| Race details | ||
|---|---|---|
| Race 8 of 16 in the 1976 Formula One season | ||
 | ||
| Date | July 4, 1976 | |
| Location | Paul Ricard Circuit | |
| Course | Permanent racing facility 5.809 km (3.61 mi) | |
| Distance | 54 laps, 313.686 km (194.94 mi) | |
| Pole position | ||
| Driver |  James Hunt
|
McLaren-Ford |
| Time | 1:47.89[1] | |
| Fastest lap | ||
| Driver |  Niki Lauda
|
Ferrari |
| Time | 1:51.0 on lap 4[2] | |
| Podium | ||
| First | James Hunt
|
McLaren-Ford |
| Second |  Patrick Depailler
|
Tyrrell-Ford |
| Third | John Watson
|
Penske-Ford |
The 1976 French Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at the Paul Ricard Circuit in Le Castellet, near Marseille in France on July 4, 1976. The race was the eighth round of the 1976 Formula One season. It was the 54th French Grand Prix and the fourth to be held at Paul Ricard. The race was held over 54 laps of the 5.8-kilometre venue for a race distance of 314 kilometres.
The race was won by eventual 1976 world champion James Hunt driving a McLaren M23. Hunt won by twelve seconds over the Tyrrell P34 of Patrick Depailler. It was Hunt's second win for the year and his third career Grand Prix victory, although at this stage his appeal against disqualification from the Spanish Grand Prix win had yet to be upheld. Eleven seconds further back in third was John Watson driving a Penske PC4. It was the first podium finish for both Watson and Penske, although the result only came after Ronnie Peterson's March 761 stopped with three laps to go and after Watson was disqualified for a rear wing irregularity and subsequently reinstated upon appeal.
Fourth place was taken by young Brazilian driver Carlos Pace driving a Brabham BT45 ahead of Mario Andretti (Lotus 77) and the Tyrrell P34 of Jody Scheckter.
Reigning champion Niki Lauda retired his Ferrari 312T2 with an engine failure while leading. While Hunt would eventually prove to be the challenger to Lauda for the 1976 championship Lauda's points lead at this time was over the Tyrrell pair of Patrick Depailler (26 points) and Scheckter (24 points).
Classification[]
| Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Laps | Time/Retired | Grid | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 11 | James Hunt
|
McLaren-Ford | 54 | 1:40:58.60 | 1 | 9 |
| 2 | 4 | Patrick Depailler
|
Tyrrell-Ford | 54 | + 12.70 | 3 | 6 |
| 3 | 28 | John Watson
|
Penske-Ford | 54 | + 23.55 | 8 | 4 |
| 4 | 8 |  Carlos Pace
|
Brabham-Alfa Romeo | 54 | + 24.82 | 5 | 3 |
| 5 | 5 |  Mario Andretti
|
Lotus-Ford | 54 | + 43.92 | 7 | 2 |
| 6 | 3 |  Jody Scheckter
|
Tyrrell-Ford | 54 | + 55.07 | 9 | 1 |
| 7 | 34 |  Hans Joachim Stuck
|
March-Ford | 54 | + 1:21.55 | 17 | |
| 8 | 16 | Tom Pryce
|
Shadow-Ford | 54 | + 1:30.67 | 16 | |
| 9 | 35 |  Arturo Merzario
|
March-Ford | 54 | + 1:53.57 | 20 | |
| 10 | 20 |  Jacky Ickx
|
Wolf-Williams-Ford | 53 | + 1 Lap | 19 | |
| 11 | 7 |  Carlos Reutemann
|
Brabham-Alfa Romeo | 53 | + 1 Lap | 10 | |
| 12 | 17 | Jean-Pierre Jarier
|
Shadow-Ford | 53 | + 1 Lap | 15 | |
| 13 | 21 | Michel Leclère
|
Wolf-Williams-Ford | 53 | + 1 Lap | 22 | |
| 14 | 26 | Jacques Laffite
|
Ligier-Matra | 53 | + 1 lap | 13 | |
| 15 | 12 | Jochen Mass
|
McLaren-Ford | 53 | + 1 Lap | 14 | |
| 16 | 18 | Brett Lunger
|
Surtees-Ford | 53 | + 1 Lap | 23 | |
| 17 | 25 | Guy Edwards
|
Hesketh-Ford | 53 | + 1 lap | 25 | |
| 18 | 22 | Patrick Neve
|
Ensign-Ford | 53 | + 1 Lap | 26 | |
| 19 | 10 |  Ronnie Peterson
|
March-Ford | 51 | Fuel System | 6 | |
| Ret | 19 |  Alan Jones
|
Surtees-Ford | 44 | Suspension | 18 | |
| Ret | 9 | Vittorio Brambilla
|
March-Ford | 28 | Oil Pressure | 11 | |
| Ret | 30 | Emerson Fittipaldi
|
Fittipaldi-Ford | 21 | Oil Pressure | 21 | |
| Ret | 38 | Henri Pescarolo
|
Surtees-Ford | 19 | Suspension | 24 | |
| Ret | 2 |  Clay Regazzoni
|
Ferrari | 17 | Engine | 4 | |
| Ret | 1 | Niki Lauda
|
Ferrari | 8 | Engine | 2 | |
| Ret | 6 | Gunnar Nilsson
|
Lotus-Ford | 8 | Gearbox | 12 | |
| Ret | 24 | Harald Ertl
|
Hesketh-Ford | 4 | Differential | 29 | |
| DNQ | 33 | Damien Magee
|
Brabham-Ford | ||||
| DNQ | 31 | Ingo Hoffmann
|
Fittipaldi-Ford | ||||
| DNQ | 32 | Loris Kessel
|
Brabham-Ford |
Notes[]
- Pole position: James Hunt - 1:47.89[1]
- Fastest lap: Niki Lauda - 1:51.0 on lap 4[2]
- Watson was originally disqualified but reinstated on appeal
Standings after the race[]
|
|
- Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. Only the best 7 results from the first 8 races and the best 7 results from the last 8 races counted towards the Championship. Numbers without parentheses are Championship points; numbers in parentheses are total points scored.
References[]
Unless otherwise indicated, all race results are taken from "The Official Formula 1 website". http://www.formula1.com/results/season/1976/449/. Retrieved 2007-06-16.
| Previous race: 1976 Swedish Grand Prix |
FIA Formula One World Championship 1976 season |
Next race: 1976 British Grand Prix |
| Previous race: 1975 French Grand Prix |
French Grand Prix | Next race: 1977 French Grand Prix |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
This page uses some content from Wikipedia. The original article was at 1976 French 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. |