The 1977 German Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Hockenheimring on 31 July 1977. It was the eleventh race of the 1977 World Championship of F1 Drivers and the 1977 International Cup for F1 Constructors.
The German Grand Prix was moved to Hockenheim following Niki Lauda's accident at the Nürburgring in 1976. This was the second time the race was held at Hockenheim, the first being in 1970.
The 47-lap race was won by Lauda, driving a Ferrari. Jody Scheckter finished second in a Wolf-Ford, having started from pole position, while Hans-Joachim Stuck was third in a Brabham-Alfa Romeo.
During the race, Penske driver Hans Heyer participated despite not qualifying. Mechanical issues forced Heyer to retire on lap 9, which caused his participation to be discovered. He was disqualified, making him the only driver to not qualify, not finish and be disqualified in a single race.
Report In qualifying, Jody Scheckter took his first pole of the season, ahead of John Watson and then Niki Lauda who headed the second row. The start of the race was given by the German national flag due to red/green lights being damaged by a service vehicle, which as a result caused an accident near the back of the grid between Alan Jones and Clay Regazzoni (putting both drivers out on the spot). Scheckter kept the lead at the first corner with both Watson and Lauda keeping their positions. Watson put pressure on Scheckter until his engine failed on the eighth lap, giving second to Lauda who passed Scheckter soon after and began to pull away. Scheckter battled for second with James Hunt until the defending champion retired with an engine failure which was caused by a broken fuel pump on lap 33, thus giving third to Watson's teammate and home driver Hans-Joachim Stuck. That was how it stayed to the end; Lauda winning from Scheckter and Stuck, whilst the rest of the points were rounded-out with Lauda's teammate Carlos Reutemann, Vittorio Brambilla in the Surtees and Patrick Tambay in the Ensign. This was the 100th World Championship race victory for tyre manufacturer Goodyear.
Classification
Qualifying classification Pos.DriverConstructorTimeGrid1 Jody ScheckterWolf-Ford1:53.0712 John WatsonBrabham-Alfa Romeo1:53.3423 Niki LaudaFerrari1:53.5334 James HuntMcLaren-Ford1:53.6845 Hans-Joachim StuckBrabham-Alfa Romeo1:53.9156 Jacques LaffiteLigier-Matra1:53.9767 Mario AndrettiLotus-Ford1:53.9978 Carlos ReutemannFerrari1:54.2789 Gunnar NilssonLotus-Ford1:54.44910 Vittorio BrambillaSurtees-Ford1:54.531011 Patrick TambayEnsign-Ford1:54.771112 Jean-Pierre JarierPenske-Ford1:55.191213 Jochen MassMcLaren-Ford1:55.251314 Ronnie PetersonTyrrell-Ford1:55.701415 Patrick DepaillerTyrrell-Ford1:55.921516 Riccardo PatreseShadow-Ford1:56.091617 Alan JonesShadow-Ford1:56.221718 Ian ScheckterMarch-Ford1:56.351819 Vern SchuppanSurtees-Ford1:56.541920 Alex RibeiroMarch-Ford1:56.632021 Brett LungerMcLaren-Ford1:56.642122 Clay RegazzoniEnsign-Ford1:56.682223 Rupert KeeganHesketh-Ford1:56.892324 Héctor RebaqueHesketh-Ford1:57.1824 Cut-off25 Patrick NèveMarch-Ford1:57.26—26 Emilio de VillotaMcLaren-Ford1:57.39—27 Hans HeyerPenske-Ford1:57.5828 Emerson FittipaldiFittipaldi-Ford1:58.53—29 Arturo MerzarioMarch-Ford1:59.13—30 Teddy PiletteBRM1:59.55—
Race classification Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 11 Niki Lauda Ferrari 47 1:31:49.3 3 9 2 20 Jody Scheckter Wolf-Ford 47 + 14.33 1 6 3 8 Hans-Joachim Stuck Brabham-Alfa Romeo 47 + 20.90 5 4 4 12 Carlos Reutemann Ferrari 47 + 1:00.27 8 3 5 19 Vittorio Brambilla Surtees-Ford 47 + 1:27.37 10 2 6 23 Patrick Tambay Ensign-Ford 47 + 1:29.81 11 1 7 18 Vern Schuppan Surtees-Ford 46 + 1 Lap 19 8 9 Alex Ribeiro March-Ford 46 + 1 Lap 20 9 3 Ronnie Peterson Tyrrell-Ford 42 Engine 14 10 16 Riccardo Patrese Shadow-Ford 42 Wheel 16 24 Rupert Keegan Hesketh-Ford 40 Accident 23 5 Mario Andretti Lotus-Ford 34 Engine 7 1 James Hunt McLaren-Ford 32 Fuel Pump 4 6 Gunnar Nilsson Lotus-Ford 31 Engine 9 2 Jochen Mass McLaren-Ford 26 Gearbox 13 4 Patrick Depailler Tyrrell-Ford 22 Engine 15 26 Jacques Laffite Ligier-Matra 21 Engine 6 25 Héctor Rebaque Hesketh-Ford 20 Engine 24 30 Brett Lunger McLaren-Ford 14 Accident 21 10 Ian Scheckter March-Ford 9 Clutch 18 7 John Watson Brabham-Alfa Romeo 8 Engine 2 34 Jean-Pierre Jarier Penske-Ford 5 Transmission 12 17 Alan Jones Shadow-Ford 0 Accident 17 22 Clay Regazzoni Ensign-Ford 0 Accident 22 35 Hans Heyer Penske-Ford 9 Gear linkage,took part illegally 27 Patrick Nève March-Ford 36 Emilio de Villota McLaren-Ford 28 Emerson Fittipaldi Fittipaldi-Ford 37 Arturo Merzario March-Ford 40 Teddy Pilette BRM
Notes
This was the Formula One World Championship debut and only Grand Prix for German driver Hans Heyer. This was the 200th Grand Prix start for a Swiss driver. In those 200 races, Swiss drivers had won 6 Grands Prix, achieved 31 podium finishes, 7 pole positions, 17 fastest laps and 2 Grand Slams. This race saw the first pole position set by Wolf and the first for a Canadian constructor. This was the 10th German Grand Prix victory for Ferrari as a constructor and as an engine supplier. To date, this is the last Formula One Grand Prix where the race was started by the drop of a flag. Since this race, every race has been started using a traffic light sequence.
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Niki Lauda 48 1 2 Jody Scheckter 38 1 3 Mario Andretti 32 4 Carlos Reutemann 31 5 James Hunt 22Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Ferrari 65 (67) 2 Lotus-Ford 47 1 3 Wolf-Ford 38 1 4 McLaren-Ford 34 5 Brabham-Alfa Romeo 23Source:
References