The '1976 German Grand Prix' was a
Formula One held at the
Nürburgring on
August 1,
1976.
The race weekend began with some changes to the drivers' lineup:
Jacky Ickx was fired from the
Walter Wolf Racing team and was replaced by
Arturo Merzario, and there was a new team present,
Scuderia Rondini, which bought an old
Tyrrell 007 for
Alessandro Pesenti-Rossi.
RAM was going to run
Rolf Stommelen in one of its ex-works
Brabham BT44s, but in the middle of the practice session the local police impounded the cars (because of a legal action by former driver
Loris Kessel), and as a result Stommelen transferred to the works Brabham team to drive an
Alfa-Romeo-powered
BT45.
In qualifying
James Hunt took the pole with
Niki Lauda second, while
Patrick Depailler lined up third in the six-wheeled
Tyrrell P34.
Hans Stuck was fourth in his
March ahead of
Clay Regazzoni,
Jacques Laffite,
Carlos Pace,
Jody Scheckter,
Jochen Mass and
Carlos Reutemann.
The weather turned to wet before the race and so most drivers started the race on wet tyres, except Jochen Mass, who, having lots of experience at the
Nürburgring and expecting a change for better weather, decided to use dry weather tyres. At the start Regazzoni took the lead while both Hunt and Lauda fell back. Hunt took second, third was a fast-starting Mass, fourth was Laffite who took advantage from the fact that Stuck's car had been pushed off the grid with a clutch problem (although the German started at the back of the field). In the course of the first lap Regazzoni spun and dropped to fourth. At the end of the lap, the weather changed back to dry and most pilots pitted for dry tyres, leaving Mass with the second place behind Peterson, who decided to go on wet tyres for another lap. At the end of lap 2 Mass was in front with
Gunnar Nilsson (who had not stopped) in second place and Hunt third.
Niki Lauda in practice before his horrendous accident.
had also changed his tyres and was trying hard to make up for the lost time. At the Bergwerk curve Lauda lost control of his
Ferrari and spun through the fencing into an earth bank. The car (which was enveloped in flames) bounced back onto the circuit and on the track.
Guy Edwards managed to avoid the Ferrari but
Harald Ertl and
Brett Lunger both hit it. All three drivers stopped and tried to get Lauda out of the flames and they were joined by Merzario who stopped his Wolf Williams after seeing the wreck. Lauda had suffered serious burns and was rushed to hospital in
Adenau; from there he was flown from there to the University Hospital in
Mannheim where he fought for his life for the next few days.
The race had been stopped after the accident and at the restart there were only 20 cars (4 cars less than the first start), but
Chris Amon decided not to start the race again. The rain had gone and Hunt took the lead from Regazzoni, Scheckter, Depailler and Pace. At the Flugplatz Peterson lost control of his March and crashed heavily while Regazzoni had another spin and Depailler went off avoiding the Ferrari. Pace overtook Scheckter and so ended the first lap in second place. On the second lap Scheckter passed Pace and the Brazilian fell behind Regazzoni on the third lap, during which sixth placed
Vittorio Brambilla crashed at Adenau Bridge because of a brake failure on his March. Mass took advantage of it and overtook Gunnar Nilsson on the fifth lap and Pace on lap 10. On the 12th lap Regazzoni spun again and Mass moved to third with Pace fourth, Nilsson fifth and Stommelen sixth.
Chris Amon decided to end his career immediately after the race.
Classification
References
''Unless otherwise indicated, all race results are taken from
The Official Formula 1 website
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