1973 USA Grand Prix

 1973 USA Grand Prix

Racing data
15th of 15 races of the 1973 Automobile World Championship
Surname:	XVI United States Grand Prix
Date:	7th October 1973
Place:	Watkins Glen
Course:	Watkins Glen Grand Prix Race Course
Length:	320.547 km in 59 laps of 5.433 km
Weather:	cloudy and cool
Pole position
Driver:	Ronnie Peterson	lotus
Time:	1: 39.657 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	James Hunt	March
Time:	1: 41.652 min
Podium
First:	Ronnie Peterson	lotus
Second:	James Hunt	March
Third:	Carlos Reutemann	Brabham

The 1973 US Grand Prix, held on October 7th in Watkins Glen, was the fifteenth and final race of the 1973 World Automobile Championship .

Reports

background

The US Grand Prix was supposed to be the 100th and final Grand Prix of Jackie Stewart , who was world champion for the third time . The duel for second place between Emerson Fittipaldi and François Cevert and the outcome of the Constructors' World Championship were eagerly awaited. Lotus and Tyrrell still had title chances in this case.

Some teams came with three vehicles. McLaren relied on Jody Scheckter again and at Tyrrell, Chris Amon was hired as the third driver, just like at the Canadian Grand Prix two weeks earlier. Shadow reported a third works car for Brian Redman , making it his only Grand Prix outing this year. Jochen Mass, on the other hand, already completed his third assignment at the wheel of an additional Surtee . Clay Regazzoni returned to the BRM factory team. At the wheel of the third factory Brabham was Rolf Stommelen of John Watson represented.

Former Ferrari regular driver Jacky Ickx took the place in Frank Williams' second car this weekend .

training

Despite an accident, Ronnie Peterson set the fastest lap time in Friday practice and was the only driver to stay below 1:40 min. and thus demonstrated his ambition to reach the ninth pole position of the year, which was a record at the time.

François Cevert had an accident at high speed during training on Saturday morning . He collided with the guardrails and was killed instantly. Because of this sad news, the motivation of the other drivers sank, so that no one beat Peterson's fastest lap time set the day before and the Swede actually achieved first place on the grid again. Carlos Reutemann started next to him from the front row. Behind them, Emerson Fittipaldi and James Hunt shared the second row.

run

The Tyrrell team decided to withdraw the two remaining cars of Jackie Stewart and Chris Amon from the rest of the race weekend out of respect for their fatally injured driver François Cevert. The constructors' world championship was automatically decided in favor of Lotus.

Peterson converted his pole into a lead that he did not give up until the finish line. Behind them, Hunt overtook Reutemann on the fifth lap and took second place. Denny Hulme got to Mike Hailwood and Emerson Fittipaldi past to fourth place.

Peterson didn't stand out much from Hunt during the entire race. Reutemann, however, followed at a considerable distance. Fittipaldi fell back from a pit stop he had to make after damaging his tires in an abrupt braking maneuver. This had been necessary to avoid the spinning Jody Scheckter.

Until recently, James Hunt saw a chance of victory, but ultimately crossed the finish line just under six tenths of a second behind Peterson.

