1972 French Grand Prix

 1972 French Grand Prix

Racing data
6th of 12 races of the 1972 World Automobile Championship
Surname:	Grand Prix de France
Date:	2nd July 1972
Place:	Clermont-Ferrand
Course:	Circuit de Charade
Length:	306.09 km in 38 laps of 8.055 km
Weather:	dry and warm
Spectator:	~ 50,000
Pole position
Driver:	Chris Amon	Matra
Time:	2: 53.4 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Chris Amon	Matra
Time:	2: 53.9 min
Podium
First:	Jackie Stewart	Tyrrell
Second:	Emerson Fittipaldi	lotus
Third:	Chris Amon	Matra

The 1972 French Grand Prix took place on July 2nd at the Circuit de Charade near Clermont-Ferrand and was the sixth race of the 1972 World Automobile Championship .

Reports

background

Since the Dutch Grand Prix had been canceled this year due to construction work on the Zandvoort race track , there was a break of around a month between the fifth race in Belgium and the French GP.

During this interruption, a non-world championship Formula 1 race had taken place at the Autodromo Vallelunga near Rome , in which Emerson Fittipaldi was victorious. It was a curious race, however, as only seven vehicles took part. Even the traditional Italian team Ferrari stayed away from the event on home soil.

In contrast, a field of 29 drivers was registered for the French Grand Prix that follows. In addition to François Cevert and the recovered Jackie Stewart, Tyrrell provided a third works car for Formula 1 newcomer Patrick Depailler .

The two Americans Mario Andretti and Peter Revson were absent for the second time this season due to a racing event taking place in their home country at the same time. Brian Redman then took over the representation for Revson again at McLaren . Since Clay Regazzoni broke his arm while playing football, Nanni Galli was signed as the second Ferrari driver for this race . Derek Bell took his place at Tecno .

training

Chris Amon drove the fastest training time with the latest development stage of the Matra MS120 . Next to him, Denis Hulme qualified for the front row. Behind it were Stewart and Ickx in the second row. Tim Schenken and Helmut Marko caused surprises with starting positions five and six.

Nanni Galli did not manage to take the chance to distinguish himself in a Ferrari. He only reached 19th place on the grid. Local hero Jean-Pierre Beltoise had to take over the car of his teammate Howden Ganley after a defect in his vehicle . As a result, his practice times were canceled and he had to start the race from last place, while Ganley had to do without the start. Even Peter Gethin , Henri Pescarolo and Derek Bell damaged their vehicles during training and could not thereby participate in the race.

Tyrrell had brought the new type 005 to the race track. It was supposed to be driven by François Cevert for the first time in a Grand Prix race, but the Frenchman damaged it in practice and then had to switch to the conventional 002 .

Dave Charlton failed to qualify with a privately entered Lotus 72 .

run

Amon took the lead from pole position, followed by Hulme, Stewart, Ickx and Marko. On the ninth lap, Peterson was fifth ahead of Helmut Marko. When he briefly came across the inadequately paved shoulder next to the asphalt , a stone was thrown from his rear wheel, which pierced Marko's helmet visor and irreparably injured his left eye. This incident marked the abrupt end of Marko's racing career.

Ronnie Peterson , who had recently overtaken Mike Hailwood , was now in sixth place. On lap 17 Stewart managed to take second place from Hulme. When the leader Amon had to pit because of a flat tire, which was also caused by the numerous stones in the area of ​​the poorly paved edge of the track, Stewart made it to the top without a fight and defended this place to the finish. Hulme and Ickx also had to pit in the further course of the race due to tire damage, so that second place went to Emerson Fittipaldi. In the final phase, Amon was able to fight back to third place past Cevert and Peterson.

It was recognized that the course no longer met the growing demands of a Grand Prix racetrack and did not return there in the following years.

