Canadian GP 1977

OCTOBER 9, 1977

Canadian GP, 1977

There was only a week between the United States East Grand Prix and the race at Mosport Park but there was significant change with World Champion deciding that he was fed up with Ferrari. He declined to race. The team had been planning to run a third car for Gilles Villeneuve and so he merely took over. The only other change was the return to Shadow of Riccardo Patrese. There were worries about safety over the Mosport Park bumps and in practice Ian Ashley's Obex Oil Hesketh flipped after cresting one of the brows. It somersaulted over the barriers and collided with a television tower. Ashley (who had suffered nasty leg injuries in a crash at the Nurburgring in 1975) was seriously hurt again and rescue operations were inefficient and time-consuming. The lack of safety of Mosport was underlined when Jochen Mass spun into the guardrail later that day and it was flattened.

The grid consisted of Mario Andretti on pole by six-tenths in his Lotus with James Hunt second fastest in the McLaren. Then came Ronnie Peterson (Tyrrell), Gunnar Nilsson (Lotus), Mass (McLaren), Patrick Depailler (Tyrrell), Alan Jones and Riccardo Patrese (both in Shadows), Jody Scheckter's Wolf and John Watson's Brabham-Alfa Romeo. The Ferraris were not competitive with Carlos Reutemann 12th and Villeneuve 17th.

In the race Andretti took an early lead with Hunt and Mass in pursuit and the order remained unchanged at the front until the 60th lap when the two leaders were coming up to lap third-placed Mass. Hunt scrambled ahead of Andretti and then there was a misunderstanding and the two McLarens collided and spun off. Andretti went back into the lead but on lap 78 the Lotus stopped with an engine failure and so Scheckter took the victory with Depailler second and the recovering Mass third after Brambilla crashed on oil from Andretti's engine and smashed into Patrese's Shadow which had gone off a lap early. Jones finished fourth with Patrick Tambay fifth for Ensign with Brambilla being classified sixth.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
20 Jody Scheckter Wolf-Cosworth  80 1h40m00.000s  
Patrick Depailler Tyrrell-Cosworth  80 1h40m06.770s  
Jochen Mass McLaren-Cosworth  80 1h40m15.760s  
17 Alan Jones Shadow-Cosworth  80 1h40m46.690s  
23 Patrick Tambay Ensign-Cosworth  80 1h41m03.260s  16 
6r 19 Vittorio Brambilla Surtees-Cosworth  78 Accident 15 
14 Danny Ongais Penske-Cosworth  78  22 
Alex-Dias Ribeiro March-Cosworth  78  23 
9r Mario Andretti Lotus-Cosworth  77 Engine 
10r 16 Riccardo Patrese Shadow-Cosworth  76 Accident 
11r 30 Brett Lunger March-Cosworth  76 Engine 20 
12r 21 Gilles Villeneuve Ferrari  76 Drive Shaft  17 
James Hunt McLaren-Cosworth  61 Accident 
27 Patrick Neve March-Cosworth  56 Oil Pressure 21 
Ronnie Peterson Tyrrell-Cosworth  34 Fuel Leak 
24 Rupert Keegan Hesketh-Cosworth  32 Accident 25 
18 Hans Binder Surtees-Cosworth  31 Accident 24 
28 Emerson Fittipaldi Copersucar-Cosworth  29 Engine 19 
10 Ian Scheckter March-Cosworth  29 Engine 18 
12 Carlos Reutemann Ferrari  20 Fuel Pressure 12 
Hans-Joachim Stuck Brabham-Alfa Romeo  19 Engine 13 
Gunnar Nilsson Lotus-Cosworth  17 Throttle Jammed/accident 
26 Jacques Laffite Ligier-Matra  12 Drive Shaft 11 
John Watson Brabham-Alfa Romeo  Accident 10 
22 Clay Regazzoni Ensign-Cosworth  Accident 14 
ns 25 Harald Ertl Hesketh-Cosworth   Accident/injury 26 
nq 15 Jean-Pierre Jabouille Renault    27