United States GP 1975

OCTOBER 5, 1975

United States GP, 1975

There was a gap of a month after the Italian Grand Prix before the teams gathered at Watkins Glen. The Maki, BRM and Surtees teams did not make the trip and Hill and Ensign sent only one drivers each. Chris Amon had hurt his leg in a road accident at the Long Beach Formula 5000 event. March decided to run only two cars for Hans Stuck and Vittorio Brambilla and so Lella Lombardi moved to the second Williams. Wilson Fittipaldi was back in action in the Fittipaldi, having overcome his hand injuries, while Brian Henton was back in the second Lotus in place of Jim Crawford. Tyrrell entered its third car for Elf protege Michel Leclere while Surtees driver John Watson had been taken on to drive for Penske.

It was no surprise that the new World Champion Niki Lauda took pole position in his Ferrari. Alongside him on the front row was Emerson Fittipaldi's McLaren while the second row featured Carlos Reutemann (Brabham) and Jean-Pierre Jarier (Shadow). On the third row Mario Andretti (Parnelli) lined up alongside Brambilla while Tom Pryce (Shadow) shared the fourth with Patrick Depailler (Tyrrell). Jochen Mass (McLaren) and Jody Scheckter (Tyrrell) completed the top 10. James Hunt was surprisingly off the pace in his Hesketh, lining up 15th on the grid.

Lauda won the race to the first corner and the Ferrari and Fittipaldi then drove away from the rest of the field, leaving Jarier to lead the hunt ahead of Brambilla, Reutmann, Andretti and a charging James Hunt. The order remained unchanged at the front from flag to flag with Lauda winning by five seconds. Jarier retired on lap 19 with a wheel failure but as Reutemann and Andretti had both gone out with mechanical troubles it was Hunt who emerged in third place at the head of a battling group consisting of Mass, Ronnie Peterson (Lotus) and Scheckter. Mass managed to pass Hunt in the mid-race to take third place. On lap 50 Hunt was overtaken by Peterson but the Englishman reclaimed fourth place on the final lap. The pair finished with Scheckter right on their tail.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
1 12 Niki Lauda Ferrari 312T 59 1h42m58.175s  1 
2 1 Emerson Fittipaldi McLaren-Cosworth M23 59 1h43m03.118s  2 
3 2 Jochen Mass McLaren-Cosworth M23 59 1h43m45.812s  9 
4 24 James Hunt Hesketh-Cosworth 308C 59 1h43m47.650s  15 
5 5 Ronnie Peterson Lotus-Cosworth 72E 59 1h43m48.161s  14 
6 3 Jody Scheckter Tyrrell-Cosworth 007 59 1h43m48.496s  10 
7 9 Vittorio Brambilla March-Cosworth 751 59 1h44m42.206s  6 
8 10 Hans-Joachim Stuck March-Cosworth 751 58  13 
9 28 John Watson Penske-Cosworth PC1 57  12 
10 30 Wilson Fittipaldi Copersucar-Cosworth FD03 55  23 
nc 16 Tom Pryce Shadow-Cosworth DN5 52  7 
nc 6 Brian Henton Lotus-Cosworth 72F 49  19 
r 25 Brett Lunger Hesketh-Cosworth 308 46 Accident 18 
r 31 Roelof Wunderink Ensign-Cosworth N175 41 Gearbox 22 
r 11 Clay Regazzoni Ferrari 312T 28 Withdrew (protest) 11 
r 17 Jean-Pierre Jarier Shadow-Cosworth DN5 19 Mechanical 4 
r 7 Carlos Reutemann Brabham-Cosworth BT44B 9 Engine 3 
r 27 Mario Andretti Parnelli-Cosworth VPJ4 9 Suspension 5 
r 23 Tony Brise Hill-Cosworth GH1 5 Accident 17 
r 15 Michel Leclere Tyrrell-Cosworth 007 5 Engine 20 
r 4 Patrick Depailler Tyrrell-Cosworth 007 2 Accident 8 
r 8 Carlos Pace Brabham-Cosworth BT44B 2 Accident 16 
ns 21 Jacques Laffite Williams-Cosworth FW04  Driver Discomfort 21 
ns 20 Lella Lombardi Williams-Cosworth FW04  Ignition 24