1976 Brazilian Grand Prix

  1976 Brazilian Grand Prix

Race details
Race 1 of 16 in the 1976 Formula One season
Date	January 25, 1976
Location	São Paulo, Brazil
Course	permanent racing facility 7.98 km (4.79 mi)
Distance	40 laps, 319.2 km (191.6 mi)
Weather	Sunny
Pole position
Driver	James Hunt	McLaren-Ford
Time	2:32.50
Fastest lap
Driver	Jean-Pierre Jarier	Shadow-Ford
Time	2:35.07 on lap 31
Podium
First	Niki Lauda	Ferrari
Second	Patrick Depailler	Tyrrell-Ford
Third	Tom Pryce	Shadow-Ford

Emerson Fittipaldi in a Fittipaldi FD04.

The 1976 Brazilian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Interlagos in São Paulo, Brazil on January 25, 1976. The race was contested over 40 laps and was the opening round of the 1976 Formula One season. The race was won by defending World Champion, Niki Lauda, who drove a Ferrari car. Patrick Depailler in a Tyrrell-Ford car and Tom Pryce in a Shadow-Ford car finished second and third respectively, to complete the podium.

Summary

For the opening round of the season in Brazil, James Hunt took pole position in his McLaren with reigning World Champion Niki Lauda alongside in his Ferrari (which set the tone for the season). Clay Regazzoni in the second Ferrari took the lead at the start. Regazzoni, Lauda, Hunt and Shadow's Jean-Pierre Jarier battled. Regazzoni and Jarier collided, and the former had to pit for repairs. Lauda now led from Hunt and Jarier, but Hunt crashed out due to a sticking throttle, and Jarier did the same a lap later after driving on some oil in the track. Lauda thus started his title defence with victory, with Patrick Depailler second in the Tyrrell, and Tom Pryce completing the podium in the other Shadow.

Classification

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	1	Niki Lauda	Ferrari	40	1:45:16.78	2	9
2	4	Patrick Depailler	Tyrrell-Ford	40	+ 21.47	9	6
3	16	Tom Pryce	Shadow-Ford	40	+ 23.84	12	4
4	34	Hans Joachim Stuck	March-Ford	40	+ 1:28.17	14	3
5	3	Jody Scheckter	Tyrrell-Ford	40	+ 1:56.46	13	2
6	12	Jochen Mass	McLaren-Ford	40	+ 1:58.27	6	1
7	2	Clay Regazzoni	Ferrari	40	+ 2:15.24	4
8	20	Jacky Ickx	Wolf-Williams-Ford	39	+ 1 lap	19
9	21	Renzo Zorzi	Williams-Ford	39	+ 1 lap	17
10	8	Carlos Pace	Brabham-Alfa Romeo	39	+ 1 Lap	10
11	31	Ingo Hoffmann	Fittipaldi-Ford	39	+ 1 Lap	20
12	7	Carlos Reutemann	Brabham-Alfa Romeo	37	Out of Fuel	15
13	30	Emerson Fittipaldi	Fittipaldi-Ford	37	+ 3 Laps	5
14	10	Lella Lombardi	March-Ford	36	+ 4 Laps	22
Ret	17	Jean-Pierre Jarier	Shadow-Ford	33	Accident	3
Ret	11	James Hunt	McLaren-Ford	32	Accident	1
Ret	9	Vittorio Brambilla	March-Ford	15	Oil Leak	7
Ret	26	Jacques Laffite	Ligier-Matra	14	Transmission	11
Ret	5	Ronnie Peterson	Lotus-Ford	10	Accident	18
Ret	6	Mario Andretti	Lotus-Ford	6	Accident	16
Ret	28	John Watson	Penske-Ford	2	Fuel System	8
Ret	14	Ian Ashley	BRM	2	Oil Pump	21

Notes

• Pole position: James Hunt - 2:32.50
• Fastest lap: Jean Pierre Jarier - 2:35.07 on lap 31

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Niki Lauda 9 2 Patrick Depailler 6 3 Tom Pryce 4 4 Hans-Joachim Stuck 3 5 Jody Scheckter 2

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Ferrari 9 2 Tyrrell-Ford 6 3 Shadow-Ford 4 4 March-Ford 3 5 McLaren-Ford 1

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

Unless otherwise indicated, all race results are taken from "The Official Formula 1 website". http://www.formula1.com/results/season/1976/442/. Retrieved 2007-06-16. 

Previous race: 1975 United States Grand Prix	FIA Formula One World Championship 1976 season	Next race: 1976 South African Grand Prix
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This page uses some content from Wikipedia. The original article was at 1976 Brazilian Grand Prix. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Autopedia, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.