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| 1976 French Grand Prix | |||||
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Race 8 of 16 in the1976 Formula One season
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| Race details | |||||
| Date | 4 July 1976 | ||||
| Official name | LXII Grand Prix de France[1] | ||||
| Location | Circuit Paul Ricard Le Castellet, Var, France | ||||
| Course | Permanent racing facility | ||||
| Course length | 5.809 km (3.610 miles) | ||||
| Distance | 54 laps, 313.686 km (194.915 miles) | ||||
| Pole position | |||||
| Driver | McLaren-Ford | ||||
| Time | 1:47.89[2] | ||||
| Fastest lap | |||||
| Driver |  Niki Lauda | Ferrari | |||
| Time | 1:51.0 on lap 4[3] | ||||
| Podium | |||||
| First | McLaren-Ford | ||||
| Second | Tyrrell-Ford | ||||
| Third | Penske-Ford | ||||
Lap leaders | |||||
The1976 French Grand Prix was aFormula Onemotor race held at theCircuit Paul Ricard inLe Castellet, nearMarseille inFrance, on 4 July 1976. It was the eighth race of the 1976 World Championship of F1 Drivers and the 1976 International Cup for F1 Constructors. It was the 54thFrench Grand Prix and the fourth to be held at Paul Ricard. The race was held over 54 laps of the 5.8-kilometre (3.6 mi) circuit for a race distance of 313 kilometres (194 mi).
The race was won by eventual 1976 world championJames Hunt driving aMcLaren M23. Hunt won by twelve seconds over theTyrrell P34 ofPatrick Depailler. It was Hunt's second win for the year and his third career Grand Prix victory, although at this stage his appeal against disqualification from the Spanish Grand Prix win had yet to be upheld. Eleven seconds further back in third wasJohn Watson driving aPenske PC4. It was the first podium finish for both Watson and Penske, although the result only came afterRonnie Peterson'sMarch 761 stopped with three laps to go and after Watson was disqualified for a rear wing irregularity and subsequently reinstated upon appeal.
Fourth place was taken by young Brazilian driverCarlos Pace driving aBrabham BT45 ahead ofMario Andretti (Lotus 77) and theTyrrell P34 ofJody Scheckter.
Reigning championNiki Lauda retired hisFerrari 312T2 with an engine failure while leading. While Hunt would eventually prove to be the challenger to Lauda for the 1976 championship Lauda's points lead at this time was over the Tyrrell pair ofPatrick Depailler (26 points) and Scheckter (24 points).
![[icon]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWiki_letter_w_cropped.svg) | This sectionneeds expansion with: a qualifying report. You can help byadding to it.(April 2019) |
*Drivers with a red background failed to qualify. Ertl had failed to qualify, but he had started on the back of the grid.[5]
| This sectionneeds expansion with: a race report. You can help byadding to it.(April 2019) |
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| Previous race: 1976 Swedish Grand Prix | FIA Formula One World Championship 1976 season | Next race: 1976 British Grand Prix |
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