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Shunt

Page 89

by Tom Rubython


  5. 1976 Dutch Grand Prix: Zandvoort, 75 laps in 1h 44m 52.09s

  Second: Clay Regazzoni, Ferrari, +0.92s

  Third: Mario Andretti, Lotus, +2.09s

  As usual, James Hunt botched his start, spinning his wheels and letting Ronnie Peterson pull away in the lead. To add to the ignominy, John Watson came through from the second row and overtook Hunt at the end of the pit straight in full view of everyone. Hunt bided his time in third as Peterson and Watson scrapped for the lead. His McLaren was understeering again as a braking air scoop worked loose. Despite that, Hunt overtook Watson on lap seven and Peterson for the lead on lap 12. Afterwards, he said he simply took advantage of mistakes by both drivers. Hunt had to drive as hard as ever to block Watson from getting past. In terms of car handling, the Ulsterman was easily faster, but Hunt was simply better at blocking than Watson was at overtaking. In the end it didn’t matter, as Watson coasted to a halt on lap 47 when his gearbox broke. Watson’s demise was a signal for Clay Regazzoni to take up the chase in the lone Ferrari entered in the race. Hunt got in a panic because he feared Regazzoni might have instructions to punt him off if he couldn’t get past. By the end, Hunt won the race barely a car’s length ahead of the Ferrari.

  6. 1976 Canadian Grand Prix: Mosport Park, 80 laps in 1h 40m 9.626s

  Second: Patrick Depailler, Tyrrell, +6.331s

  Third: Mario Andretti, Lotus, +10.366s

  James Hunt was left behind at the start, bested by Ronnie Peterson, and for eight laps he trailed the Swede before moving into the lead. A few laps later, Depailler in the six-wheeled Tyrrell, nosed through into second place and moved closer to the McLaren. The Grand Prix had been enlivened by the duel between the two drivers, but in the closing laps Depailler began to drop back inexplicably and there were six seconds between them at the finish. It turned out that petrol fumes had been leaking into his Tyrrell cockpit, leaving Depailler feeling intoxicated in the last few laps. He said he felt as though he had consumed a bottle of whisky. The padded lining of his helmet was wet with fuel. But it was worse for Niki Lauda, who had fought an ill-handling car with a rear suspension problem for the whole race and could only manage eighth. He scored no points, a disaster for him.

  7. 1976 USA East Grand Prix: Watkins Glen, 59 laps in 1h 42m 40.741s

  Second: Jody Scheckter, Tyrrell, +8.030s

  Third: Niki Lauda, Ferrari, +1m 02.324s

  James Hunt was on pole eight times during 1976, but he had only led one first lap and this day would prove no exception. He was not good enough to prevent Jody Scheckter taking the lead. And that is how it stayed for many laps, with Hunt in station some three seconds behind him. Behind them was third place man Niki Lauda, five seconds back. But Hunt knew he had to win and started focusing hard on the physical act of driving the car, something which he confessed afterwards he did not often do. He called it a “self-administered driving lesson.” On lap 36, Scheckter was delayed by another car slowing for a tight corner, and Hunt tucked his McLaren in behind the Tyrrell’s rear wing. As they accelerated down the straight, Hunt darted out of Scheckter’s slipstream and took the lead. But four laps later, Scheckter got in front again as they were lapping back markers: “Jody blasted past me on the straight. I really thought I’d blown it.”

  Within a lap, he was again within striking range. For several laps he waited to pounce and, finally, with 12 laps to go, Hunt forced his way alongside the Tyrrell coming into a slow corner. Hunt went across the line eight seconds ahead of Scheckter, and Lauda came in a minute behind in third.

