1976 Italian Grand Prix

  1976 Italian Grand Prix

Race details
Race 13 of 16 in the 1976 Formula One season
Date	September 12, 1976
Location	Autodromo Nazionale Monza, Monza
Course	Permanent racing facility 5.793 km (3.6 mi)
Distance	52 laps, 301.24 km (187.2 mi)
Pole position
Driver	Jacques Laffite	Ligier-Matra
Time	1:41.35[1]
Fastest lap
Driver	Ronnie Peterson	March-Ford
Time	1:41.3 on lap 50[2]
Podium
First	Ronnie Peterson	March-Ford
Second	Clay Regazzoni	Ferrari
Third	Jacques Laffite	Ligier-Matra

The 1976 Italian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza in Monza, Italy on September 12, 1976. The race, contested over 52 laps, was the thirteenth round of the 1976 Formula One season. It was also the 45th running of the Italian Grand Prix, the 23rd which was a part of the World Championship. Ronnie Peterson took the March team's last victory in Formula One, and his only with the team. Ferrari driver Clay Regazzoni finished the race in second position and polesitter Jacques Laffite completed the podium for Ligier.

The race saw the return of World Championship leader Niki Lauda to the sport after his serious crash at the German Grand Prix - he finished this race in fourth place.

Report

Background

Monza had been modified from the year before, and the circuit featured 2 consecutive left-right chicanes creating the Variante Retefilo added before the Curva Grande, and a left-right chicane added before the first Lesmo curve.

Qualifying

The qualifying session on Friday was wet, so the dry session on Saturday was to provide the field with their best times. After this session, Brett Lunger, Arturo Merzario and the very slow Otto Stuppacher had failed to qualify. John Watson qualified in eighth position, with James Hunt ninth and Jochen Mass tenth, but their times were later disallowed due to fuel irregularities. This meant that their Friday times counted for their grid positions. As a result, these three drivers were the three slowest and were deemed not to have qualified, allowing Lunger, Merzario and Stuppacher on to the grid.

Stuppacher had already left the circuit and flown back home to Austria, so could not take his place on the grid. This promoted Hunt back into the 26 qualifiers. Merzario withdrew and promoted Mass, and later Guy Edwards also decided to withdraw in order to let Watson race.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos	No.	Driver	Constructor	Lap	Gap
1	26	Jacques Laffite	Ligier-Matra	1:41.35	—
2	3	Jody Scheckter	Tyrrell-Ford	1:41.38	+ 0.03
3	8	Carlos Pace	Brabham-Alfa Romeo	1:41.53	+ 0.18
4	4	Patrick Depailler	Tyrrell-Ford	1:42.06	+ 0.71
5	1	Niki Lauda	Ferrari	1.42.09	+ 0.74
6	34	Hans Joachim Stuck	March-Ford	1:42.18	+ 0.83
7	35	Carlos Reutemann	Ferrari	1:42.38	+ 1.03
8	10	Ronnie Peterson	March-Ford	1:42.64	+ 1.29
9	2	Clay Regazzoni	Ferrari	1:42.96	+ 1.61
10	22	Jacky Ickx	Ensign-Ford	1:43.29	+ 1.94
11	7	Rolf Stommelen	Brabham-Alfa Romeo	1:43.29	+ 1.94
12	6	Gunnar Nilsson	Lotus-Ford	1:43.30	+ 1.95
13	40	Larry Perkins	Boro-Ford	1:43.32	+ 1.97
14	5	Mario Andretti	Lotus-Ford	1:43.34	+ 1.99
15	16	Tom Pryce	Shadow-Ford	1:43.63	+ 2.28
16	9	Vittorio Brambilla	March-Ford	1:43.94	+ 2.59
17	17	Jean-Pierre Jarier	Shadow-Ford	1:44.05	+ 2.70
18	19	Alan Jones	Surtees-Ford	1:44.41	+ 3.06
19	24	Harald Ertl	Hesketh-Ford	1:44.56	+ 3.21
20	30	Emerson Fittipaldi	Fittipaldi-Ford	1:44.57	+ 3.22
21	37	Alessandro Pesenti-Rossi	Tyrrell-Ford	1:44.62	+ 3.27
22	38	Henri Pescarolo	Surtees-Ford	1:45.12	+ 3.77
23	25	Guy Edwards	Hesketh-Ford	1:45.79	+ 4.44
24	18	Brett Lunger	Surtees-Ford	1:46.48	+ 5.13
25	20	Arturo Merzario	Wolf-Williams-Ford	1:47.31	+ 5.96
26	39	Otto Stuppacher	Tyrrell-Ford	1:55.22	+ 13.87
27	11	James Hunt	McLaren-Ford	2:08.76	+ 27.41
28	12	Jochen Mass	McLaren-Ford	2:11.06	+ 29.71
29	28	John Watson	Penske-Ford	2:13.95	+ 32.60

