1975 Austrian Grand Prix

Qualifying summary

Niki Lauda delighted his home crowd by claiming his seventh pole position of the year. Rolf Stommelen returned after his crash in Spain but could only muster 26th position for qualifying. Chris Amon had returned for Ensign but only being able to qualify in 24th. Brett Lunger qualified well in his début for Hesketh to start 17th.

Practice crashes

Practice was marred by a series of accidents, Brian Henton crashing his Lotus when he hit an oil patch and Wilson Fittipaldi breaking two bones in his hand. During the warm-up on Sunday morning, Mark Donohue had a tyre failure and crashed at Vöest-Hügel, the flat-out right hander after the pits. The car went through catch fencing and advertising billboards lining the track.

Race summary

As the grid formed up, there were reports of rain at the far side of the track. Thunderclouds were forming ominously and the cars were returned to the pits to change to wet tyres.

After 45 minutes, the grid reformed. Lauda led off the start from James Hunt and Patrick Depailler who had shot up from the fourth row. Mario Andretti spun off, whilst Bob Evans retired the BRM.

Vittorio Brambilla had shot through the spray to gain a third place, with Ronnie Peterson leaping from tenth to fourth.

By lap 12, it was obvious that Lauda's car was not set up fully to cope with wet conditions and by lap 15 Hunt stormed by to lead for the fifth time this season. However, this was to be short-lived. The Hesketh's engine was running on only seven cylinders and Brambilla was clambering all over the back of the car. Ahead of them Lunger was driving carefully in his first wet race and could not see the leaders approaching him. Brambilla seized the lead and it took a further two laps for Hunt to finally pass his teammate. Peterson had to pit to replace a faulty visor, whilst the Brabham drivers found they had been racing with one of their own rear tyres and one of their teammates'. Jochen Mass spun out of third place, and soon there was frantic activity between the Grand Prix Drivers' Association and the race officials as to whether the race should continue – it was brought to a halt on lap 29.

As Brambilla took the flag, he crashed into the barriers and the March team celebrated a historic victory. However, behind the scenes, there was confusion. Some teams were preparing for a restart, but as the race had already been stopped with the chequered flag, it could not happen anymore. The race results would stand, but with only half points awarded. Brambilla, the oldest man in the field at 37, had won his first and only Grand Prix.

This was the first of only two races where Shadow used a Matra engine instead of the Cosworth DFV in Jean-Pierre Jarier's Shadow DN7.

With neither Carlos Reutemann nor Emerson Fittipaldi featuring in the points, Niki Lauda's sixth position actually allowed him to expand his points lead to 17.5 points. If Lauda scored any points at all at the Italian Grand Prix the Austrian driver could claim the championship.

Classification

Qualifying

*Positions in red indicate entries that failed to qualify.

Race

Notes

• This was the Formula One World Championship debut for Swiss driver Jo Vonlanthen and American driver Brett Lunger.
• This race marked the 25th Grand Prix victory for an Italian driver.
• This was the 25th Grand Prix start for Hesketh.

Championship standings after the race

;Drivers' Championship standings

;Constructors' Championship standings

• 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.
• Competitors in bold and marked with an asterisk still had a theoretical chance of becoming World Champion.

References

Name_of_race = Austrian Grand Prix | Year_of_race = 1975 | Previous_race_in_season = 1975 German Grand Prix | Next_race_in_season = 1975 Italian Grand Prix | Previous_year's_race = 1974 Austrian Grand Prix | Next_year's_race = 1976 Austrian Grand Prix | Previous_designated_European_Grand_Prix = 1974 German Grand Prix | Next_designated_European_Grand_Prix = 1976 Dutch Grand Prix}}

References

1. Lang, Mike. (1983). "Grand Prix! Vol 3". Haynes Publishing Group.
2. Lang, Mike. (1983). "Grand Prix! Vol 3". Haynes Publishing Group.
3. "Austrian Grand Prix 1975". motorsport-stats.com.
4. "1975 Austrian Grand Prix Entry list".
5. (20 August 1975). "Donohue dies after surgery". [[The Register-Guard.
6. "Austrian Grand Prix 1975". motorsportmagazine.com.
7. Jones, Bruce. (1998). "The Complete Encyclopedia of Formula One". Carlton Books.
8. "1975 Austrian Grand Prix". formula1.com.
9. "Austria 1975 - Championship • STATS F1".