SYND 6 3 76 GRAND PRIX
(6 Mar 1976) South Africa Grand Prix film shows: pit activity. race starts. spectators. race in progress. winning car crosses finishing line. runners-up follow. champion with cup. lead in: austria's niki lauda, the reigning world champion, won the south african formula one grand prix on saturday (6 march '76) driving a ferrari. he won the gruelling race after fighting off a blistering final-lap drive by james hunt of britain driving a mclaren. commentary: the austrian led in his red ferrari from start to finish to chalk up his third successive formula one victory. lauda's win over the 199.86 mile (319.8 km) distance gives him a commanding twelve-point lead in the world championship racing driver tables, ahead of hunt and depailler who share second place. lauda, who won the brazilian grand prix in january ('76) and the last race of the 1975 season, fought off hunts challenge despite a leaking left rear tyre which was almost flat by the time the race ended. race officials estimated that more than a hundred thousand people turned out to watch the race. the victorious austrian, nicknamed the "red baron" because of the colour of his formula one machine, powered away from the grid behind hunt who had pole position and after 20 laps managed to open a twelve second lead over the mclaren, averaging more than 116 miles per hour (118 kph) over the course. bring up natsof to 75 secs in. lauda flashed over the finishing line with hunt only 1.3 seconds behind him and jochen mass of west germany taking third place in another mclaren, which took the team prize in the south african event. in fourth place was jody scheckter of south africa, followed by irishman john watson and mario andretti of the united states. but, at the end of the day, it was lauda's cup, lauda's race and lauda's day. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: / ap_archive Facebook: / aparchives Instagram: / apnews You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...
