Race Summary
Niki Lauda delighted his home crowd by claiming his seventh pole position of the year. Rolf Stommelen returned after his crash in Spain, Chris Amon had returned for Ensign and Brett Lunger qualified well in his début for Hesketh.
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 final practice session, Mark Donohue crashed at Vost-Hugel, the flat-out right hander after the pits. The catch fencing balled up under the car, catapulting it into an advertising hoarding. Two marshals died in the accident, and Donohue died from a resulting brain hemorrhage three days later.
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 magnificent 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 team-mate. 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 team-mates'. 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 been stopped with a chequered flag only, this could not happen. The race results would stand, but with only half points awarded. Brambilla, the oldest man in the field at 37, had won his first 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 Shadown DN7.
Read more about this topic: 1975 Austrian Grand Prix
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