Edited sentence: Before crashing hevaily at the Nurburgring, Lauda was surging ahead in the championship and wuold easily have won the title had he continued in the form he was showing.Having narrowly escaped death earlier in the season, he was unwilling to take any unecessary risks.His decision to pull out of the race in Japan attracted considerable scorn in the media, but Lauda was unrepentant.It is fair to say that luck played a considerable part in Hunt being crowned champion that year