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
John Player Team Lotus	1	Emerson Fittipaldi	Lotus 72D	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	F.
	6th	Dave Walker
Yardley Team McLaren	2	Denis Hulme	McLaren M19C		G
	2T		McLaren M19A 1st
	11	Brian Redman
Scuderia Ferrari SpA SEFAC	3	Jacky Ickx	Ferrari 312B2	Ferrari 001/1 3.0 F12	F.
	30th	Nanni Galli
Eleven Team Tyrrell	4th	Jackie Stewart	Tyrrell 003	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	G
	7th	François Cevert	Tyrrell 002
	7T		Tyrrell 005 2
	8th	Patrick Depailler	Tyrrell 004
Marlboro BRM	5T	Jean-Pierre Beltoise	BRM P160C 3	BRM P142 3.0 V12	F.
	5		BRM P160B
	22nd	Peter Gethin
	23	Howden Ganley
	24	Pure Wisell
Austria Marlboro BRM	25th	Helmut Marko
Equipe Matra Sports	9	Chris Amon	Matra MS120D	Matra MS72 3.0 V12	G
Team Eifelland Caravans	10	Rolf Stommelen	Eifelland type 21	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	G
STP March Racing Team	12	Ronnie Peterson	March 721G		G
	14th	Niki Lauda
Clarke-Mordaunt-Guthrie Racing	15th	Mike Beuttler			F.
Team Williams Motul	16	Henri Pescarolo	March 721		G
	17th	Carlos Pace	March 711
Motor Racing Developments	18th	Graham Hill	Brabham BT37		G
	20th	Carlos Reutemann
	19th	Wilson Fittipaldi	Brabham BT34
Martini Racing Team	21st	Derek Bell	Tecno PA123 / 3	Tecno Series-P 3.0 F12	F.
Brooke Bond Oxo Team Surtees	26th	Mike Hailwood	Surtees TS9B	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	F.
	27	Tim donation
Ceramica Pagnossin Team Surtees	28	Andrea de Adamich
Scribante Lucky Strike Racing	29	Dave Charlton	Lotus 72D		F.

¹ The McLaren M19A with the starting number 2T was available to Denis Hulme as a T-Car , but was never used.
² François Cevert damaged the Tyrrell 005 with the start number 7T during training and from then on used the Tyrrell 002 with the start number 7.
³ The BRM P160C with the start number 5T was available to Jean-Pierre Beltoise as a T-Car , but was not used.

Classifications

Starting grid

Item	driver	constructor	time	Ø speed	begin
01	Chris Amon	Matra	2: 53.4	167.232 km / h	01
02	Denis Hulme	McLaren-Ford	2: 54.2	166.464 km / h	02
03	Jackie Stewart	Tyrrell-Ford	2: 55.0	165.703 km / h	03
04th	Jacky Ickx	Ferrari	2: 55.1	165.608 km / h	04th
05	Tim donation	Surtees-Ford	2: 57.2	163.646 km / h	05
06th	Helmut Marko	BRM	2: 57.3	163.553 km / h	06th
07th	François Cevert	Tyrrell-Ford	2: 58.1	162.819 km / h	07th
08th	Emerson Fittipaldi	Lotus Ford	2: 58.1	162.819 km / h	08th
09	Ronnie Peterson	March-Ford	2: 58.2	162.727 km / h	09
10	Mike Hailwood	Surtees-Ford	2: 58.3	162.636 km / h	10
11	Carlos Pace	March-Ford	2: 58.6	162.363 km / h	11
12	Henri Pescarolo	March-Ford	2: 59.0	162,000 km / h	DNS
13	Andrea de Adamich	Surtees-Ford	2: 59.1	161.910 km / h	12
14th	Brian Redman	McLaren-Ford	2: 59.4	161.639 km / h	13
15th	Wilson Fittipaldi	Brabham-Ford	2: 59.5	161.549 km / h	14th
16	Rolf Stommelen	Eifelland Ford	2: 59.6	161.459 km / h	15th
17th	Patrick Depailler	Tyrrell-Ford	2: 59.6	161.459 km / h	16
18th	Carlos Reutemann	Brabham-Ford	3: 00.7	160.476 km / h	17th
19th	Pure Wisell	BRM	3: 00.7	160.476 km / h	18th
20th	Nanni Galli	Ferrari	3: 00.7	160.476 km / h	19th
21st	Howden Ganley	BRM	3: 02.0	159.330 km / h	DNS
22nd	Peter Gethin	BRM	3: 02.8	158.632 km / h	DNS
23	Graham Hill	Brabham-Ford	3: 03.0	158.459 km / h	20th
24	Niki Lauda	March-Ford	3: 03.1	158.372 km / h	21st
25th	Dave Walker	Lotus Ford	3: 04.7	157.001 km / h	22nd
26th	Mike Beuttler	March-Ford	3: 05.9	155.987 km / h	23
27	Derek Bell	Tecno	3: 06.9	155.152 km / h	DNS
-	Jean-Pierre Beltoise	BRM	no time	-	24
DNQ	Dave Charlton	Lotus Ford	3: 11.6	151.347 km / h	-

