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1977 United States Grand Prix

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1977 United States Grand Prix
Race 15 of 17 in the 1977 Formula One season
Race details
Date October 2, 1977
Official name XX Toyota United States Grand Prix
Location Watkins Glen Grand Prix Race Course
Watkins Glen, New York
Course Permanent road course
Course length 5.435 km (3.377 miles)
Distance 59 laps, 320.67 km (199.24 miles)
Weather Rain with temperatures reaching up to 17 °C (63 °F);
Winds gusting up to 23.69 km/h (14.72 mph)[1]
Pole position
Driver McLaren-Ford
Time 1:40.863
Fastest lap
Driver Sweden Ronnie Peterson Tyrrell-Ford
Time 1:51.85 on lap 56
Podium
First McLaren-Ford
Second Lotus-Ford
Third Wolf-Ford
Lap leaders

The 1977 United States Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on October 2, 1977, at the Watkins Glen Grand Prix Race Course in Watkins Glen, New York. It was the fifteenth race of the 1977 World Championship of F1 Drivers and the 1977 International Cup for F1 Constructors. The event was also referred to as the United States Grand Prix East in order to distinguish it from the United States Grand Prix West held on April 3, 1977, in Long Beach, California. It was covered on American radio by Motor Racing Network.

The 59-lap race was won from pole position by James Hunt, driving a McLaren-Ford. In wet conditions, Hunt held off a late charge from Mario Andretti in the Lotus-Ford to take his second consecutive Watkins Glen victory. Jody Scheckter was third in the Wolf-Ford, while Niki Lauda clinched his second Drivers' Championship by finishing fourth in his Ferrari.

Report

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For the first time, the American race was being held before the Canadian Grand Prix, which would follow a week later. Lauda led the championship with 69 points, while Jody Scheckter was second with 42 points. With nine points being awarded for a win, Lauda needed only to score one point in any of the final three races to clinch the title, while Scheckter needed to win them all to have a chance (both would be on 69 points, but Scheckter would have the tiebreaker on wins with 5, compared to Lauda's 3).

From the start of practice on Friday, Hunt's McLaren was dominant, setting a track record of 1:40.863. Brabham teammates Hans-Joachim Stuck and John Watson were a quarter of a second back, followed by Andretti, Ronnie Peterson and the Ferraris of Carlos Reutemann and Lauda. On Saturday morning there was rain just before the end of untimed practice, and so the afternoon session served only as practice for a possible wet race on Sunday, as Friday's times determined the grid.

Sunday began cold but dry, with a crowd over 100,000. Before the warmup, however, it began to drizzle, and by the five-minute signal, it had picked up enough that only John Watson was willing to gamble on starting with slicks. At the flag, everyone got away from the grid and through the first turn without incident, but the spray was so heavy that nothing was visible after the first five cars. Stuck quickly jumped ahead of Hunt, and after one lap, they were followed by Andretti, Reutemann, Peterson, Lauda, Scheckter, Jacques Laffite and Gunnar Nilsson.

Immediately, Scheckter began to take advantage of the others' uncertainty in the conditions and, by lap five had moved from ninth to fourth. Stuck was also going well in the wet, and, despite losing his clutch cable in the first few laps, pulled away from Hunt. Lauda passed his teammate Reutemann for fifth spot when the Argentine spun. On lap 15, with Hunt four seconds behind, Stuck, struggling to make gear changes without a clutch, popped out of gear entering a corner and went straight on. He retired with damage to the monocoque.

Hunt now led Andretti by 10.5 seconds, with Scheckter 14 seconds further back in third. The rain stopped, and drivers sought the wet sections of a drying track to cool their tires. With 10 laps remaining and the lead at 22 seconds, Hunt backed off in response to a pit signal. Lauda was coasting in fourth, a position sufficient to clinch the Championship. Scheckter had slowed in third to preserve his tires.

With two laps to go, Andretti, who had been closing while Hunt cruised home, was only 6.7 seconds behind. As they began the last lap, the margin had closed to 1.5 seconds, but Hunt increased his lead slightly to win by just over two seconds. The McLaren pit had not informed him how close the Lotus was until the start of the final lap, when Teddy Mayer gave him a frantic wave to pick up the pace.

Lauda thus took his second title, and Ferrari took their third consecutive Constructor's Championship. For Lauda, it was the culmination of a comeback from the life-threatening injuries he had sustained at the Nürburgring in 1976. Almost immediately, the Austrian quit Ferrari, having already announced his intention to move to Brabham for 1978.

