regazzoni Ferrari 312T2 80 1h40m55.882s  12 
7 8 Carlos Pace Brabham-Alfa Romeo BT45 80 1h40m56.098s  10 
8 1 Niki Lauda Ferrari 312T2 80 1h41m22.583s  6 
9 10 Ronnie Peterson March-Cosworth 761 79  2 
10 28 John Watson Penske-Cosworth PC4 79  14 
11 16 Tom Pryce Shadow-Cosworth DN8 79  13 
12 6 Gunnar Nilsson Lotus-Cosworth 77 79  15 
13 22 Jacky Ickx Ensign-Cosworth N176 79  16 
14 9 Vittorio Brambilla March-Cosworth 761 79  3 
15 18 Brett Lunger Surtees-Cosworth TS19 78  22 
16 19 Alan Jones Surtees-Cosworth TS19 78  20 
17 7 Larry Perkins Brabham-Alfa Romeo BT45 78  19 
18 17 Jean-Pierre Jarier Shadow-Cosworth DN5B 77  18 
19 38 Henri Pescarolo Surtees-Cosworth TS19 77  21 
20 25 Guy Edwards Hesketh-Cosworth 308D 75  23 
r 26 Jacques Laffite Ligier-Matra JS5 43 Engine 9 
r 30 Emerson Fittipaldi Copersucar-Cosworth FD04 41 Exhaust/ Wing Bracket 17 
r 34 Hans-Joachim Stuck March-Cosworth 761 36 Handling 8 
r 20 Arturo Merzario Wolf Williams-Cosworth FW05 11 Spin 24 
ns 24 Harald Ertl Hesketh-Cosworth 308D  Accident 25 
ns 21 Chris Amon Wolf Williams-Cosworth FW05  Accident 26 
nq 39 Otto Stuppacher Tyrrell-Cosworth 007   27