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1977 Belgian Grand Prix

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1977 Belgian Grand Prix
Race 7 of 17 in the 1977 Formula One season
Race details
Date 5 June 1977
Location Circuit Zolder
Heusden-Zolder, Belgium
Course length 4.262 km (2.648 miles)
Distance 70 laps, 298.340 km (185.380 miles)
Weather Wet
Pole position
Driver Lotus-Ford
Time 1:24.64
Fastest lap
Driver Sweden Gunnar Nilsson Lotus-Ford
Time 1:27.36 on lap 53
Podium
First Lotus-Ford
Second Ferrari
Third Tyrrell-Ford
Lap leaders

The 1977 Belgian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Zolder on 5 June 1977. It was the seventh race of the 1977 World Championship of F1 Drivers and the 1977 International Cup for F1 Constructors.

The 70-lap race was won by Swedish driver Gunnar Nilsson, driving a Lotus-Ford. Austrian driver Niki Lauda finished second in a Ferrari, while Nilsson's fellow Swede, Ronnie Peterson, finished third in the six-wheeled Tyrrell-Ford. This was to be Nilsson's only Formula One victory, before his career was cut short by cancer and he died in October 1978.

Qualifying

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Qualifying classification

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Pos. Driver Constructor Time No
1 United States Mario Andretti Lotus-Ford 1:24,64 1
2 United Kingdom John Watson Brabham-Alfa Romeo 1:26,18 2
3 Sweden Gunnar Nilsson Lotus-Ford 1:26,45 3
4 South Africa Jody Scheckter Wolf-Ford 1:26,48 4
5 France Patrick Depailler Tyrrell-Ford 1:26,71 5
6 West Germany Jochen Mass McLaren-Ford 1:26,81 6
7 Argentina Carlos Reutemann Ferrari 1:26,85 7
8 Sweden Ronnie Peterson Tyrrell-Ford 1:26,95 8
9 United Kingdom James Hunt McLaren-Ford 1:27,04 9
10 France Jacques Laffite Ligier-Matra 1:27,05 10
11 Austria Niki Lauda Ferrari 1:27,11 11
12 Italy Vittorio Brambilla Surtees-Ford 1:27,23 12
13 Switzerland Clay Regazzoni Ensign-Ford 1:27,28 13
14 Italy Arturo Merzario March-Ford 1:27,33 14
15 Italy Riccardo Patrese Shadow-Ford 1:27,35 15
16 Brazil Emerson Fittipaldi Fittipaldi-Ford 1:27,47 16
17 Australia Alan Jones Shadow-Ford 1:27,55 17
18 West Germany Hans-Joachim Stuck Brabham-Alfa Romeo 1:27,75 18
19 United Kingdom Rupert Keegan Hesketh-Ford 1:28,02 19
20 United Kingdom David Purley LEC-Ford 1:28,10 20
21 South Africa Ian Scheckter March-Ford 1:28,50 21
22 United States Brett Lunger McLaren-Ford 1:28,51 22
23 Australia Larry Perkins Surtees-Ford 1:28,53 23
24 Belgium Patrick Nève March-Ford 1:28,67 24
25 Austria Harald Ertl Hesketh-Ford 1:29,02 25
26 France Jean-Pierre Jarier Penske-Ford 1:29,11 26
Cut-off
27 Netherlands Boy Hayje March-Ford 1:29,46 27
28 Spain Emilio de Villota McLaren-Ford 1:30,12
29 Sweden Conny Andersson BRM 1:30,24
30 Brazil Alex Ribeiro March-Ford 1:30,24
31 Belgium Bernard de Dryver March-Ford 1:30,42
32 Mexico Héctor Rebaque Hesketh-Ford 1:33,30

Race

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Report

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In qualifying Mario Andretti took a comfortable pole position with John Watson just beating the second Lotus of Gunnar Nilsson to second. The race was wet due to rain earlier in the day. Watson took the lead into the first corner, but later in the lap, Andretti locked up into the chicane and ran into the back of the Brabham, knocking both drivers out of the race with Jody Scheckter taking over the lead.