Classification

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Qualifying

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Pos. Driver Constructor Time
1 United Kingdom James Hunt McLarenFord 1:40.863
2 West Germany Hans-Joachim Stuck BrabhamAlfa Romeo +0.275
3 United Kingdom John Watson BrabhamAlfa Romeo +0.330
4 United States Mario Andretti LotusFord +0.618
5 Sweden Ronnie Peterson TyrrellFord +1.045
6 Argentina Carlos Reutemann Ferrari +1.089
7 Austria Niki Lauda Ferrari +1.226
8 France Patrick Depailler TyrrellFord +1.375
9 South Africa Jody Scheckter WolfFord +1.452
10 France Jacques Laffite LigierMatra +1.777
11 Italy Vittorio Brambilla SurteesFord +1.923
12 Sweden Gunnar Nilsson LotusFord +1.952
13 Australia Alan Jones ShadowFord +2.156
14 France Jean-Pierre Jabouille Renault +2.206
15 West Germany Jochen Mass McLarenFord +2.379
16 France Jean-Pierre Jarier ShadowFord +2.653
17 United States Brett Lunger McLarenFord +2.835
18 Brazil Emerson Fittipaldi FittipaldiFord +3.075
19 Switzerland Clay Regazzoni EnsignFord +3.345
20 United Kingdom Rupert Keegan HeskethFord +3.687
21 South Africa Ian Scheckter MarchFord +3.839
22 United Kingdom Ian Ashley HeskethFord +4.237
23 Brazil Alex Ribeiro MarchFord +4.610
24 Belgium Patrick Nève MarchFord +4.982
25 Austria Hans Binder SurteesFord +5.017
26 United States Danny Ongais PenskeFord +5.207
Cut-off
27 France Patrick Tambay EnsignFord +8.572
Source:[2]

Race

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Pos No Driver Constructor Tyre Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 1 United Kingdom James Hunt McLaren-Ford G 59 1:58:23.267 1 9
2 5 United States Mario Andretti Lotus-Ford G 59 + 2.026 4 6
3 20 South Africa Jody Scheckter Wolf-Ford G 59 + 1:18.879 9 4
4 11 Austria Niki Lauda Ferrari G 59 + 1:40.615 7 3
5 22 Switzerland Clay Regazzoni Ensign-Ford G 59 + 1:48.138 19 2
6 12 Argentina Carlos Reutemann Ferrari G 58 + 1 Lap 6 1
7 26 France Jacques Laffite Ligier-Matra G 58 + 1 Lap 10  
8 24 United Kingdom Rupert Keegan Hesketh-Ford G 58 + 1 Lap 20  
9 16 France Jean-Pierre Jarier Shadow-Ford G 58 + 1 Lap 16  
10 30 United States Brett Lunger McLaren-Ford G 57 + 2 Laps 17  
11 18 Austria Hans Binder Surtees-Ford G 57 + 2 Laps 25  
12 7 United Kingdom John Watson Brabham-Alfa Romeo G 57 + 2 Laps 3  
13 28 Brazil Emerson Fittipaldi Fittipaldi-Ford G 57 + 2 Laps 18  
14 4 France Patrick Depailler Tyrrell-Ford G 56 + 3 Laps 8  
15 9 Brazil Alex Ribeiro March-Ford G 56 + 3 Laps 23  
16 3 Sweden Ronnie Peterson Tyrrell-Ford G 56 + 3 Laps 5  
17 25 United Kingdom Ian Ashley Hesketh-Ford G 55 + 4 Laps 22  
18 27 Belgium Patrick Nève March-Ford G 55 + 4 Laps 24  
19 19 Italy Vittorio Brambilla Surtees-Ford G 54 + 5 Laps 11  
Ret 15 France Jean-Pierre Jabouille Renault M 30 Alternator 14  
Ret 6 Sweden Gunnar Nilsson Lotus-Ford G 17 Accident 12  
Ret 8 West Germany Hans-Joachim Stuck Brabham-Alfa Romeo G 14 Accident 2  
Ret 10 South Africa Ian Scheckter March-Ford G 10 Accident 21  
Ret 2 West Germany Jochen Mass McLaren-Ford G 8 Fuel Pump 15  
Ret 14 United States Danny Ongais Penske-Ford G 6 Accident 26  
Ret 17 Australia Alan Jones Shadow-Ford G 3 Accident 13  
DNQ 23 France Patrick Tambay Ensign-Ford G      
Source:[3][4]

Notes

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  • This was the Formula One World Championship debut for American driver Danny Ongais.
  • This was the 100th race in which a South African driver participated. In those 100 races, South African drivers won 6 Grands Prix, achieved 25 podium finishes, 2 pole positions and 4 fastest laps.
  • This race marked the 250th podium finish for a British driver.
  • This was the 100th Grand Prix start for Tyrrell. In those 100 races, Tyrrell won 20 Grands Prix, achieved 58 podium finishes, 14 pole positions, 16 fastest laps, 3 Grand Slams and won 2 Driver's and 1 Constructor's Championships.
  • This was the 50th Grand Prix start for Hesketh.
  • This was the 10th United States Grand Prix win for a Ford-powered car.

Championship standings after the race

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  • 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

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  1. ^ "Weather information for the 1977 United States Grand Prix". The Old Farmers' Almanac. Retrieved November 17, 2013.
  2. ^ "1977 Formula One United States Grand Prix – Qualifying". Motorsport Stats. Retrieved April 14, 2021.
  3. ^ "1977 USA East Grand Prix". formula1.com. Retrieved October 10, 2017.
  4. ^ "1977 United States Grand Prix - Race Results & History - GP Archive". GPArchive.com. October 2, 1977. Retrieved November 2, 2021.
  5. ^ a b "United States 1977 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved March 21, 2019.

Further reading

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  • Doug Nye (1978). The United States Grand Prix and grand prize races, 1908-1977. B. T. Batsford. ISBN 0-7134-1263-1
  • Rob Walker (January, 1978). "18th United States Grand Prix: Wet But Not Wild". Road & Track, 82-86.


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