Swedish GP 1976
JUNE 13, 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.
POS | NO | DRIVER | ENTRANT | LAPS | TIME/RETIREMENT | QUAL POS |
1 | 3 | Jody Scheckter | Tyrrell-Cosworth P34 | 72 | 1h46m53.729s | 1 |
2 | 4 | Patrick Depailler | Tyrrell-Cosworth P34 | 72 | 1h47m13.495s | 4 |
3 | 1 | Niki Lauda | Ferrari 312T2 | 72 | 1h47m27.595s | 5 |
4 | 26 | Jacques Laffite | Ligier-Matra JS5 | 72 | 1h47m49.548s | 7 |
5 | 11 | James Hunt | McLaren-Cosworth M23 | 72 | 1h47m53.212s | 8 |
6 | 2 | Clay Regazzoni | Ferrari 312T2 | 72 | 1h47m54.095s | 11 |
7 | 10 | Ronnie Peterson | March-Cosworth 761 | 72 | 1h47m57.222s | 9 |
8 | 8 | Carlos Pace | Brabham-Alfa Romeo BT45 | 72 | 1h48m05.342s | 10 |
9 | 16 | Tom Pryce | Shadow-Cosworth DN5B | 71 | 12 | |
10 | 9 | 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 | |
r | 24 | Harald Ertl | Hesketh-Cosworth 308D | 54 | Spin | 23 |
r | 34 | Hans-Joachim Stuck | March-Cosworth 761 | 52 | Engine | 20 |
r | 5 | Mario Andretti | Lotus-Cosworth 77 | 45 | Engine | 2 |
r | 22 | Chris Amon | Ensign-Cosworth N176 | 38 | Suspension/ Accident | 3 |
r | 21 | Michel Leclere | Wolf Williams-Cosworth FW05 | 20 | Engine | 25 |
r | 37 | Larry Perkins | Boro-Cosworth N175 | 18 | Engine | 22 |
r | 30 | Emerson Fittipaldi | Copersucar-Cosworth FD04 | 10 | Handling | 21 |
r | 32 | Loris Kessel | Brabham-Cosworth BT44B | 5 | Accident | 26 |
r | 6 | Gunnar Nilsson | Lotus-Cosworth 77 | 2 | Accident | 6 |
r | 7 | Carlos Reutemann | Brabham-Alfa Romeo BT45 | 2 | Engine | 16 |
r | 28 | John Watson | Penske-Cosworth PC4 | 0 | Throttle Jammed/ Accident | 17 |