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South African GP 1976

South African GP, 1976

There were no F1 races in the five week gap between the Brazilian and South African GPs but there were some changes in the lineup. Ronnie Peterson had decided to leave Lotus. As part of the deal March agreed to release its Formula 2 driver Gunnar Nilsson and he joined another new signing Bob Evans. With Peterson joining March there was no room for Lella Lombardi and she disappeared from F1. Surtees reappeared with the new TS19, the car being driven by Brett Lunger in the colors of Chesterfield cigarettes. Frank Williams signed up Michel Leclere to partner Jacky Ickx. Ensign was back with Chris Amon with sponsorship from John Day Model Cars while a revived Hesketh Racing (being run by Bubbles Horsley) ran Harald Ertl. The Stanley BRM team did not appear and there was only one local driver, Ian Scheckter in the Lexington Racing Tyrrell 007. The Shadow cars appeared in Lucky Strike colors for this race.

Practice was dominated by arguments over the legality of the plastic "skirts" being used by McLaren and Penske. These were the first hints of ground-effect aerodynamics.

Qualifying resulted in pole position for James Hunt but again Niki Lauda was right behind him and there was then a two-tenths gap back to John Watson (Penske). Then came Jochen Mass (McLaren), Vittorio Brambilla (March), Patrick Depailler (Tyrrell), Tom Pryce (Shadow), Jacques Laffite (Ligier), Clay Regazzoni (Ferrari) and Peterson.

At the start of the race Lauda beat Hunt away while Mass and Brambilla also overtook Hunt. Depailler was fifth with Peterson sixth. Behind them Ian Scheckter and Leclere collided. Only the Frenchman rejoined.

On the second lap Brambilla, Mass and Hunt all ended up side by side at they battled for second place and it was the brave Italian who emerged ahead. Mass then let Hunt pass and the Englishman attacked Brambilla. It was not until the fifth lap that Hunt found a way past and went after Lauda, who was by then 10 seconds ahead. Mass soon followed and Brambilla later fell behind Pryce as well (the Englishman having moved up when Peterson and Depailler collided). The order at the front remained unchanged as Hunt edged closer to the leader. On lap 44 Pryce had to pit and so Regazzoni moved into fourth place but he went out with engine failure nine laps later leaving J Scheckter fourth.

The order remained the same all the way to the flag although the final laps were exciting as Lauda had a slow puncture and Hunt closed fast. The Austrian finished just over a second ahead. Regazzoni was third, Scheckter fourth, John Watson (Penske) fifth and Mario Andretti (Parnelli) sixth.

POS	NO	DRIVER	ENTRANT	LAPS	TIME/RETIREMENT	QUAL POS
1	1	Niki Lauda	Ferrari 312T	78	1h42m18.400s	2
2	11	James Hunt	McLaren-Cosworth M23	78	1h42m19.700s	1
3	12	Jochen Mass	McLaren-Cosworth M23	78	1h43m04.300s	4
4	3	Jody Scheckter	Tyrrell-Cosworth 007	78	1h43m26.800s	12
5	28	John Watson	Penske-Cosworth PC3	77		3
6	27	Mario Andretti	Parnelli-Cosworth VPJ4B	77		13
7	16	Tom Pryce	Shadow-Cosworth DN5B	77		7
8	9	Vittorio Brambilla	March-Cosworth 761	77		5
9	4	Patrick Depailler	Tyrrell-Cosworth 007	77		6
10	5	Bob Evans	Lotus-Cosworth 77	77		23
11	18	Brett Lunger	Surtees-Cosworth TS19	77		20
12	34	Hans-Joachim Stuck	March-Cosworth 761	76		17
13	21	Michel Leclere	Wolf Williams-Cosworth FW05	76		22
14	22	Chris Amon	Ensign-Cosworth N174	76		18
15	24	Harald Ertl	Hesketh-Cosworth 308D	74		24
16	20	Jacky Ickx	Wolf Williams-Cosworth FW05	73		19
17r	30	Emerson Fittipaldi	Copersucar-Cosworth FD04	70	Engine	21
r	2	Clay Regazzoni	Ferrari 312T	52	Engine	9
r	26	Jacques Laffite	Ligier-Matra JS5	49	Engine	8
r	17	Jean-Pierre Jarier	Shadow-Cosworth DN5B	28	Radiator	15
r	8	Carlos Pace	Brabham-Alfa Romeo BT45	22	Engine	14
r	6	Gunnar Nilsson	Lotus-Cosworth 77	18	Clutch	25
r	7	Carlos Reutemann	Brabham-Alfa Romeo BT45	16	Engine	11
r	10	Ronnie Peterson	March-Cosworth 761	15	Accident	10
r	15	Ian Scheckter	Tyrrell-Cosworth 007	0	Accident	16