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
John Player Team Lotus	1	Emerson Fittipaldi	Lotus 72 E	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	G
	2	Ronnie Peterson
Scuderia Ferrari SpA SEFAC	4th	Arturo Merzario	Ferrari 312B3	Ferrari 001/11 3.0 F12	G
Eleven Team Tyrrell	5	Jackie Stewart	Tyrrell 006	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	G
	6th	François Cevert
	29	Chris Amon	Tyrrell 005
Yardley Team McLaren	0	Jody Scheckter	McLaren M23		G
	7th	Denis Hulme
	8th	Peter Revson
Ceramica Pagnossin team	9	John Watson	Brabham BT42		G
Motor Racing Developments	10	Carlos Reutemann
	11	Wilson Fittipaldi
Embassy Racing	12	Graham Hill	Shadow DN1		G
Clarke-Mordaunt-Guthrie Racing	15th	Mike Beuttler	March 731		G
UOP Shadow Racing Team	16	George Follmer	Shadow DN1		G
	17th	Jackie Oliver
	31	Brian Redman
March Racing Team	18th	Jean-Pierre Jarier	March 731		G
Marlboro BRM	19th	Clay Regazzoni	BRM P160 E	BRM P142 3.0 V12	F.
	20th	Jean-Pierre Beltoise
	21st	Niki Lauda
Brooke Bond Oxo Team Surtees	23	Mike Hailwood	Surtees TS14 A	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	F.
	24	Carlos Pace
Team Surtees	30th	Jochen Mass
Frank Williams Racing Cars	25th	Howden Ganley	Iso-Marlboro IR		F.
	26th	Jacky Ickx
Hesketh Racing	27	James Hunt	March 731		G
Team Ensign	28	Rikky from Opel	Ensign N173		F.

Classifications

Starting grid

Item	driver	constructor	time	Ø speed	begin
01	Ronnie Peterson	Lotus Ford	1: 39.657	196.261 km / h	01
02	Carlos Reutemann	Brabham-Ford	1: 40.013	195.563 km / h	02
03	Emerson Fittipaldi	Lotus Ford	1: 40.393	194.822 km / h	03
04th	François Cevert	Tyrrell-Ford	1: 40.444	194.723 km / h	DNS
05	James Hunt	March-Ford	1: 40.520	194.576 km / h	04th
06th	Jackie Stewart	Tyrrell-Ford	1: 40.635	194.354 km / h	05
07th	Mike Hailwood	Surtees-Ford	1: 40.844	193.951 km / h	06th
08th	Peter Revson	McLaren-Ford	1: 40.895	193.853 km / h	07th
09	Denis Hulme	McLaren-Ford	1: 40.907	193.830 km / h	08th
10	Carlos Pace	Surtees-Ford	1: 41.125	193.412 km / h	09
11	Jody Scheckter	McLaren-Ford	1: 41.321	193.038 km / h	10
12	Arturo Merzario	Ferrari	1: 41.455	192.783 km / h	11
13	Chris Amon	Tyrrell-Ford	1: 41.679	192.358 km / h	12
14th	Brian Redman	Shadow Ford	1: 42.247	191.290 km / h	13
15th	Jean-Pierre Beltoise	BRM	1: 42.417	190.972 km / h	14th
16	Clay Regazzoni	BRM	1: 42.468	190.877 km / h	15th
17th	Jochen Mass	Surtees-Ford	1: 42.517	190.786 km / h	16
18th	Jean-Pierre Jarier	March-Ford	1: 42.752	190.350 km / h	17th
19th	Graham Hill	Shadow Ford	1: 42.848	190.172 km / h	18th
20th	Howden Ganley	Iso-Ford	1: 43.166	189.586 km / h	19th
21st	George Follmer	Shadow Ford	1: 43.387	189.180 km / h	20th
22nd	Niki Lauda	BRM	1: 43.543	188.895 km / h	21st
23	Jackie Oliver	Shadow Ford	1: 43.650	188.700 km / h	22nd
24	Jacky Ickx	Iso-Ford	1: 43.885	188.274 km / h	23
25th	John Watson	Brabham-Ford	1: 43.887	188.270 km / h	24
26th	Wilson Fittipaldi	Brabham-Ford	1: 44.478	187.205 km / h	25th
27	Mike Beuttler	March-Ford	1: 45.032	186.218 km / h	26th
28	Rikky from Opel	Ensign-Ford	1: 45.441	185.495 km / h	27