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	10	Ronnie Peterson	March-Ford	52	1:30:35.6	8	9
2	2	Clay Regazzoni	Ferrari	52	+ 2.3	9	6
3	26	Jacques Laffite	Ligier-Matra	52	+ 3.0	1	4
4	1	Niki Lauda	Ferrari	52	+ 19.4	5	3
5	3	Jody Scheckter	Tyrrell-Ford	52	+ 19.5	2	2
6	4	Patrick Depailler	Tyrrell-Ford	52	+ 35.7	4	1
7	9	Vittorio Brambilla	March-Ford	52	+ 43.9	16
8	16	Tom Pryce	Shadow-Ford	52	+ 52.9	15
9	35	Carlos Reutemann	Ferrari	52	+ 57.5	7
10	22	Jacky Ickx	Ensign-Ford	52	+ 1:12.4	10
11	28	John Watson	Penske-Ford	52	+ 1:42.2	26
12	19	Alan Jones	Surtees-Ford	51	+ 1 Lap	18
13	6	Gunnar Nilsson	Lotus-Ford	51	+ 1 Lap	12
14	18	Brett Lunger	Surtees-Ford	50	+ 2 Laps	24
15	30	Emerson Fittipaldi	Fittipaldi-Ford	50	+ 2 Laps	20
16	24	Harald Ertl	Hesketh-Ford	49	Halfshaft	19
17	38	Henri Pescarolo	Surtees-Ford	49	+ 3 Laps	22
18	37	Alessandro Pesenti-Rossi	Tyrrell-Ford	49	+ 3 Laps	21
19	17	Jean-Pierre Jarier	Shadow-Ford	47	+ 5 Laps	17
Ret	7	Rolf Stommelen	Brabham-Alfa Romeo	41	Fuel System	11
Ret	34	Hans Joachim Stuck	March-Ford	23	Accident	6
Ret	5	Mario Andretti	Lotus-Ford	23	Accident	14
Ret	11	James Hunt	McLaren-Ford	11	Spun Off	24
Ret	40	Larry Perkins	Boro-Ford	8	Engine	13
Ret	8	Carlos Pace	Brabham-Alfa Romeo	4	Engine	3
Ret	12	Jochen Mass	McLaren-Ford	2	Ignition	25
DNS	25	Guy Edwards	Hesketh-Ford		Withdrew
DNS	20	Arturo Merzario	Wolf-Williams-Ford		Withdrew
DNS	39	Otto Stuppacher	Tyrrell-Ford		Not present

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Niki Lauda 61 2 James Hunt 56 3 Jody Scheckter 38 4 Clay Regazzoni 28 5 Patrick Depailler 27

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Ferrari 73 2 McLaren-Ford 61 (62) 3 Tyrrell-Ford 51 4 Ligier-Matra 20 5 Penske-Ford 18

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. Only the best 7 results from the first 8 races and the best 7 results from the last 8 races counted towards the Championship. Numbers without parentheses are Championship points; numbers in parentheses are total points scored. Points do not reflect final results of 1976 British Grand Prix as it was under appeal.

References

Unless otherwise indicated, all race results are taken from "The Official Formula 1 website". Retrieved 2007-06-16.