1975 German Grand Prix

  1975 German Grand Prix

Race details
Race 11 of 14 in the 1975 Formula One season
Date	August 3, 1975
Official name	XXXVII Großer Preis von Deutschland
Location	Nürburgring, Nürburg, Germany
Course	Permanent racing facility 22.835 km (14.189 mi)
Distance	14 laps, 319.690 km (198.646 mi)
Weather	Dry and sunny
Pole position
Driver	Niki Lauda	Ferrari
Time	6:58.6[1]
Fastest lap
Driver	Clay Regazzoni	Ferrari
Time	7:06.4[2] on lap 7
Podium
First	Carlos Reutemann	Brabham-Ford
Second	Jacques Laffite	Williams-Ford
Third	Niki Lauda	Ferrari

The 1975 German Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Nürburgring on August 3, 1975. It was the 37th German Grand Prix and the 34th to be held at the Nürburgring. The race was held over 14 laps of the 22 kilometre circuit for a race distance of 319 kilometres.

The race was won by Argentinian driver Carlos Reutemann driving a Brabham BT44B his first win of the season. Reutemann won by 1 minute and 37 seconds over the Williams FW04 of French driver Jacques Laffite. It was a stunning result for Laffite, his first point scoring finish in Formula One. It was also the peak result for Frank Williams Racing Cars, the first Formula One team run by British team principal, Frank Williams. While it was the team's second podium result, it was the first and only podium they would achieve in one of their own cars, having previously achieved a second at the 1969 Monaco Grand Prix with a customer Brabham. 46 seconds further back in third position was world championship points leader, Niki Lauda driving a Ferrari 312T.

With Emerson Fittipaldi's McLaren M23 retiring with suspension damage, Lauda was able to expand his points lead to 17 points with Reutemann moving back into second place.

Report

The pole position time set by Niki Lauda (6:58.6)^[1] was the fastest officially timed lap ever on that track configuration, though it was not eligible as lap record as it did not occur during the race. In qualifying, Ian Ashley had an accident at Pflanzgarten and suffered serious ankle injuries. ^[3] Additional Armco and other safety measures were added to the track at the drivers' demands.

At the start, Lauda took the lead from pole with Carlos Pace, Patrick Depailler, Emerson Fittipaldi, Clay Regazzoni and Carlos Reutemann who made a lighting start from 10th. And at the end of the first lap, the order was Lauda, Depailler, Pace, Reutemann and Regazzoni. Fittipaldi had a puncture and retired on lap 2.

Jody Scheckter had a terrible start, dropped to 20th and began a charge that brought him back up to sixth by lap 7. He crashed at Wippermann on that lap. ^[3]

While chasing Lauda for the lead for more than half the race, Patrick Depailler's suspension broke and lost 1 lap. When he rejoined, he concincidentally reappeared in front of Lauda. Depailler's pit stop left Ferraris 1–2 but Regazzoni's engine soon failed and Carlos Reutemann took 2nd. After leading much of the race, Lauda had a tyre failure on lap 10 and lost a lot of time on his pursuers. Because of the rather slow pit work (compared to modern pit stops), this allowed Reutemann (who took the lead and passed Lauda coming out of the Eiskurve and into Pflanzgarten), James Hunt, Tom Pryce, and Jacques Laffite to pass Lauda while his Ferrari was disabled. Lauda came out in 5th place with a damaged front spoiler (which affected his handling), and he was able to climb to 3rd after Hunt's Hesketh suffered a hub failure and Pryce had fuel leaking into his cockpit which meant he could not drive at the full pace. ^[3] Many drivers had tyre problems in the race because of very hot weather conditions.

Clay Regazzoni set the fastest lap of the race at 7:06.4 on lap 7.^[2] This remains the lap record on that track configuration which existed until 1982.

Classification

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	7	Carlos Reutemann	Brabham-Ford	14	1:41:14.1	10	9
2	21	Jacques Laffite	Williams-Ford	14	+ 1:37.7	15	6
3	12	Niki Lauda	Ferrari	14	+ 2:23.3	1	4
4	16	Tom Pryce	Shadow-Ford	14	+ 3:31.4	16	3
5	22	Alan Jones	Hill-Ford	14	+ 3:50.3	21	2
6	19	Gijs Van Lennep	Ensign-Ford	14	+ 5:05.5	24	1
7	29	Lella Lombardi	March-Ford	14	+ 7:30.4	25
8	25	Harald Ertl	Hesketh-Ford	14	+ 7:40.9	23
9	4	Patrick Depailler	Tyrrell-Ford	13	+ 1 Lap	4
10	27	Mario Andretti	Parnelli-Ford	12	Out of fuel	13
Ret	24	James Hunt	Hesketh-Ford	10	Wheel	9
Ret	11	Clay Regazzoni	Ferrari	9	Engine	5
Ret	23	Tony Brise	Hill-Ford	9	Accident	17
Ret	3	Jody Scheckter	Tyrrell-Ford	7	Accident	3
Ret	17	Jean-Pierre Jarier	Shadow-Ford	7	Tyre	12
Ret	8	Carlos Pace	Brabham-Ford	5	Suspension	2
Ret	30	Wilson Fittipaldi	Fittipaldi-Ford	4	Engine	22
Ret	10	Hans Joachim Stuck	March-Ford	3	Engine	7
Ret	1	Emerson Fittipaldi	McLaren-Ford	3	Suspension	8
Ret	9	Vittorio Brambilla	March-Ford	3	Suspension	11
Ret	6	John Watson	Lotus-Ford	2	Suspension	14
Ret	5	Ronnie Peterson	Lotus-Ford	1	Clutch	18
Ret	28	Mark Donohue	March-Ford	1	Tyre	19
Ret	2	Jochen Mass	McLaren-Ford	0	Accident	6
DNS	20	Ian Ashley	Williams-Ford		Accident	20
DNQ	35	Tony Trimmer	Maki-Ford

Lap leaders

• Lap leaders: Niki Lauda (1–9), Carlos Reutemann (10–14)

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Niki Lauda 51 2 Carlos Reutemann 34 3 Emerson Fittipaldi 33 4 James Hunt 25 5 Carlos Pace 24

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Ferrari 54 2 Brabham-Ford 51 (53) 3 McLaren-Ford 39.5 4 Hesketh-Ford 25 5 Tyrrell-Ford 24

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. Only the best 6 results from the first 7 races and the best 6 results from the last 7 races counted towards the Championship. Numbers without parentheses are Championship points; numbers in parentheses are total points scored.

References

Unless otherwise indicated, all race results are taken from "The Official Formula 1 website". http://www.formula1.com/results/season/1975/468/. Retrieved 2007-06-15.