1977 Canadian Grand Prix

The 1977 Canadian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on October 9, 1977, at Mosport Park. It was the 16th and penultimate race of the 1977 Formula One season.[2]

1977 Canadian Grand Prix
Race 16 of 17 in the 1977 Formula One season
Race details
Date October 9, 1977
Location Mosport Park, Canada
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 3.957 km (2.459 mi)
Distance 80 laps, 316.56 km (196.72 mi)
Weather Cold with temperatures approaching 12 °C (54 °F); wind speeds up to 12.8 kilometres per hour (8.0 mph)[1]
Pole position
Driver Lotus-Ford
Time 1:11.385
Fastest lap
Driver Mario Andretti Lotus-Ford
Time 1:13.299 on lap 56
Podium
First Wolf-Ford
Second Tyrrell-Ford
Third McLaren-Ford

Report

The field arrived in Canada without Niki Lauda who, having clinched the Drivers' Championship at the previous race at Watkins Glen, and having already announced his intention to drive for Brabham in 1978, abruptly quit Ferrari following the team's decision to run a third car for Gilles Villeneuve.

In qualifying, Lotus's Mario Andretti took his sixth pole position of the season, with McLaren's James Hunt alongside him on the front row. Ronnie Peterson was third in his six-wheeled Tyrrell, ahead of Gunnar Nilsson in the second Lotus. The top ten was completed by Jochen Mass in the second McLaren, Patrick Depailler in the second Tyrrell, the Shadows of Alan Jones and Riccardo Patrese, Jody Scheckter in the Wolf, and John Watson in the Brabham. But the safety of the bumpy, high-speed Mosport Park track was in question: during practice Ian Ashley's Hesketh crested one of these bumps on the Mario Andretti straight; it flipped, vaulted the barrier and crashed into a television tower, seriously injuring Ashley and ending his Formula One career. The Englishman survived, but it took 40 minutes to remove him from the car and an additional 30 minutes passed until a helicopter arrived. These problems were underlined later that day when Mass crashed at the first corner into a barrier that flattened upon impact.[3]

At the start of the race, Andretti led away from Hunt, with Mass charging up to third. Andretti and Hunt then proceeded to pull away from the rest of the field, such that by three-quarter distance, they were coming up to lap third-placed Mass. As they did so, Hunt pulled ahead of Andretti, only to collide with his McLaren team-mate after a misunderstanding. Unable to continue, a visibly furious Hunt waved his fist at Mass, before punching a marshal who was trying to usher him away. He was subsequently fined $2000 for assaulting a marshal and $750 for walking back to the pit lane in an "unsafe manner"..[4] Gilles Villeneuve made his debut with Ferrari at this race and started seventeenth after a qualifying crash leading into Moss corner. He had risen to eighth place before spinning in Moss corner on lap 72, dropping back to tenth.[3]

There was drama in the final four laps. On lap 77, Andretti's engine blew and laid oil in turn 9 as he pulled into the pits. Patrese spun his Shadow in the turn 9 oil and into the second Hesketh of Rupert Keegan, which had crashed earlier in the race and had been left on the side of the track. Vittorio Brambilla then hit the oil and also spun his Surtees, collecting the wreckages of Keegan's and Patrese's cars. Danny Ongais was next in the Interscope Penske, but was able to continue. Finally Villeneuve spun, staying on the track only to break a driveshaft trying to pull away and retiring. [5][3]

Andretti's retirement meant that Scheckter inherited the win, with Depailler second and the recovered Mass completing the podium. Jones was fourth ahead of Patrick Tambay in the Ensign, while Brambilla was classified sixth, just ahead of Ongais.

