| 1977 British Grand Prix | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 10 of 17 in the1977 Formula One season | |||
 | |||
| Race details | |||
| Date | 16 July 1977 | ||
| Official name | XXX John Player British Grand Prix[1] | ||
| Location | Silverstone Circuit Northamptonshire,Great Britain | ||
| Course | Permanent racing facility | ||
| Course length | 4.719 km (2.932 miles) | ||
| Distance | 68 laps, 320.871 km (199.380 miles) | ||
| Weather | Sunny | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | McLaren-Ford | ||
| Time | 1:18.49[2] | ||
| Fastest lap | |||
| Driver |  James Hunt | McLaren-Ford | |
| Time | 1:19.60 on lap 48 | ||
| Podium | |||
| First | McLaren-Ford | ||
| Second | Ferrari | ||
| Third | Lotus-Ford | ||
Lap leaders | |||
The1977 British Grand Prix was aFormula One motor race held atSilverstone on 16 July 1977. It was the tenth race of the 1977 World Championship of F1 Drivers and the 1977 International Cup for F1 Constructors.
The 68-lap race was won frompole position by local driverJames Hunt, driving aMcLaren-Ford, with Austrian driverNiki Lauda second in aFerrari and Swedish driverGunnar Nilsson third in aLotus-Ford. The race marked the debut of Canadian driverGilles Villeneuve, as well as the first outing for the firstturbocharged Formula One car, theRenault RS01, driven by FrenchmanJean-Pierre Jabouille, who retired when the turbocharger had failed after 16 laps. It was also the last race to be given the honorific designation of theEuropean Grand Prix.
Owing to the large number of entrants, a special system of pre-qualification was devised, taking place on the Wednesday before the race. Fourteen cars took part, most from teams which were not members ofFOCA. Debutant Gilles Villeneuve also took part, along withPatrick Tambay,Jean-Pierre Jarier,Brett Lunger,Patrick Nève,Mikko Kozarowitzky, another debutantAndy Sutcliffe,Guy Edwards,Tony Trimmer,David Purley,Emilio de Villota,Brian Henton,Arturo Merzario and yet another debutant,Brian McGuire.[3]
Kozarowitzky crashed hisRAMMarch in the first session, and Purley suffered a huge accident in the second session, when the throttle stuck open on hisLEC. He suffered multiple fractures and spent many months recovering. He later returned to racing but never appeared in a World Championship Formula One race again.[4] The fastest five drivers after both sessions were Villeneuve, Tambay, Jarier, Lunger and Henton, all of whom went through to the full qualifying sessions. Merzario and Nève were subsequently also allowed through, as was de Villota, who replacedHarald Ertl when the Austrian driver withdrew his entry.[3]
Henton and de Villota were eliminated after the qualifying sessions, along withAlex Ribeiro andClay Regazzoni.James Hunt took pole position by less than 3 tenths from Northern Irish racing driverJohn Watson in theBrabham, whilst the rest of the top 10 qualifiers wereNiki Lauda,Jody Scheckter,Gunnar Nilsson,Mario Andretti,Hans Joachim Stuck,Vittorio Brambilla,Gilles Villeneuve andRonnie Peterson in the leadingTyrrell. It was also proven to be a relief for Hunt to secure pole position in front of the home crowd, this was because British racing drivers had not been lucky all season up to this point.
| Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 40 |  Gilles Villeneuve | McLaren-Ford | 1:19.48 | — |
| 2 | 23 |  Patrick Tambay | Ensign-Ford | 1:19.55 | +0.07 |
| 3 | 34 | Jean-Pierre Jarier | Penske-Ford | 1:19.63 | +0.15 |
| 4 | 30 |  Brett Lunger | McLaren-Ford | 1:19.72 | +0.24 |
| 5 | 38 | Brian Henton | March-Ford | 1:19.82 | +0.34 |
| 6 | 37 |  Arturo Merzario | March-Ford | 1:19.86 | +0.38 |
| 7 | 27 |  Patrick Nève | March-Ford | 1:19.97 | +0.49 |
| 8 | 36 |  Emilio de Villota | McLaren-Ford | 1:20.38 | +0.90 |
| 9 | 31 | David Purley | LEC-Ford | 1:20.63 | +1.15 |
| 10 | 33 | Andy Sutcliffe | March-Ford | 1:21.93 | +2.45 |
| 11 | 35 | Guy Edwards | BRM | 1:22.62 | +3.14 |
| 12 | 44 | Tony Trimmer | Surtees-Ford | 1:22.80 | +3.32 |
| 13 | 45 |  Brian McGuire | McGuire-Ford | 1:23.76 | +4.28 |
| 14 | 32 |  Mikko Kozarowitzky | March-Ford | 1:25.16 | +5.68 |
James Hunt had started from pole position withJohn Watson alongside him. But, Hunt did not get a good start due to clutch problems and dropped back to 4th as a result. This allowed Watson to take the lead into the first corner ahead ofNiki Lauda'sFerrari andJody Scheckter'sWolf. However, as the race had slowly progressed Hunt eventually managed to re-overtake Lauda and Scheckter and re-passed Watson for the race lead as the British drivers were running first and second. But the order of the top 2 did not stay the same as Watson started to slow when his fuel system failed on lap 53 and retired only 8 laps later. With Watson dropping out of contention this promotedNiki Lauda to second andJody Scheckter to third. But Scheckter was also forced to retire later on when his engine failed on lap 60 which gaveMario Andretti in the leadingLotus third before his engine had also failed 3 laps later but was classified 14th. As Gunnar Nilsson in the remaining Lotus was given 3rd place and stayed there.James Hunt had finally managed to take his first win of the season forMcLaren to the delight of the British fans, ahead of championship leaderNiki Lauda,Gunnar Nilsson,Jochen Mass in the second McLaren,Hans Joachim Stuck in the remainingBrabham andJacques Laffite in the onlyLigier.
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| Previous race: 1977 French Grand Prix | FIA Formula One World Championship 1977 season | Next race: 1977 German Grand Prix |
| Previous race: 1976 British Grand Prix | British Grand Prix | Next race: 1978 British Grand Prix |
| Previous race: 1976 Dutch Grand Prix | European Grand Prix (Designated European Grand Prix) | Next race: 1983 European Grand Prix |
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by 1976 United States Grand Prix West | Formula One Promotional Trophy for Race Promoter 1977 | Succeeded by 1978 British Grand Prix |
