1975 British Grand Prix

  1975 British Grand Prix

Race details
Race 10 of 14 in the 1975 Formula One season
Date	19 July 1975
Official name	XXVIII British Grand Prix
Location	Silverstone Circuit, Northamptonshire, Great Britain
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	4.719 km (2.932 mi)
Distance	56 laps, 264.264 km (164.192 mi)
Weather	Sunny, then overcast, then heavy rain
Pole position
Driver	Tom Pryce	Shadow-Ford
Time	1:19.36[1]
Fastest lap
Driver	Clay Regazzoni	Ferrari
Time	1:20.9 on lap 16[2]
Podium
First	Emerson Fittipaldi	McLaren-Ford
Second	Carlos Pace	Brabham-Ford
Third	Jody Scheckter	Tyrrell-Ford

The 1975 British Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Silverstone on 19 July 1975. It was the 30th British Grand Prix to be held since the race was first held in 1926 and the 17th time the race had been held at Silverstone. The race was held over 56 of the scheduled 67 laps of the four kilometre venue for a race distance of 264 kilometres.

The results were overshadowed by a heavy hail storm from Lap 53, which caused three out of the top four cars (Jody Scheckter, James Hunt, and Mark Donohue), to aquaplane and crash in the same corner, bringing an early finish to the race, and a significant absence on the podium. A number of other cars crashed at the same corner as well, including Wilson Fittipaldi, Jochen Mass, and John Watson. The race results were finalised the lap after the lap most cars crashed, giving Brazilian Emerson Fittipaldi, who had been the race leader prior to the storm, a one lap win in his McLaren M23. Carlos Pace, who was one of the crashers in his Brabham BT44B was classified in second position with another of the crashers, Tyrrell 007 driver Jody Scheckter classified third.

The win was the 14th and final win of Fittipaldi's career which had included two world championships. He would continue racing in Formula One until 1980. The win also vaulted Fittpaldi past Carlos Reutemann into second place in the championship, 14 points behind Lauda.

Race summary

A new chicane had been installed at Woodcote Corner, bringing complaints from the purists but also arguments that it was necessary in the interests of safety. Tom Pryce gained his only career pole position in his home race, whilst the Ferraris were on the second row, with James Hunt languishing on the fifth row.

Graham Hill announced his retirement as a driver after 17 seasons and 176 races to concentrate on his Embassy Hill team.

From the start – in which a lights system was being used for the first time in any Grand Prix, replacing the traditional national flag – Carlos Pace led from Pryce.

Following the hail storm, only five cars were running at the end. The RAC declared the race finished officially on the lap after the lap when most cars were running – lap 56. Ferrari, with both of their cars stuck on lap 54 in the classification protested, but the RAC threw these protests out and three days later, the provisional results were confirmed.

Classification

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	1	Emerson Fittipaldi	McLaren-Ford	56	1:22:05.0	7	9
2	8	Carlos Pace	Brabham-Ford	55	Accident	2	6
3	3	Jody Scheckter	Tyrrell-Ford	55	Accident	6	4
4	24	James Hunt	Hesketh-Ford	55	Accident	9	3
5	28	Mark Donohue	March-Ford	55	Accident	15	2
6	9	Vittorio Brambilla	March-Ford	55	+ 1 Lap	5	1
7	2	Jochen Mass	McLaren-Ford	55	Accident	10
8	12	Niki Lauda	Ferrari	54	Accident	3
9	4	Patrick Depailler	Tyrrell-Ford	54	Accident	17
10	22	Alan Jones	Hill-Ford	54	+ 2 Laps	20
11	18	John Watson	Surtees-Ford	54	Accident	18
12	27	Mario Andretti	Parnelli-Ford	54	+ 2 Laps	12
13	11	Clay Regazzoni	Ferrari	54	+ 2 Laps	4
14	17	Jean-Pierre Jarier	Shadow-Ford	53	Accident	11
15	23	Tony Brise	Hill-Ford	53	Accident	13
16	15	Brian Henton	Lotus-Ford	53	Accident	21
17	32	John Nicholson	Lyncar-Ford	51	Accident	26
18	19	Dave Morgan	Surtees-Ford	50	Accident	23
19	30	Wilson Fittipaldi	Fittipaldi-Ford	50	Accident	24
Ret	10	Hans Joachim Stuck	March-Ford	45	Accident	14
Ret	6	Jim Crawford	Lotus-Ford	28	Accident	25
Ret	16	Tom Pryce	Shadow-Ford	20	Accident	1
Ret	29	Lella Lombardi	March-Ford	18	Engine	22
Ret	5	Ronnie Peterson	Lotus-Ford	7	Engine	16
Ret	21	Jacques Laffite	Williams-Ford	5	Gearbox	19
Ret	7	Carlos Reutemann	Brabham-Ford	4	Engine	8
DNQ	31	Roelof Wunderink	Ensign-Ford
DNQ	35	Hiroshi Fushida	Maki-Ford
Source:[3]

Lap leaders

Carlos Pace 17 laps led (Laps 1-12, 22-26), Clay Regazzoni 6 (13-18), Tom Pryce 2 (19-20), Jody Scheckter 7 (21, 27-32), Jean-Pierre Jarier 2 (33-34), James Hunt 8 (35-42), Emerson Fittipaldi 14 (43-56) ^[4]

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Niki Lauda 47 2 Emerson Fittipaldi 33 3 James Hunt 25 4 Carlos Reutemann 25 5 Carlos Pace 24

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Ferrari 50 2 Brabham-Ford 42 (44) 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

1. Lang, Mike (1983). Grand Prix! Vol 3. Haynes Publishing Group. p. 88. ISBN 0-85429-380-9.
2. Lang, Mike (1983). Grand Prix! Vol 3. Haynes Publishing Group. p. 90. ISBN 0-85429-380-9.
3. "1975 British Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 11 June 2014. Retrieved 22 December 2015.
4. "British Grand Prix 1975". motorsport-stats.com. Archived from the original on 16 July 2007. Retrieved 22 December 2015.