Vittorio Brambilla secured his first and only F1 victory in Austrian GP on this day in 1975 on the wet Osterreichring, driving March Ford in extremely difficult conditions at the legendary track.
In 1975, Austria was the 12th of the 14 races, and Niki Lauda in Ferrari convincingly led the championship by 51 points, 17 more than Carlos Reutemann and 18 more than Emerson Fittipaldi while Ferrari led with three points lead over Brabham.
Regardless of yet another pole position for the domestic driver Niki Lauda, who will win the first of his three championship titles in 1975, the race was marked by the tragic accident of American Mark Donohue, who crashed with a punctured tyre in the fast first corner and died a day later from the injuries. Track marshall was also killed by the flying debris from the destroyed car.
Although the race should have lasted 54 laps, it was shortened to 29 laps (171 kilometers) due to very difficult conditions with plenty of water on the track and poor visibility.
In the lap 12 it became clear that Lauda’s car was not best adapted to the wet conditions and was overtaken by his future champion rival James Hunt, but his lead did not last long because his engine worked on seven cylinders so Vittorio Brambillo took his chance and won the race.
It was his only victory in Formula 1 (Italian celebrated his victory so much that he lost control of the car on the wet track and broke his car’s nose). The second place went to James Hunt in Hesketh while third was Tom Pryce in Shadow, which was first of his two career podiums. Niki Lauda increased his lead to 17.5 points, two races before the end.
Due to insufficient number of laps driven, drivers have scored half points (4.5, 3, 2, 1.5, 1, 0.5).
