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1977 Canadian Grand Prix

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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 miles)
Distance 80 laps, 316.56 km (196.72 miles)
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 United States Mario Andretti Lotus-Ford
Time 1:13.299 on lap 56
Podium
First Wolf-Ford
Second Tyrrell-Ford
Third McLaren-Ford
Lap leaders

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]

Report

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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quit Ferrari upon learning that the team would bet on the 312T3 model, more conservative, but still technically more outdated in relation to cars with ground effect (which was becoming popular in the category thanks to the success of the Lotus 78).

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 and agitated Hunt waved his fist at Mass, before punching a marshal and immediately then apologize 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.

This was the last Formula One race at Mosport Park. Although reasonably popular with drivers and fans, there was criticism that the track was cracked due to the cold Canadian forest weather later in the year (when the race was originally held) and that the drainage was poor, putting the safety of the drivers at risk, and so the Canadian Grand Prix was moved to the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on Notre Dame Island in Montreal from 1978 onwards, where it has remained ever since.


Classification

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Qualifying classification

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

Race classification

[edit]
Pos No Driver Constructor Tyre Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 20 South Africa Jody Scheckter Wolf-Ford G 80 1:40:00.00 9 9
2 4 France Patrick Depailler Tyrrell-Ford G 80 + 6.77 6 6
3 2 West Germany Jochen Mass McLaren-Ford G 80 + 15.76 5 4
4 17 Australia Alan Jones Shadow-Ford G 80 + 46.69 7 3
5 23 France Patrick Tambay Ensign-Ford G 80 + 1:03.26 16 2
6 19 Italy Vittorio Brambilla Surtees-Ford G 78 Accident 15 1
7 14 United States Danny Ongais Penske-Ford G 78 +2 Laps 22
8 9 Brazil Alex Ribeiro March-Ford G 78 +2 Laps 23
9 5 United States Mario Andretti Lotus-Ford G 77 Engine 1
10 16 Italy Riccardo Patrese Shadow-Ford G 76 Spun Off 8
11 30 United States Brett Lunger McLaren-Ford G 76 Engine 20
12 21 Canada Gilles Villeneuve Ferrari G 76 Transmission 17
Ret 1 United Kingdom James Hunt McLaren-Ford G 61 Accident 2
Ret 27 Belgium Patrick Nève March-Ford G 56 Engine 21
Ret 3 Sweden Ronnie Peterson Tyrrell-Ford G 34 Fuel Leak 3
Ret 24 United Kingdom Rupert Keegan Hesketh-Ford G 32 Accident 25
Ret 18 Austria Hans Binder Surtees-Ford G 31 Accident 24
Ret 10 South Africa Ian Scheckter March-Ford G 29 Engine 18
Ret 28 Brazil Emerson Fittipaldi Fittipaldi-Ford G 29 Engine 19
Ret 12 Argentina Carlos Reutemann Ferrari G 20 Fuel System 12
Ret 8 West Germany Hans-Joachim Stuck Brabham-Alfa Romeo G 19 Engine 13
Ret 6 Sweden Gunnar Nilsson Lotus-Ford G 17 Accident 4
Ret 26 France Jacques Laffite Ligier-Matra G 12 Transmission 11
Ret 7 United Kingdom John Watson Brabham-Alfa Romeo G 1 Suspension 10
Ret 22 Switzerland Clay Regazzoni Ensign-Ford G 0 Accident 14
DNS 25 United Kingdom Ian Ashley Hesketh-Ford G Driver Injured
DNQ 15 France Jean-Pierre Jabouille Renault M
Source:[6][7]

Notes

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  • This was the 200th Grand Prix in which an Australian driver participated. In those 200 races, Australian drivers won 15 Grands Prix, achieved 34 podium finishes, 13 pole positions, 12 fastest laps, 3 Grand Slams and won 3 World Championships.
  • This was also the 100th Grand Prix start for Surtees. In those 100 races, Surtees achieved 2 podium finishes and 3 fastest laps.

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 Canadian Grand Prix"". The Old Farmers' Almanac. Retrieved 2013-06-26.
  2. ^ "1977 Canadian Grand Prix Entry list".
  3. ^ a b c "1977 - Canadian Grand Prix". Archived from the original on 2012-08-30. Retrieved 2013-07-10.
  4. ^ "Controversial collisions". Top 10 – ESPNF1.com. Retrieved 23 June 2012.
  5. ^ "Danny Ongais - Biography". Archived from the original on 2012-05-12. Retrieved 2013-06-24.
  6. ^ "1977 Canadian Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 21 October 2014. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  7. ^ "1977 Canadian Grand Prix - Race Results & History - GP Archive". GPArchive.com. 9 October 1977. Retrieved 2 November 2021.
  8. ^ a b "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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1978 Canadian Grand Prix