The
1976 German Grand Prix was a Formula One race held at the Nürburgring
on 1 August 1976. It was also the last
Formula One race to be held on the Nordschleife section of the
track.
Race report
The race weekend began with some changes to the drivers' lineup:
Jacky Ickx was fired from the
Walter Wolf Racing team and was replaced by
Arturo Merzario, and there was a new
team present,
Scuderia Rondini,
which bought an old
Tyrrell 007 for
Alessandro Pesenti-Rossi.
RAM was going to run
Rolf Stommelen in one of its ex-works
Brabham BT44s, but in the middle of the
practice session the local police impounded the cars (because of a
legal action by former driver
Loris
Kessel), and as a result Stommelen transferred to the works
Brabham team to drive a spare
Alfa-Romeo-powered
BT45.
In 1975, Lauda had been the first and only driver to break the
7-Minute-mark. Fans were looking forward whether he or others could
repeat this after the technical rules had been changed, with the
disappearance of the high air boxes been the most visible
difference.Due to wet conditions on Saturday, the grid was already
determined in Friday qualifying, with 7:06-plus lap times similar
to those of 1972.
James Hunt took the
pole with
Niki Lauda second, while
Patrick Depailler lined up third
in the six-wheeled
Tyrrell P34.
Hans-Joachim Stuck was fourth in his
March ahead of
Clay Regazzoni,
Jacques Laffite,
Carlos Pace,
Jody Scheckter,
Jochen
Mass and
Carlos
Reutemann.
The
weather turned to wet before the race and so most drivers started
the race on wet tyres, except Jochen Mass, who, having lots of
experience at the Nürburgring and expecting a change for better weather, decided
to use dry weather tyres. At the start Regazzoni took the
lead while both Hunt and Lauda fell back. Hunt took second, third
was a fast-starting Mass, fourth was Laffite who took advantage
from the fact that Stuck's car had been pushed off the grid with a
clutch problem (although the German started at the back of the
field). In the course of the first lap Regazzoni spun and dropped
to fourth. At the end of the lap, the weather changed back to dry
and most pilots pitted for dry tyres, leaving Mass with the second
place behind Peterson, who decided to go on wet tyres for another
lap. At the end of lap 2 Mass was in front, with
Gunnar Nilsson (who had not stopped) in
second place and Hunt third. To the dismay of the German fans, the
race was soon red flagged.
Niki Lauda had also changed his tyres
after lap 1 and was trying hard to make up for the lost time. Just
after the fast left kink before the Bergwerk right hand curve, his
Ferrari 312T2 snapped to the right and
spun through the fencing into an earth bank. The car bounced back
onto the circuit and on the track, enveloped in flames.
Guy Edwards managed to avoid the Ferrari but
Harald Ertl and
Brett Lunger both hit it. All three drivers
stopped and tried to get Lauda out of the flames and they were
joined by Merzario who stopped his Wolf Williams after seeing the
wreck.
Lauda had suffered serious burns and was
rushed by helicopter to the Bundeswehr hospital in Koblenz
; from there
he was flown to the Trauma Clinic in Ludwigshafen
, home to Germany's most advanced burn ward at the
time, where he fought for his life for the next few
days.
Most cars had assembled at the crash site, being unable to pass by
on the narrow track.The race had been stopped after the accident
and at the restart there were only 20 cars (4 cars less than the
first start), but
Chris Amon decided not
to start the race again. The rain had gone and Hunt took the lead
from Regazzoni, Scheckter, Depailler and Pace. At the Flugplatz
Peterson lost control of his March and crashed heavily while
Regazzoni had another spin and Depailler went off avoiding the
Ferrari. Pace overtook Scheckter and so ended the first lap in
second place. On the second lap Scheckter passed Pace and the
Brazilian fell behind Regazzoni on the third lap, during which
sixth placed
Vittorio Brambilla
crashed at Adenau Bridge because of a brake failure on his March.
Mass took advantage of it and overtook Gunnar Nilsson on the fifth
lap and Pace on lap 10. On the 12th lap Regazzoni spun again and
Mass moved to third with Pace fourth, Nilsson fifth and Stommelen
sixth.
Chris Amon decided to end his career immediately after the Lauda
accident.
Classification
Notes
- Starting grid mainly determined on Friday, due to wet weather
on Saturday: Hunt 7:06.5 Lauda 7:07.4
References
- Effenberger, Günther; Handke, Peter (1978). Niki Lauda, ein
Leben für die Formel 1. Munich: Heyne Nr. 5427. ISBN
978-3-453-00826-7
Unless otherwise indicated, all race results are taken
from
.jpg/180px-Vittorio_Brambilla_-_March_Ford_761_(Foto_Spu_1976-07-31).jpg)
-Ford
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