1971 French Grand Prix
Race details
Date 4 July 1971
Location Circuit Paul Ricard
Le Castellet, Var, France
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 5.809 km (3.610 miles)
Distance 55 laps, 319.495 km (198.525 miles)
Pole position
Driver
Tyrrell-Ford
Time 1:50.71
Fastest lap
Driver United Kingdom Jackie Stewart Tyrrell-Ford
Time 1:54.09 on lap 2
Podium
First
Tyrrell-Ford
Second
Tyrrell-Ford
Third
Lotus-Ford
Lap leaders

The 1971 French Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at the Circuit Paul Ricard on 4 July 1971. It was race 5 of 11 in both the 1971 World Championship of Drivers and the 1971 International Cup for Formula One Manufacturers. The 55-lap race was won by Tyrrell driver Jackie Stewart after he started from pole position. His teammate François Cevert finished second and Lotus driver Emerson Fittipaldi came in third.

Race report

This was the first French Grand Prix to be held at the new Circuit Paul Ricard near Marseille. The Tyrrell team had new front bodywork for Jackie Stewart's car, and the Briton gained pole position with this revised car – also helped by extensive tyre testing in the weeks before – from Clay Regazzoni, Jacky Ickx and Graham Hill. Stewart led away from Regazzoni, Pedro Rodríguez and Jean-Pierre Beltoise, whilst Ickx was jostled through the first chicane and dropped back. Stewart streaked ahead, setting fastest lap on lap 2 and pulling out a 10-second lead by lap 7. His only real challenger, Regazzoni, hit a patch of oil and sailed into the guardrail, breaking a wheel on lap 20. On lap 28 Rodríguez dropped out with a faulty coil, leaving the Tyrrells in 1–2 formation, with François Cevert proving his worth on his home ground. Hill dropped out of fifth place with a broken oil pipe, having previously hit the guardrail whilst avoiding Regazzoni.

This left Jo Siffert in third place, holding off Emerson Fittipaldi, who was in pain and heavily bandaged after a road accident. Despite this, the Brazilian took 3rd on lap 39. Siffert retook this briefly, but Fittipaldi held on for the final podium place from the Swiss. Chris Amon took 5th in an unconvincing performance by home team Matra, duelling with Tim Schenken until Schenken ran out of oil 6 laps from the end.

It was a 1–2 success for the Tyrrells on a tricky circuit, the Cosworth DFV engine providing extra power down the very long Mistral straight.

This was to be Pedro Rodríguez's last Formula One race. He was killed a week later while driving a privately entered Ferrari 512 at an Interserie sports car race at the Norisring in Germany.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos No Driver Constructor Time Gap
1 11 United Kingdom Jackie Stewart Tyrrell-Ford 1:50.71 —
2 5 Switzerland Clay Regazzoni Ferrari 1:51.53 +0.82
3 4 Belgium Jacky Ickx Ferrari 1:51.88 +1.17
4 7 United Kingdom Graham Hill Brabham-Ford 1:52.32 +1.61
5 15 Mexico Pedro Rodríguez BRM 1:52.46 +1.75
6 14 Switzerland Jo Siffert BRM 1:52.50 +1.79
7 12 France François Cevert Tyrrell-Ford 1:52.69 +1.98
8 21 France Jean-Pierre Beltoise Matra 1:52.92 +2.21
9 20 New Zealand Chris Amon Matra 1:52.94 +2.23
10 24 Germany Rolf Stommelen Surtees-Ford 1:53.10 +2.39
11 9 New Zealand Denny Hulme McLaren-Ford 1:53.24 +2.53
12 17 Sweden Ronnie Peterson March-Alfa Romeo 1:53.36 +2.65
13 22 United Kingdom John Surtees Surtees-Ford 1:53.57 +2.86
14 8 Australia Tim Schenken Brabham-Ford 1:53.58 +2.87
15 2 Sweden Reine Wisell Lotus-Ford 1:53.75 +3.04
16 16 New Zealand Howden Ganley BRM 1:53.77 +3.06
17 1 Brazil Emerson Fittipaldi Lotus-Ford 1:54.22 +3.51
18 27 France Henri Pescarolo March-Ford 1:54.27 +3.56
19 10 United Kingdom Peter Gethin McLaren-Ford 1:54.90 +4.19
20 33 Italy Nanni Galli March-Ford 1:55.52 +4.81
21 19 Italy Andrea de Adamich March-Alfa Romeo 1:56.17 +5.46
22 18 Spain Alex Soler-Roig March-Ford 1:57.07 +6.36
23 28 France Max Jean March-Ford 1:59.79 +9.08
24 34 France François Mazet March-Ford 2:00.51 +9.80
Source:[1]

Race

PosNoDriverConstructorLapsTime/RetiredGridPoints
1 11 United Kingdom Jackie Stewart Tyrrell-Ford 55 1:46:42.3 1 9
2 12 France François Cevert Tyrrell-Ford 55 + 28.12 7 6
3 1 Brazil Emerson Fittipaldi Lotus-Ford 55 + 34.07 17 4
4 14 Switzerland Jo Siffert BRM 55 + 37.17 6 3
5 20 New Zealand Chris Amon Matra 55 + 41.08 9 2
6 2 Sweden Reine Wisell Lotus-Ford 55 + 1:16.02 15 1
7 21 France Jean-Pierre Beltoise Matra 55 + 1:16.93 8  
8 22 United Kingdom John Surtees Surtees-Ford 55 + 1:24.91 13  
9 10 United Kingdom Peter Gethin McLaren-Ford 54 + 1 Lap 19  
10 16 New Zealand Howden Ganley BRM 54 + 1 Lap 16  
11 24 Germany Rolf Stommelen Surtees-Ford 53 + 2 Laps 10  
12 8 Australia Tim Schenken Brabham-Ford 50 Oil Pressure 14  
13 34 France François Mazet March-Ford 50 + 5 Laps 23  
NC 28 France Max Jean March-Ford 46 + 9 Laps 22  
Ret 27 France Henri Pescarolo March-Ford 45 Gearbox 18  
Ret 7 United Kingdom Graham Hill Brabham-Ford 34 Oil Pipe 4  
Ret 19 Italy Andrea de Adamich March-Alfa Romeo 31 Engine 20  
Ret 15 Mexico Pedro Rodríguez BRM 27 Ignition 5  
Ret 5 Switzerland Clay Regazzoni Ferrari 20 Accident 2  
Ret 17 Sweden Ronnie Peterson March-Alfa Romeo 19 Engine 12  
Ret 9 New Zealand Denny Hulme McLaren-Ford 16 Ignition 11  
Ret 4 Belgium Jacky Ickx Ferrari 4 Engine 3  
Ret 18 Spain Alex Soler-Roig March-Ford 4 Fuel Pump 21  
DNS 33 Italy Nanni Galli March-Ford   Engine    
Source:[2]

Championship standings after the race

  • Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

  1. ↑ Pritchard, Anthony (1972). The Motor Racing Year No3. ISBN 0393085023.
  2. ↑ "1971 French Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 17 October 2013. Retrieved 22 December 2015.
  3. 1 2 "France 1971 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 15 March 2019.
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