  8. 1977 British Grand Prix: Silverstone, 68 laps in 1h 31m 46.06s

  Second: Niki Lauda, Ferrari, +18.31s

  Third: Gunnar Nilsson, Lotus, +19.57s

  James Hunt had trouble with his clutch on the start line and John Watson got ahead and stayed in the lead for 60 of the 68 laps. Then his car started to suffer from fuel starvation and he retired. Hunt inherited an easy lead and crossed the chequered flag in first place, cheered on by ecstatic British fans. It was his first victory of 1977. Afterwards, Hunt admitted that for the second race in succession Watson was the fastest man in Formula One. He said: “It was cruel luck and I really felt sorry for him.” But, he added with a twinkle: “I was still very happy to see him go.” The race was also marked by the Formula One debut of Canadian Gilles Villeneuve. Hunt had been directly responsible for putting Villeneuve into Formula One and the McLaren team. Villeneuve, driving Hunt’s old M23, looked as though he would finish fourth in his first race. But a faulty engine temperature gauge meant an unnecessary pit stop after which he was 11th, where he stayed to the finish. Hunt was once again on top of the world and thought a good end-of-season run could still deliver him the world championship.

  9. 1977 USA East Grand Prix: Watkins Glen, 59 laps in 1h 58m 23.267s

  Second: Mario Andretti, Lotus, +2.026s

  Third: Jody Scheckter, Wolf, +1m 18.679s

  100,000 American fans poured into the circuit to see if Mario Andretti could win the race and if Lauda could clinch the championship, but James Hunt dominated the race on a favourite circuit as Niki Lauda just drove for points in his Ferrari. Andretti was well behind as the race drew to a close, but he drove the last laps like a demon. At the start of the penultimate lap, Andretti and Hunt were 6.5 seconds apart. At the start of the last lap, it was 1.5 seconds. Andretti had driven a lap five seconds faster than Hunt. That woke up Hunt, and in the end he cruised in over the line some two and a half seconds clear. As expected, Niki Lauda’s fourth place was enough to see him crowned world champion for the second time. Lauda had only won three races all year but picked up six second-places along the way. In the absence of a dominant driver, Lauda’s consistency won him the championship. In truth, Andretti, Reutemann, Watson, Scheckter or Hunt could just as easily have been champion had things gone their way.

  10. 1977 Japanese Grand Prix: Fuji, 73 laps in 1h 31m 51.68s

  Second: Carlos Reutemann, Ferrari, +1m 02.45s

  Third: Patrick Depailler, Tyrrell, +1m 06.39s

  Mario Andretti, by now the dominant driver in Formula One, was easily on pole position and James Hunt was once again second on the grid. The race would be between these two. But Andretti did not even last the first lap and Hunt drove an uneventful race to victory, leading from start to finish. Carlos Reutemann was second over a minute behind, and Patrick Depailler third. But the race was almost stopped when Gilles Villeneuve’s Ferrari ran into Ronnie Peterson’s Tyrrell-Ford and took off into a spectator’s enclosure, killing two of them. It was a huge incident and there was little celebrating on the podium thereafter. The incident also caused the cancellation of the following year’s race.

  APPENDIX XI

  1976 to 1977 Formula One Pole Positions by Season

  1976 McLaren-Ford Cosworth V8 8 poles

  James Hunt scored his first ever pole position in his first ever race for his new team at Interlagos and then went onto score another seven during the season. This performance mightily impressed team principal Teddy Mayer, who was minded to say: “I would say of all the drivers we’ve had, James has the greatest natural talent – by far, in fact. Possibly he makes more mistakes than, say, Emerson Fittipaldi but he certainly is quicker than Emerson ever was when he drove for us and I think James is as consistently fast a driver as anyone I’ve ever seen.”

  1977 McLaren-Ford Cosworth V8 6 poles

  James Hunt had a lousy season in terms of reliability and race wins, but if the season had been decided on pole positions, he would have been champion again with six results to his name. His performance in 1977 was even more significant because he was driving, for the most part, a much less competitive car.

  APPENDIX XII

  1976 to 1977 14 Formula One Pole Positions

  James Hunt proved all his qualifying detractors wrong when he went to McLaren in 1976. He had never scored a pole position before, and had only been on the first row twice and the second row five times. Considering how fast he was, particularly when he had the
Firestone tyre advantage in 1973 and 1974, it was a poor performance. But all that changed at McLaren, when he planted his car on pole first time out in the dying minutes of qualifying. He scored a further eight poles that year out of 16 races and went on to take six poles in 1977 in a much less competitive car, and 14 in his career.

