1976 Spanish Grand Prix

  1976 Spanish Grand Prix

Race details
Race 4 of 16 in the 1976 Formula One season
Date	May 2, 1976
Location	Jarama, Spain
Course	Permanent racing facility 3.404 km (2.115 mi)
Distance	75 laps, 255.3 km (158.625 mi)
Pole position
Driver	James Hunt	McLaren-Ford
Time	1:18.52
Fastest lap
Driver	Jochen Mass	McLaren-Ford
Time	1:20.93 on lap 52
Podium
First	James Hunt	McLaren-Ford
Second	Niki Lauda	Ferrari
Third	Gunnar Nilsson	Lotus-Ford

The 1976 Spanish Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Jarama on May 2, 1976, and was the fourth round of the 1976 Formula One season. The race, which was contested over 75 laps, was won by James Hunt who drove a McLaren-Ford to take his first victory of the year. Ferrari driver Niki Lauda extended his Drivers' Championship lead to 15 points by finishing second, whilst Gunnar Nilsson took his Lotus-Ford home in third place to complete the podium.

Summary

As the European season began, there was a big talking point as the Tyrrell team entered a new P34 six-wheeler for Depailler. Depailler was on the pace and qualified third, behind Hunt and Lauda. Lauda once again beat Hunt off the line at the start and led for the first third of the race. Depailler, after a slow start, was running fourth behind Mass when he spun off and crashed with brake problems. Just before mid-race, the McLarens of Hunt and Mass found another gear and drove past Lauda, but towards the end of the race, Mass had to retire with an engine failure. Hunt took his first win of the season, with Lauda second and Gunnar Nilsson's Lotus third.

After the race, Hunt was disqualified because his McLaren was found to be too wide. McLaren appealed, saying this was due to the expansion of the tyres during the race, and two months after the race, Hunt was reinstated.

Classification

Pos	No	Nat	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	11		James Hunt	McLaren-Ford	75	1:42:20.43	1	9
2	1		Niki Lauda	Ferrari	75	+ 30.97	2	6
3	6		Gunnar Nilsson	Lotus-Ford	75	+ 48.02	7	4
4	7		Carlos Reutemann	Brabham-Alfa Romeo	74	+ 1 lap	12	3
5	22		Chris Amon	Ensign-Ford	74	+ 1 lap	10	2
6	8		Carlos Pace	Brabham-Alfa Romeo	74	+ 1 lap	11	1
7	20		Jacky Ickx	Wolf-Williams-Ford	74	+ 1 lap	21
8	16		Tom Pryce	Shadow-Ford	74	+ 1 lap	22
9	19		Alan Jones	Surtees-Ford	74	+ 1 lap	20
10	21		Michel Leclère	Wolf-Williams-Ford	73	+ 2 laps	23
11	2		Clay Regazzoni	Ferrari	72	+ 3 laps	5
12	26		Jacques Laffite	Ligier-Matra	72	+ 3 laps	8
13	37		Larry Perkins	Boro-Ford	72	+ 3 laps	24
Ret	12		Jochen Mass	McLaren-Ford	65	Engine	4
Ret	17		Jean-Pierre Jarier	Shadow-Ford	61	Electrical	15
Ret	3		Jody Scheckter	Tyrrell-Ford	53	Engine	14
Ret	28		John Watson	Penske-Ford	51	Engine	13
Ret	35		Arturo Merzario	March-Ford	36	Gearbox	18
Ret	5		Mario Andretti	Lotus-Ford	34	Gearbox	9
Ret	4		Patrick Depailler	Tyrrell-Ford	25	Accident	3
Ret	9		Vittorio Brambilla	March-Ford	21	Suspension	6
Ret	34		Hans Joachim Stuck	March-Ford	16	Gearbox	17
Ret	10		Ronnie Peterson	March-Ford	11	Transmission	16
Ret	30		Emerson Fittipaldi	Fittipaldi-Ford	3	Transmission	19
DNQ	18		Brett Lunger	Surtees-Ford
DNQ	32		Loris Kessel	Brabham-Ford
DNQ	25		Emilio Zapico	Williams-Ford
DNQ	33		Emilio de Villota	Brabham-Ford
DNQ	24		Harald Ertl	Hesketh-Ford
DNQ	31		Ingo Hoffmann	Fittipaldi-Ford

Notes

• Pole position: James Hunt - 1:18.52
• Fastest lap: Jochen Mass - 1:20.93 on lap 52
• The six-wheeled Tyrrell P34 made its debut in this race, driven by Patrick Depailler. (His teammate Jody Scheckter drove the previous, 4-wheel model, only switching to the P34 in the following race)
• Hunt and Laffite were originally disqualified but reinstated on appeal
• Last points - Chris Amon

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Niki Lauda 30 2 James Hunt 15 3 Patrick Depailler 10 4 Clay Regazzoni 9 5 Jochen Mass 7

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Ferrari 33 2 McLaren-Ford 18 3 Tyrrell-Ford 13 4 Shadow-Ford 4 5 Lotus-Ford 4

• 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/1976/445/. Retrieved 2007-06-16. 

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This page uses some content from Wikipedia. The original article was at 1976 Spanish 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.