Classification

Qualifying classification

Pos. Driver Constructor Time No
1 Mario Andretti Lotus-Ford 1:11,385 1
2 James Hunt McLaren-Ford 1:11,942 2
3 Ronnie Peterson Tyrrell-Ford 1:12,752 3
4 Gunnar Nilsson Lotus-Ford 1:12,975 4
5 Jochen Mass McLaren-Ford 1:13,116 5
6 Patrick Depailler Tyrrell-Ford 1:13,207 6
7 Alan Jones Shadow-Ford 1:13,347 7
8 Riccardo Patrese Shadow-Ford 1:13,435 8
9 Jody Scheckter Wolf-Ford 1:13,497 9
10 John Watson Brabham-Alfa Romeo 1:13,500 10
11 Jacques Laffite Ligier-Matra 1:13,739 11
12 Carlos Reutemann Ferrari 1:13,890 12
13 Hans-Joachim Stuck Brabham-Alfa Romeo 1:13,953 13
14 Clay Regazzoni Ensign-Ford 1:13,999 14
15 Vittorio Brambilla Surtees-Ford 1:14,229 15
16 Patrick Tambay Ensign-Ford 1:14,464 16
17 Gilles Villeneuve Ferrari 1:14,465 17
18 Ian Scheckter March-Ford 1:14,855 18
19 Emerson Fittipaldi Copersucar-Ford 1:14,857 19
20 Brett Lunger McLaren-Ford 1:14,930 20
21 Patrick Nève March-Ford 1:15,510 21
22 Danny Ongais Penske-Ford 1:15,599 22
23 Alex Ribeiro March-Ford 1:15,770 23
24 Hans Binder Surtees-Ford 1:16,568 24
25 Ian Ashley Hesketh-Ford 1:16,640 DNS
26 Rupert Keegan Hesketh-Ford 1:17,000 25
DNQ Jean-Pierre Jabouille Renault 1:18,999

Race classification

PosNoDriverConstructorLapsTime/RetiredGridPoints
1 20 Jody Scheckter Wolf-Ford 80 1:40:00.00 9 9
2 4 Patrick Depailler Tyrrell-Ford 80 + 6.77 6 6
3 2 Jochen Mass McLaren-Ford 80 + 15.76 5 4
4 17 Alan Jones Shadow-Ford 80 + 46.69 7 3
5 23 Patrick Tambay Ensign-Ford 80 + 1:03.26 16 2
6 19 Vittorio Brambilla Surtees-Ford 78 Accident 15 1
7 14 Danny Ongais Penske-Ford 78 +2 Laps 22
8 9 Alex Ribeiro March-Ford 78 +2 Laps 23
9 5 Mario Andretti Lotus-Ford 77 Engine 1
10 16 Riccardo Patrese Shadow-Ford 76 Spun Off 8
11 30 Brett Lunger McLaren-Ford 76 Engine 20
12 21 Gilles Villeneuve Ferrari 76 Transmission 17
Ret 1 James Hunt McLaren-Ford 61 Accident 2
Ret 27 Patrick Nève March-Ford 56 Engine 21
Ret 3 Ronnie Peterson Tyrrell-Ford 34 Fuel Leak 3
Ret 24 Rupert Keegan Hesketh-Ford 32 Accident 25
Ret 18 Hans Binder Surtees-Ford 31 Accident 24
Ret 10 Ian Scheckter March-Ford 29 Engine 18
Ret 28 Emerson Fittipaldi Fittipaldi-Ford 29 Engine 19
Ret 12 Carlos Reutemann Ferrari 20 Fuel System 12
Ret 8 Hans-Joachim Stuck Brabham-Alfa Romeo 19 Engine 13
Ret 6 Gunnar Nilsson Lotus-Ford 17 Accident 4
Ret 26 Jacques Laffite Ligier-Matra 12 Transmission 11
Ret 7 John Watson Brabham-Alfa Romeo 1 Suspension 10
Ret 22 Clay Regazzoni Ensign-Ford 0 Accident 14
DNS 25 Ian Ashley Hesketh-Ford Driver Injured
DNQ 15 Jean-Pierre Jabouille Renault
Source:[6]

Notes

Championship 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

  1. "Weather information for the "1977 Canadian Grand Prix"". The Old Farmers' Almanac. Retrieved 2013-06-26.
  2. "1977 Canadian Grand Prix Entry list".
  3. "1977 - Canadian Grand Prix". Archived from the original on 2013-07-13. Retrieved 2013-07-10.
  4. "Controversial collisions". Top 10 – ESPNF1.com. Retrieved 23 June 2012.
  5. "Danny Ongais - Biography". Archived from the original on 2013-07-01. Retrieved 2013-06-24.
  6. "1977 Canadian Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 21 October 2014. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  7. "Canada 1977 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 14 March 2019.
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1977 United States Grand Prix
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1977 Japanese Grand Prix
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