1977 United States Grand Prix

August 2023 F1 United States United States Watkins Glen 1975-1983.png XX Toyota Grand Prix of the United States October 2 1977 15 17 Watkins Glen Grand Prix Race CourseWatkins Glen, New York Permanent road course 3.377 5.435 59 199.24 320.67 Rain with temperatures reaching up to 63 F C flip;Winds gusting up to 14.72 mph km/h fliphttp://www.almanac.com/weather/history/NY/Watkins%20Glen/1977-10-02 Weather information for the 1977 United States Grand Prix The Old Farmers' Almanac November 17, 2013 UK James Hunt McLaren-Ford 1:40.863 Ronnie Peterson Sweden Tyrrell-Ford 1:51.85 56 James Hunt United Kingdom McLaren-Ford Mario Andretti United States Lotus-Ford Jody Scheckter South Africa 1928 Wolf-Ford USA 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 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, and also hope that Lauda did not score at all in those 3 races. (Had that happened, both Scheckter and Lauda 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 Qualifying Pos.DriverConstructorTime 1 GBR James Hunt McLaren–Ford 1:40.863 2 FRG Hans-Joachim Stuck Brabham–Alfa Romeo +0.275 3 GBR John Watson Brabham–Alfa Romeo +0.330 4 USA Mario Andretti Lotus–Ford +0.618 5 SWE Ronnie Peterson Tyrrell–Ford +1.045 6 ARG Carlos Reutemann Ferrari +1.089 7 AUT Niki Lauda Ferrari +1.226 8 FRA Patrick Depailler Tyrrell–Ford +1.375 9 RSA 1928 Jody Scheckter Wolf–Ford +1.452 10 FRA Jacques Laffite Ligier–Matra +1.777 11 ITA Vittorio Brambilla Surtees–Ford +1.923 12 SWE Gunnar Nilsson Lotus–Ford +1.952 13 AUS Alan Jones Shadow–Ford +2.156 14 FRA Jean-Pierre Jabouille Renault +2.206 15 FRG Jochen Mass McLaren–Ford +2.379 16 FRA Jean-Pierre Jarier Shadow–Ford +2.653 17 USA Brett Lunger McLaren–Ford +2.835 18 BRA Emerson Fittipaldi Fittipaldi–Ford +3.075 19 SUI Clay Regazzoni Ensign–Ford +3.345 20 GBR Rupert Keegan Hesketh–Ford +3.687 21 RSA 1928 Ian Scheckter March–Ford +3.839 22 GBR Ian Ashley Hesketh–Ford +4.237 23 BRA Alex Ribeiro March–Ford +4.610 24 BEL Patrick Nève March–Ford +4.982 25 AUT Hans Binder Surtees–Ford +5.017 26 USA Danny Ongais Penske–Ford +5.207 Cut-off 27 FRA Patrick Tambay Ensign–Ford +8.572 Source:https://results.motorsportstats.com/results/1977-united-states-grand-prix/classification/ad59f5ed-7e9f-4935-bc4e-45239a927363 1977 Formula One United States Grand Prix – Qualifying Motorsport Stats 14 April 2021 Race Pos No Driver Constructor Tyre Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 1 UK James Hunt McLaren-Ford Goodyear 59 1:58:23.267 1 9 2 5 USA Mario Andretti Lotus-Ford Goodyear 59 + 2.026 4 6 3 20 South Africa 1928 Jody Scheckter Wolf-Ford Goodyear 59 + 1:18.879 9 4 4 11 Austria Niki Lauda Ferrari Goodyear 59 + 1:40.615 7 3 5 22 Switzerland Clay Regazzoni Ensign-Ford Goodyear 59 + 1:48.138 19 2 6 12 Argentina Carlos Reutemann Ferrari Goodyear 58 + 1 Lap 6 1 7 26 France Jacques Laffite Ligier-Matra Goodyear 58 + 1 Lap 10   8 24 UK Rupert Keegan Hesketh-Ford Goodyear 58 + 1 Lap 20   9 16 France Jean-Pierre Jarier Shadow-Ford Goodyear 58 + 1 Lap 16   10 30 USA Brett Lunger McLaren-Ford Goodyear 57 + 2 Laps 17   11 18 Austria Hans Binder Surtees-Ford Goodyear 57 + 2 Laps 25   12 7 UK John Watson Brabham-Alfa Romeo Goodyear 57 + 2 Laps 3   13 28 Brazil 1968 Emerson Fittipaldi Fittipaldi-Ford Goodyear 57 + 2 Laps 18   14 4 France Patrick Depailler Tyrrell-Ford Goodyear 56 + 3 Laps 8   15 9 Brazil 1968 Alex Ribeiro March-Ford Goodyear 56 + 3 Laps 23   16 3 Sweden Ronnie Peterson Tyrrell-Ford Goodyear 56 + 3 Laps 5   17 25 UK Ian Ashley Hesketh-Ford Goodyear 55 + 4 Laps 22   18 27 Belgium Patrick Nève March-Ford Goodyear 55 + 4 Laps 24   19 19 Italy Vittorio Brambilla Surtees-Ford Goodyear 54 + 5 Laps 11   Ret Retired 15 France Jean-Pierre Jabouille Renault Michelin 30 Alternator 14   Ret Retired 6 Sweden Gunnar Nilsson Lotus-Ford Goodyear 17 Accident 12   Ret Retired 8 West Germany Hans-Joachim Stuck Brabham-Alfa Romeo Goodyear 14 Accident 2   Ret Retired 10 South Africa 1928 Ian Scheckter March-Ford Goodyear 10 Accident 21   Ret Retired 2 West Germany Jochen Mass McLaren-Ford Goodyear 8 Fuel Pump 15   Ret Retired 14 USA Danny Ongais Penske-Ford Goodyear 6 Accident 26   Ret Retired 17 Australia Alan Jones Shadow-Ford Goodyear 3 Accident 13   DNQ Did not qualify 23 France Patrick Tambay Ensign-Ford Goodyear      Source:https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/1977/races/388/usa-east.html 1977 USA East Grand Prix formula1.com 10 October 2017 August 6, 2020 https://web.archive.org/web/20200806143306/https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/1977/races/388/usa-east.html dead https://gparchive.com/formula-1/1977-usa-east-grand-prix/ 1977 United States Grand Prix - Race Results & History - GP Archive GPArchive.com 2 October 1977 2 November 2021 Notes 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 Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 10px 1 AUT Niki Lauda 72 10px 2 2 USA Mario Andretti 47 10px 1 3 South Africa 1928 Jody Scheckter 46 10px 1 4 ARG Carlos Reutemann 36 10px 5 UK James Hunt 31Source:https://www.statsf1.com/en/1977/etats-unis-est/championnat.aspx United States 1977 - Championship • STATS F1 www.statsf1.com 21 March 2019 Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 10px 1 ITA Ferrari 89 (91) 10px 2 UK Lotus-Ford 62 10px 1 3 UK McLaren-Ford 47 10px 1 4 CAN Wolf-Ford 46 10px 5 UK Brabham-Alfa Romeo 27Source: 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. Bold text indicates the 1977 World Champions. References 30em Further reading Doug Nye (1978). The United States Grand Prix and grand prize races, 1908-1977. B. T. Batsford. 0-7134-1263-1 Rob Walker (January, 1978). "18th United States Grand Prix: Wet But Not Wild". Road & Track, 82-86. United States Grand Prix 1977 1977 Italian Grand Prix 1977 Canadian Grand Prix 1976 United States Grand Prix 1978 United States Grand Prix United States Grand Prix Category:United States Grand Prix United States Grand Prix United States Grand Prix United States Grand Prix