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	Jackie Stewart	Tyrrell-Ford	38	0	1: 52: 22.5	03	2: 55.8
02	Emerson Fittipaldi	Lotus Ford	38	0	+ 27.7	08th	2: 55.7
03	Chris Amon	Matra	38	1	+ 31.9	01	2: 53.9
04th	François Cevert	Tyrrell-Ford	38	0	+ 49.3	07th	2: 56.0
05	Ronnie Peterson	March-Ford	38	0	+ 56.8	09	2: 55.9
06th	Mike Hailwood	Surtees-Ford	38	0	+1: 36.1	10	2: 57.4
07th	Denis Hulme	McLaren-Ford	38	1	+1: 48.1	02	2: 54.4
08th	Wilson Fittipaldi	Brabham-Ford	38	0	+ 2: 25.2	14th	2: 58.9
09	Brian Redman	McLaren-Ford	38	0	+ 2: 55.5	13	2: 56.8
10	Graham Hill	Brabham-Ford	38	0	+ 2: 59.5	20th	2: 59.5
11	Jacky Ickx	Ferrari	37	1	+ 1 lap	04th	2: 54.4
12	Carlos Reutemann	Brabham-Ford	37	0	+ 1 lap	17th	2: 58.6
13	Nanni Galli	Ferrari	37	0	+ 1 lap	19th	2: 59.0
14th	Andrea de Adamich	Surtees-Ford	37	0	+ 1 lap	12	2: 59.9
15th	Jean-Pierre Beltoise	BRM	37	0	+ 1 lap	24	3: 01.1
16	Rolf Stommelen	Eifelland Ford	37	0	+ 1 lap	15th	2: 59.1
17th	Tim donation	Surtees-Ford	36	0	+ 2 rounds	05	2: 59.3
18th	Dave Walker	Lotus Ford	34	0	DNF	22nd	2: 59.5	Gearbox damage
19th	Mike Beuttler	March-Ford	33	0	DNF	23	3: 05.5	Lack of fuel
-	Patrick Depailler	Tyrrell-Ford	33	0	NC	16	2: 57.2	Unrated
-	Pure Wisell	BRM	25th	0	DNF	18th	3: 00.5	Gearbox damage
-	Carlos Pace	March-Ford	18th	0	DNF	11	2: 58.6	Engine failure
-	Helmut Marko	BRM	08th	0	DNF	06th	2: 59.6	Eye injury
-	Niki Lauda	March-Ford	04th	0	DNF	21st	3: 23.0	Gearbox damage

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  Emerson Fittipaldi lotus 34 02  Jackie Stewart Tyrrell 21st 03  Denis Hulme McLaren 19th 04th  Jacky Ickx Ferrari 16 05  Jean-Pierre Beltoise BRM 9 06th  François Cevert Tyrrell 9 07th  Clay Regazzoni Ferrari 7th 08th  Peter Revson McLaren 6th 09  Chris Amon Matra 6th

Item driver constructor Points 10  Ronnie Peterson March 5 11  Mike Hailwood Surtees 4th 12  Mario Andretti Ferrari 3 13  Carlos Pace March 3 14th  Andrea de Adamich Surtees 3 15th  Brian Redman McLaren 2 16  Tim donation Surtees 2 17th  Graham Hill Brabham 1

Constructors' championship

Item constructor Points 01  lotus 34 02  Tyrrell 27 03  McLaren 23 04th  Ferrari 19th 05  Surtees 9

Item constructor Points 06th  BRM 9 07th  March 8th 08th  Matra 6th 09  Brabham 1

Individual evidence

1. ^ "Background" (accessed July 12, 2011)
2. ↑ "Training" ( memento of the original from November 7, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Motorsportarchiv.de; accessed on July 12, 2011)  
3. ^ Motorsport total. Accessed March 18, 2015.
4. ^ "Report" (accessed on July 12, 2011)
5. ↑ “World Cup stands” ( Memento of the original from November 1, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Motorsportarchiv.de; accessed on July 12, 2011)  

Web links

• Race result on the official Formula 1 website