Niki Lauda 1977 F1 World Champion🏁🏆

Niki Lauda won his second championship, despite Mario Andretti winning more races.

Niki Lauda won his second F1 world driver's championship on October 2, 1977 after a fourth-place finish in the United States Grand Prix.

The 1976 F1 season was one for the ages, as Niki Lauda and James Hunt fought it out in an epic title battle. Lauda suffered a horrific crash at the German GP, sustaining fatal injuries and multiple burns.

Amazingly, he was back racing three races later and would lose the title by a point. Yet there was to be no such drama in 1977, when Lauda was at the absolute top of his game.

That season, coming into the United States GP, Lauda needed only a point to seal the title. He led the championship with 69 points, with Jody Scheckter in second with 42 points.

The 1977 season was not necessarily one of classic confrontation. It was the reliability of the Ferrari 312T2 rather than its performance that underpinned Lauda’s second World Championship title, allowing him to focus on amassing more points than his opponents in the certain knowledge that his car could not match them on speed.

The top five in the standings were Lauda (72 points), Jody Scheckter (55), Mario Andretti (47), Carlos Reutemann (42) and James Hunt (40). Niki did well to complete the third-greatest distance in the lead at 558 miles, behind Mario Andretti’s 729 and James Hunt’s 711, despite three fewer starts.