  1. 1976 Brazilian Grand Prix: Interlagos

  Gap: 0.02s

  James Hunt knew he was in trouble if he qualified behind teammate Jochen Mass, so he couldn’t have been more motivated to succeed. As he left the pit lane for his warm up lap, there were 20 minutes left in the session. In an extraordinary few minutes, Hunt landed pole on his first flying lap with a guessed set-up and a newly-rebuilt Ford Cosworth engine. He said: “It was my first-ever pole, which I was rather pleased about.” The lap was arguably the most important of Hunt’s career. Hunt had established undoubted number one status and felt it was one of the greatest days in his motor sport career.

  2. 1976 South African Grand Prix: Kyalami

  Gap: 0.10s

  If James Hunt could do it once, he could do it again – and this time with no drama. It was a repeat of Interlagos and Hunt, now totally comfortable with his car and his team, effortlessly took pole once again alongside Niki Lauda on the front row of the grid. Alastair Caldwell and the McLaren mechanics were in awe of their new driver. It impressed everyone and demoralised Jochen Mass. Hunt was very much number one driver in the team.

  3. 1976 Spanish Grand Prix: Jarama

  Gap: 0.32s

  The weekend began well, with James Hunt grabbing pole three-tenths of a second faster than Lauda in the Ferrari beside him. It was Hunt’s third pole in four races. Mass was third as the two McLarens sandwiched Lauda’s Ferrari on the front row of the starting grid. The Austrian, with Willy Dungl in attendance, seemed unaffected by the painful injury he had sustained when he damaged his ribs in a tractor accident a few days earlier.

  4. 1976 France Grand Prix: Paul Ricard

  Gap: 0.28s

  In the first qualifying session, James Hunt was second fastest to Carlos Pace’s Brabham-Alfa Romeo. In the second session, he was fastest ahead of Niki Lauda’s Ferrari. The times were the fastest of qualifying and were carried through a slower final session to put Hunt on pole position. Ferrari was caught out, as it had been increasing the rev limit of its new engine in every session. Without that, Lauda and Regazzoni would undoubtedly have been sharing the front row. They also might have had some prior notice of the problems they would encounter the following day.

  5. 1976 German Grand Prix: Nürburgring

  Gap: 0.90s

  When qualifying ended on Saturday afternoon, James Hunt was on pole position. Niki Lauda, with safety on his mind, admitted he was not driving as fast as he could. He was second on the grid and only a second slower than Hunt; over a seven minute lap, it was ridiculously close. Lauda summed it up: “My personal opinion is that the Nürburgring is just too dangerous to drive on nowadays.” He would be proved right the following day.

  6. 1976 Austrian Grand Prix: Österreichring

  Gap: 0.82s

  Despite the heat elsewhere in Europe, it rained for both qualifying days and, because the land was so dry, the water rolled off the hills and gathered in pools behind the circuit. But none of it affected James Hunt, who turned in a time that gave him his easiest pole position yet. The fast circuit suited him and his car perfectly. He would later set a new lap record at an average speed of 137.83 miles per hour.

  7. 1976 Canadian Grand Prix: Mosport Park

  Gap: 0.394s

  Qualifying was fought out between James Hunt’s McLaren-Ford and Ronnie Peterson’s March-Ford. Peterson was now back on form. But that didn’t stop Hunt taking pole position again, four-tenths of a second clear of Peterson; a huge margin. Vittorio Brambilla, also in a March-Ford, and Patrick Depailler’s Tyrrell were on the second row. Lauda was only sixth fastest alongside an increasingly on-form Mario Andretti in a Lotus-Ford.

  8. 1976 USA East Grand Prix: Watkins Glen

  Gap: 0.248s

  On track qualifying was uneventful round the 3.3-mile circuit, and for the eighth time in the season James Hunt seized pole position. This time he had Jody Scheckter alongside him in the six-wheel Tyrrell, which was proving very effective in its debut season.

