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1977 Argentine Grand Prix

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1977 Argentine Grand Prix
Race 1 of 17 in the 1977 Formula One season
Race details
Date 9 January 1977
Location Autódromo Oscar Alfredo Gálvez, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Course Permanent road course
Course length 5.81 km (3.61 miles)
Distance 53 laps, 307.93 km (191.33 miles)
Weather Dry
Pole position
Driver McLaren-Ford
Time 1:48.68
Fastest lap
Driver United Kingdom James Hunt McLaren-Ford
Time 1:51.06 on lap 21
Podium
First Wolf-Ford
Second Brabham-Alfa Romeo
Third Ferrari
Lap leaders
Jody Scheckter celebrating the victory.

The 1977 Argentine Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at the Autódromo Oscar Alfredo Gálvez, Buenos Aires, Argentina on 9 January 1977. It was the first round of the 1977 Formula One season.[1]

Qualifying

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Qualifying classification

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Pos. Driver Constructor Time No
1 United Kingdom James Hunt McLaren-Ford 1:48.68 1
2 United Kingdom John Watson Brabham-Alfa Romeo 1:48.96 2
3 France Patrick Depailler Tyrrell-Ford 1:49.13 3
4 Austria Niki Lauda Ferrari 1:49.73 4
5 Germany Jochen Mass McLaren-Ford 1:49.81 5
6 Brazil Carlos Pace Brabham-Alfa Romeo 1:49.97 6
7 Argentina Carlos Reutemann Ferrari 1:50.02 7
8 United States Mario Andretti Lotus-Ford 1:50.13 8
9 United Kingdom Tom Pryce Shadow-Ford 1:50.65 9
10 Sweden Gunnar Nilsson Lotus-Ford 1:50.66 DNS
11 South Africa Jody Scheckter Wolf-Ford 1:50.76 10
12 Switzerland Clay Regazzoni Ensign-Ford 1:50.97 11
13 Italy Vittorio Brambilla Surtees-Ford 1:51.03 12
14 Sweden Ronnie Peterson Tyrrell-Ford 1:51.34 13
15 France Jacques Laffite Ligier-Matra 1:51.52 14
16 Brazil Emerson Fittipaldi Copersucar-Ford 1:51.53 15
17 South Africa Ian Scheckter March-Ford 1:52.40 16
18 Austria Hans Binder Surtees-Ford 1:53.11 17
19 Brazil Ingo Hoffmann Copersucar-Ford 1:53.28 18
20 Brazil Alex Ribeiro March-Ford 1:53.54 19
21 Italy Renzo Zorzi Shadow-Ford 1:54.19 20

Race

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Report

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The 1977 season started in Argentina, and it was reigning world champion James Hunt who started off his title defence with pole position in his McLaren. Countryman John Watson shared the front row with him in the Brabham, and Patrick Depailler in the six-wheeled Tyrrell was third on the grid.

Watson took the lead at the start with Hunt second. Watson led for the first 10 laps until Hunt moved ahead and pulled away, with Mario Andretti's Lotus third, but soon the other McLaren of Jochen Mass took the place. Mass had to retire soon after with an engine failure which caused him to spin, and a suspension failure took teammate and race leader Hunt out three laps later. Watson took the lead again, but he also had suspension failures and let teammate Carlos Pace through. Watson eventually retired, and Pace struggled towards the end due to heat in his cockpit and was passed by Jody Scheckter's Wolf and Andretti, but the latter retired then with a wheel bearing failure. Scheckter took the first win of 1977, with Pace second, and home hero Carlos Reutemann completing the podium for Ferrari.

Classification

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Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 20 South Africa Jody Scheckter Wolf-Ford 53 1:40:11.19 11 9
2 8 Brazil Carlos Pace Brabham-Alfa Romeo 53 +43.24 6 6
3 12 Argentina Carlos Reutemann Ferrari 53 +46.02 7 4
4 28 Brazil Emerson Fittipaldi Fittipaldi-Ford 53 +55.48 16 3
5 5 United States Mario Andretti Lotus-Ford 51 Wheel bearing 8 2
6 22 Switzerland Clay Regazzoni Ensign-Ford 51 +2 laps 12 1
7 19 Italy Vittorio Brambilla Surtees-Ford 48 Out of fuel 13
Ret 10 South Africa Ian Scheckter March-Ford 45 Electrical 17
NC 16 United Kingdom Tom Pryce Shadow-Ford 45 Not classified 9
Ret 7 United Kingdom John Watson Brabham-Alfa Romeo 41 Suspension 2
Ret 9 Brazil Alex Ribeiro March-Ford 39 Transmission 20
NC 26 France Jacques Laffite Ligier-Matra 37 Not classified 15
Ret 4 France Patrick Depailler Tyrrell-Ford 32 Overheating 3
Ret 1 United Kingdom James Hunt McLaren-Ford 31 Suspension 1
Ret 2 Germany Jochen Mass McLaren-Ford 28 Spun off 5
Ret 3 Sweden Ronnie Peterson Tyrrell-Ford 28 Spun off 14
Ret 29 Brazil Ingo Hoffmann Fittipaldi-Ford 22 Engine 19
Ret 11 Austria Niki Lauda Ferrari 20 Fuel system 4
Ret 18 Austria Hans Binder Surtees-Ford 18 Accident 18
Ret 17 Italy Renzo Zorzi Shadow-Ford 2 Gearbox 21
DNS 6 Sweden Gunnar Nilsson Lotus-Ford 10
Source:[2][3]

Notes

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  • This was the 100th fastest lap set by a British driver.
  • This race marked the 5th Grand Prix win for a South African driver.
  • This was the Formula One World Championship debut for Canadian constructor Walter Wolf Racing, and also the debut Grand Prix win for Wolf - the first Canadian constructor to do so.

Championship standings after the race

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  • Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

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  1. ^ "1977 Argentine Grand Prix Entry list".
  2. ^ "1977 Argentine Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 21 October 2014. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  3. ^ Lang, Mike (1983). Grand Prix! Vol 3. Haynes Publishing Group. p. 166. ISBN 0-85429-380-9.
  4. ^ a b "Argentina 1977 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 6 March 2019.


Previous race:
1976 Japanese Grand Prix
FIA Formula One World Championship
1977 season
Next race:
1977 Brazilian Grand Prix
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1975 Argentine Grand Prix
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1978 Argentine Grand Prix