Scheckter led the early stages ahead of Nilsson, whereas Carlos Reutemann made an early charge but spun off. The track began to dry and everyone had to pit for tyres, and those who stopped early were the ones who benefited, as now Niki Lauda was leading from Jochen Mass and Scheckter was down to fifth. Mass spun off from second, handing it to Nilsson who then went on to catch and pass Lauda before driving away to his first career victory. Behind second-placed Lauda, Ronnie Peterson completed the podium for Team Tyrrell after Scheckter retired with an engine failure. This remains the only F1 race in which two Swedes shared the podium.

David Purley stayed out later than most drivers and was running third by lap 21.[1] After he finally pitted, he emerged in front of race leader Lauda. He was likely unaware that Lauda was a lap ahead and did not let him through, holding the leader up for a few laps. This may have cost Lauda victory and the two were involved in an argument after the race.[2]

Classification

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Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 6 Sweden Gunnar Nilsson Lotus-Ford 70 1:55:05.71 3 9
2 11 Austria Niki Lauda Ferrari 70 + 14.19 11 6
3 3 Sweden Ronnie Peterson Tyrrell-Ford 70 + 19.95 8 4
4 19 Italy Vittorio Brambilla Surtees-Ford 70 + 24.98 12 3
5 17 Australia Alan Jones Shadow-Ford 70 + 1:15.47 17 2
6 8 West Germany Hans-Joachim Stuck Brabham-Alfa Romeo 69 + 1 Lap 18 1
7 1 United Kingdom James Hunt McLaren-Ford 69 + 1 Lap 9  
8 4 France Patrick Depailler Tyrrell-Ford 69 + 1 Lap 5  
9 25 Austria Harald Ertl Hesketh-Ford 69 + 1 Lap 25  
10 27 Belgium Patrick Nève March-Ford 68 + 2 Laps 24  
11 34 France Jean-Pierre Jarier Penske-Ford 68 + 2 Laps 26  
12 18 Australia Larry Perkins Surtees-Ford 67 + 3 Laps 23  
13 31 United Kingdom David Purley LEC-Ford 67 + 3 Laps 20  
14 37 Italy Arturo Merzario March-Ford 65 + 5 Laps 14  
NC 33 Netherlands Boy Hayje March-Ford 63 + 7 Laps 27  
Ret 20 South Africa Jody Scheckter Wolf-Ford 62 Engine 4  
Ret 2 West Germany Jochen Mass McLaren-Ford 39 Accident 6  
Ret 26 France Jacques Laffite Ligier-Matra 32 Engine 10  
Ret 22 Switzerland Clay Regazzoni Ensign-Ford 29 Engine 13  
Ret 12 Argentina Carlos Reutemann Ferrari 14 Accident 7  
Ret 24 United Kingdom Rupert Keegan Hesketh-Ford 14 Accident 19  
Ret 16 Italy Riccardo Patrese Shadow-Ford 12 Accident 15  
Ret 10 South Africa Ian Scheckter March-Ford 8 Accident 21  
Ret 28 Brazil Emerson Fittipaldi Fittipaldi-Ford 2 Electrical 16  
Ret 5 United States Mario Andretti Lotus-Ford 0 Collision 1  
Ret 7 United Kingdom John Watson Brabham-Alfa Romeo 0 Collision 2  
DNS 30 United States Brett Lunger McLaren-Ford   Engine 22  
DNQ 36 Spain Emilio de Villota McLaren-Ford    
DNQ 9 Brazil Alex Ribeiro March-Ford    
DNQ 35 Sweden Conny Andersson BRM    
DNQ 38 Belgium Bernard de Dryver March-Ford    
DNQ 39 Mexico Héctor Rebaque Hesketh-Ford        
Source:[3]

Notes

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  • This was the Formula One World Championship debut for Mexican driver Héctor Rebaque and Belgian driver Bernard de Dryver.
  • This was the 25th pole position set by an American driver.
  • This was the 10th Grand Prix win for a Swedish driver.

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. ^ "Belgium 1977 - Lap by lap • STATS F1". statsf1.com. Retrieved 16 May 2021.
  2. ^ Widdows, Rob (June 2008). "Run rabbit!". Motor Sport. p. 85. Retrieved 16 May 2021.
  3. ^ "1977 Belgian Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 17 October 2014. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  4. ^ a b "Belgium 1977 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 12 March 2019.


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