More trouble for Hunt

Press, 14 September 1976, Page 38

More trouble for Hunt

NZPA-Reuter Monza Ronnie Peterson, of Sweden, may lose his first win of the motorracing grand prix season if the McLaren team’s appeal against grid placings in yesterday’s Italian Grand Prix succeeds.

The decision to push James Hunt, of Britain, and his McLaren team mate Jochen Mass (West Germany) to the back of the grid came three hours before the race, itself packed with controversy. McLaren are appealing against a ruling that their cars had used fuel of more than the permitted octane rating. "If the appeal goes through, the entire race will

be invalidated,” the McLaren chief, Teddy Meyer, told reporters. Hunt, Mass and the British driver, John Watson of the United States Penske company, were at first relegated to reserve status, but were allowed to start at the back of the grid when organisers realised that no reserves had time to prepare for the race. The allowable octane level for fuel is 101, but the fuel from the offending cars contained 101.6, according to the Italian authorities.

Hunt pushed hard from the start and by the fifth lap had already caught up with nearly half the drivers. But the twelfth lap saw him off the road out of the race, in a near collision with Briton Tom Price in a Shadow.

“Price was going into me,” Hunt said. “He tried to overtake me on the inside lane, so I had to go off the track.”

Hunt explained the car had stuck in tha aand, pre-

1 venting him from getting back into the race. Niki Lauda, Austria’s world champion, back in ac-

tion six weeks after his near-fatal crash at the West German Grand Prix, drove his Ferrari into fourth position, but only after he had started the race in neutral

gear. “Lauda missed the ten-sec-onds (final warning) signal,” his Argentine team-mate, Carlos Reutemann, driving his first race for Ferrari, explained. Ferrari’s Clay Regazoznl, of Switzerland, came in second, with Frenchman Jacques Lafitte, in a Matia third. Lauda’s fourth gave him three more points in the world drivers’ championship and took his tally to 61, five ahead of Hunt. There are three more races and Jody Scheckter (South Africa, Tysell) in third place, 18 points behind Hunt, still has a mathematical chance of finishing top.

Hunt’s victories in the Spanish and British grand prix are still in doubt it was learned at a news conference at Monza. A spokesman for the Internationa) Sporting Commission (C. 5.1. said the bureau would "examine the possibility of coming back to the Spanish Grand Prix.”

Hunt won the Spanish event. The Briton was then disqualified because his machine was said to be too wide under the regulations. After an appeal Hunt was reinstated. But it now appears the valuable nine world championship points could still be taken away from him, and the blond Briton’s troubles did not end there. Hunt’s British Grand Prix win at Brands Hatch is also under investigation following an appeal by Ferrari. The .intense rivalry between Ferrari, who at one stage pulled out of the championship, and McLaren is turning the season into a series of bitter fights.