  9. 1977 Argentinian Grand Prix: Burnos Aires

  Gap: 0.28s

  As the 1977 season opened, James Hunt seemed to carry on where he had left off three months earlier: he was second fastest to Depailler’s Tyrrell-Ford in the opening session of practice; fastest in the afternoon session; and faster still the following day, taking pole position – the ninth of his career. John Watson put himself alongside Hunt on the front row of the grid in his first race with his new Brabham-Alfa Romeo. Surprisingly, Scheckter was a disappointing eleventh and Lauda fourth.

  10. 1977 Brazilian Grand Prix: Interlagos

  Gap: 0.07s

  In the first session, James Hunt was really unwell and in no fit state to drive the car. By the final qualifying the following day, he had recovered and managed to secure pole position for the first race of the year. The McLaren-Ford, suited to long straights and fast bends, easily looked the best car on the São Paulo track.

  11. 1977 South African Grand Prix: Kyalami

  Gap: 0.05s

  As if to emphasise his point, James Hunt scored yet another pole position; it was his third in a row in the old McLaren-Ford M23. Carlos Pace was second and Lauda third fastest, with Patrick Depailler making up the second row of the grid in fourth slot.

  12. 1977 British Grand Prix: Silverstone

  Gap: 0.28s

  James Hunt had 30,000 cheering fans on the Saturday of qualifying, and he put his McLaren-Ford M26 on pole position for the first time. Inevitably, John Watson was alongside him in the Brabham-Alfa Romeo, and Niki Lauda lurked just behind them, with Scheckter fourth. Andretti was nowhere on a track where grip was not particularly at a premium. Jabouille qualified the turbo Renault 16th and impressed no one.

  13. 1977 Italian Grand Prix: Monza

  Gap: 0.07s

  At Monza, after a supreme effort, Hunt put his car on pole in the final minute of qualifying, beating back Carlos Reutemann’s Ferrari much to the chagrin of the partisan local crowd. It didn’t receive any publicity but it was a supreme effort, as third on the grid Jody Scheckter would readily testify. He was nowhere near this battle.

  14. 1977 USA East Grand Prix: Watkins Glen

  Gap: 0.275s

  James Hunt tried his very best right to the end of the 1977 season and wrung the neck of his McLaren-Ford M26 at Watkins Glen and put it on pole, beating out the ultra-quick pair of Brabham-Alfa Romeos of John Watson and the resurgent Hans Stuck who, aware his drive was up for grabs in 1978, was trying to impress the boss.

  APPENDIX XIII

  Top Pole Scorers of all Time

  1

  Michael Schumacher

  68

  2

  Ayrton Senna

  65

  3

  Jim Clark

  33

  =

  Alain Prost

  33

  5

  Nigel Mansell

  32

  6

  Juan Manuel Fangio

  29

  7

  Mika Häkkinen

  26

  8

  Niki Lauda

  24

  =

  Nelson Piquet

  24

  10

  Damon Hill

  20

  11

  Mario Andretti

  18

  =

  René Arnoux

  18

  =

  Fernando Alonso

  18

  =

  Lewis Hamilton

  18

  15

  Jackie Stewart

  17

  16

  Stirling Moss

  16

  =

  Kimi Räikkönen<
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  16

  18

  Felipe Massa

  15

  19

  Alberto Ascari

  14

  =

  James Hunt

  14

  =

  Ronnie Peterson

  14

  =

  Rubens Barrichello

  14

  Up to and including the 2010 Belgian Grand Prix

  APPENDIX XIV

  Top Race Winners of All Time

  1

  Michael Schumacher

  91

  2

  Alain Prost

  51

  3

  Ayrton Senna

  41

  4

  Nigel Mansell

  31

  5

  Jackie Stewart

  27

  6

  Jim Clark

  25

  =

  Niki Lauda

  25

  8

  Juan Manuel Fangio

  24

  9

  Nelson Piquet

  23

  =

  Fernando Alonso

  23

  =

  Damon Hill

  22

  12

  Mika Häkkinen

  20

  13

  Kimi Räikkönen

  18

 

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