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	Ronnie Peterson	Lotus Ford	59	0	1: 41: 15.779	01
02	James Hunt	March-Ford	59	0	+ 0.668	04th	1: 41.652
03	Carlos Reutemann	Brabham-Ford	59	0	+ 22.930	02
04th	Denis Hulme	McLaren-Ford	59	0	+ 50.226	08th
05	Peter Revson	McLaren-Ford	59	0	+1: 20.367	07th
06th	Emerson Fittipaldi	Lotus Ford	59	1	+1: 47.945	03
07th	Jacky Ickx	Iso-Ford	58	0	+ 1 lap	23
08th	Clay Regazzoni	BRM	58	0	+ 1 lap	15th
09	Jean-Pierre Beltoise	BRM	58	1	+ 1 lap	14th
10	Mike Beuttler	March-Ford	58	0	+ 1 lap	26th
11	Jean-Pierre Jarier	March-Ford	57	0	DNF	17th		accident
12	Howden Ganley	Iso-Ford	57	0	+ 2 rounds	19th
13	Graham Hill	Shadow Ford	57	0	+ 2 rounds	18th
14th	George Follmer	Shadow Ford	57	0	+ 2 rounds	20th
15th	Jackie Oliver	Shadow Ford	55	0	+ 4 rounds	22nd
16	Arturo Merzario	Ferrari	55	0	+ 4 rounds	11
-	Wilson Fittipaldi	Brabham-Ford	52	0	NC	25th		Unrated
-	Jody Scheckter	McLaren-Ford	39	0	DNF	10		Suspension damage
-	Jochen Mass	Surtees-Ford	35	0	DNF	16		Engine failure
-	Niki Lauda	BRM	35	3	DNF	21st		defective fuel pump
-	Mike Hailwood	Surtees-Ford	34	0	DNF	06th		Suspension damage
-	Carlos Pace	Surtees-Ford	32	0	DNF	09		Suspension damage
-	John Watson	Brabham-Ford	07th	0	DNF	24		Engine failure
-	Brian Redman	Shadow Ford	05	0	DSQ	13		disqualified
-	Rikky from Opel	Ensign-Ford	00	0	DNF	27		broken throttle
-	Jackie Stewart	Tyrrell-Ford	-	0	DNS	05		not started
-	Chris Amon	Tyrrell-Ford	-	0	DNS	12		not started

World Cup stands after the race

The first six of the race got 9, 6, 4, 3, 2 and 1 point (s) respectively.

Driver ranking

Item driver constructor Points 01  Jackie Stewart Tyrrell 71 02  Emerson Fittipaldi lotus 55 03  Ronnie Peterson lotus 52 04th  François Cevert Tyrrell 47 05  Peter Revson McLaren 38 06th  Denis Hulme McLaren 26th 07th  Carlos Reutemann Brabham 16 08th  James Hunt March 14th 09  Jacky Ickx Ferrari / McLaren 12 10  Jean-Pierre Beltoise BRM 9 11  Carlos Pace Surtees 7th

Item driver constructor Points 12  Arturo Merzario Ferrari 6th 13  George Follmer Shadow 5 14th  Jackie Oliver Shadow 4th 15th  Wilson Fittipaldi Brabham 3 16  Andrea de Adamich Brabham 3 17th  Clay Regazzoni BRM 2 18th  Niki Lauda BRM 2 19th  Gijs van Lennep Iso-Marlboro 1 20th  Howden Ganley Iso-Marlboro 1 21st  Chris Amon Tecno 1

Constructors' championship

Item constructor Points 01  lotus 92 02  Tyrrell 82 03  McLaren 58 04th  Brabham 22nd 05  March 14th 06th  BRM 12

Item constructor Points 07th  Ferrari 12 08th  Shadow 9 09  Surtees 7th 10  Iso-Marlboro 2 11  Tecno 1

Web links

Commons : 1973 USA Grand Prix  - Collection of Images, Videos, and Audio Files

• Race result on the official Formula 1 website

Individual evidence

1. ^ "Training" ( Memento from September 11, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (Motorsportarchiv.de; accessed on July 23, 2011)
2. ^ "Report" (accessed on July 23, 2011)
3. ^ "World Championship stands" ( Memento from November 10, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) (Motorsportarchiv.de; accessed on July 23, 2011)