The 1977 Austrian Grand Prix was a Formula One race held at the Österreichring on August 14, 1977. It was the tenth Austrian Grand Prix since the race was first held in 1963. It was held over 54 laps of the six kilometre venue for a race distance of 320 kilometres. Since the 1976 a chicane called "Hella-Licht" had been added to the track, replacing the very fast Vost-Hugel Kurve.
The race saw the first Formula One victory of future World Champion Alan Jones. The Australian driver took his Shadow DN8 to a twenty second victory over local hero Niki Lauda in his Ferrari 312T2. It would be the only race victory for Shadow Racing Cars during its eight year Formula One history. Third was Hans Joachim Stuck in his Brabham BT45B.
Race report[]
Rain had fallen immediately prior to the race start leaving the track wet but would not rain during the race. Tyre choice was split between wets and slicks. Mario Andretti led early until the engine failed in his Lotus 78. The track was drying by this time. Gunnar Nilsson and Jones had starred in the early laps on the wet track. Nilsson moving from 16th to second and Jones progressed from his 14th grid position to fourth. James Hunt became the race leader. Nilsson pitted to replace his ruined wet tyres on his Lotus 78 while Jones moved past Hans Joachim Stuck's Brabham and Jody Scheckter's Wolf WR3 into second position. Jones would not have progressed further but for an engine failure in Hunt's McLaren M26 late in the race. Nilsson recovered from his pitstop to third until an engine failure claimed its second Lotus of the day. Lauda's poor handling Ferrari came on as the track dried and he moved into second while Stuck survived to claim the final podium position. Scheckter spun off leaving Carlos Reutemann in the second Ferrari 312T2 to finish fourth ahead of Ronnie Peterson in the Tyrrell P34 and the second McLaren of Jochen Mass claimed the final championship point in sixth. Despite the changeable condition, 16 cars finished the race with 17 classified. The seventeenth was Emilio de Villota, who crashed his privately entered McLaren M23 in the closing stages while on his 51st lap.
It had been seven years since the last victory by an Australian (Jack Brabham in the 1970 South African Grand Prix). Jones' win had no effect the championship points race. Lauda's second place, coupled with retirements to Scheckter, Andretti and Hunt significantly strengthened Lauda's grip on the championship, expanding his lead to 16 points.
Classification[]
| Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Laps | Time/Retired | Grid | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 17 |  Alan Jones
|
Shadow-Ford | 54 | 1:37:16.49 | 14 | 9 |
| 2 | 11 |  Niki Lauda
|
Ferrari | 54 | +20.13 secs | 1 | 6 |
| 3 | 8 |  Hans Joachim Stuck
|
Brabham-Alfa Romeo | 54 | +34.5 secs | 4 | 4 |
| 4 | 12 |  Carlos Reutemann
|
Ferrari | 54 | +34.75 secs | 5 | 3 |
| 5 | 3 |  Ronnie Peterson
|
Tyrrell-Ford | 54 | +72.09 secs | 15 | 2 |
| 6 | 2 | Jochen Mass
|
McLaren-Ford | 53 | +1 lap | 9 | 1 |
| 7 | 24 |  Rupert Keegan
|
Hesketh-Ford | 53 | +1 lap | 20 | |
| 8 | 7 | John Watson
|
Brabham-Alfa Romeo | 53 | +1 lap | 12 | |
| 9 | 27 |  Patrick Nève
|
March-Ford | 53 | +1 lap | 22 | |
| 10 | 30 |  Brett Lunger
|
McLaren-Ford | 53 | +1 lap | 17 | |
| 11 | 28 |  Emerson Fittipaldi
|
Fittipaldi-Ford | 53 | +1 lap | 23 | |
| 12 | 33 | Hans Binder
|
Penske-Ford | 53 | +1 lap | 19 | |
| 13 | 4 |  Patrick Depailler
|
Tyrrell-Ford | 53 | +1 lap | 10 | |
| 14 | 34 | Jean-Pierre Jarier
|
Penske-Ford | 52 | +2 laps | 18 | |
| 15 | 19 |  Vittorio Brambilla
|
Surtees-Ford | 52 | +2 laps | 13 | |
| 16 | 18 | Vern Schuppan
|
Surtees-Ford | 52 | +2 laps | 25 | |
| 17 | 36 |  Emilio de Villota
|
McLaren-Ford | 50 | Accident | 26 | |
| Ret | 20 |  Jody Scheckter
|
Wolf-Ford | 45 | Spun Off | 8 | |
| Ret | 1 | James Hunt
|
McLaren-Ford | 43 | Engine | 2 | |
| Ret | 23 | Patrick Tambay
|
Ensign-Ford | 41 | Engine | 7 | |
| Ret | 6 | Gunnar Nilsson
|
Lotus-Ford | 38 | Engine | 16 | |
| Ret | 16 | Arturo Merzario
|
Shadow-Ford | 29 | Gearbox | 21 | |
| Ret | 26 | Jacques Laffite
|
Ligier-Matra | 21 | Oil Leak | 6 | |
| Ret | 5 | Mario Andretti
|
Lotus-Ford | 11 | Engine | 3 | |
| Ret | 10 | Ian Scheckter
|
March-Ford | 2 | Accident | 24 | |
| Ret | 22 |  Clay Regazzoni
|
Ensign-Ford | 0 | Accident | 11 | |
| DNQ | 38 | Brian Henton
|
March-Ford | ||||
| DNQ | 39 | Ian Ashley
|
Hesketh-Ford | ||||
| DNQ | 25 |  Hector Rebaque
|
Hesketh-Ford | ||||
| DNQ | 9 | Alex Ribeiro
|
March-Ford |
Standings after the race[]
|
|
- Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. Only the best 8 results from the first 9 races and the best 7 results from the remaining 8 races were retained. Numbers without parentheses are retained points; numbers in parentheses are total points scored.
References[]
- "The Official Formula 1 website". http://www.formula1.com/results/season/1977/436/. Retrieved 2008-01-27.
| Previous race: 1977 German Grand Prix |
FIA Formula One World Championship 1977 season |
Next race: 1977 Dutch Grand Prix |
| Previous race: 1976 Austrian Grand Prix |
Austrian Grand Prix | Next race: 1978 Austrian Grand Prix |
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This page uses some content from Wikipedia. The original article was at 1977 Austrian 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. |