1971 United States Grand Prix

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1971 United States Grand Prix
Watkins Glen International Track Map-1970-1980.svg
Race details
Date October 3, 1971 (1971-10-03)
Official name XIV United States Grand Prix
Location Watkins Glen Grand Prix Race Course
Watkins Glen, New York
Course Permanent road course
Course length 5.435 km (3.377 miles)
Distance 59 laps, 320.67 km (199.24 miles)
Weather Dry
Pole position
Driver Tyrrell-Ford
Time 1:42.642
Fastest lap
Driver Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Jacky Ickx Ferrari
Time 1:43.474 on lap 43
Podium
First Tyrrell-Ford
Second BRM
Third March-Ford
Lap leaders
  • 1971 United States Grand Prix

The 1971 United States Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on October 3, 1971, at the Watkins Glen Grand Prix Race Course in Watkins Glen, New York. It was race 11 of 11 in both the 1971 World Championship of Drivers and the 1971 International Cup for Formula One Manufacturers. [1] The 59-lap race was won by Tyrrell driver François Cevert after he started from fifth position. Jo Siffert finished second for the BRM team and March driver Ronnie Peterson came in third.

Contents

Summary

Jackie Stewart's domination in 1971 clinched his second Driver's Championship with three races remaining, but the final round belonged to his Tyrrell teammate, François Cevert. The Frenchman took the lead from Stewart on lap 14 and went on to claim his only career win, the first GP victory for a French driver since Maurice Trintignant in 1958.

As usual, the American race attracted a large field of entrants, despite it being the last race of the year and both Championships having long been wrapped up. It seemed nearly every spare works F1 car and quite a few independents, as well, were present to try for a share of the $267,000 in prize money, easily the richest purse in F1. Unfortunately, the two most popular American drivers, Mario Andretti and Mark Donohue, who was fresh from a stunning third-place finish in Canada in his Formula One debut in a Penske-White Racing entered McLaren were committed to drive on Sunday in a USAC race which had been rescheduled to the GP weekend after it had been called off on the previous weekend because of extremely heavy rain. The two drivers qualified, Andretti in a Ferrari and Donohue in a Penske-White Racing entered McLaren shared with David Hobbs, hoping for more rain in New Jersey and the chance to return for the race on Sunday.

Since the previous year's race, the course had been resurfaced, widened and, most significantly, lengthened by a mile to 3.377 miles with an entirely new section at the southwest corner called the "Boot" or "Anvil". The pits were also moved from the north end straight back before the right angle turn known as "The 90," which now became Turn One.

Friday was sunny and hot (105 °F (41 °C)), and Stewart jumped immediately to the top of the charts with a time of 1:42.844, as the times were recorded to a thousandth of a second for the first time. On Saturday, with the temperature now 110° and both Goodyear's and Firestone's qualifying tires breaking down after a few laps, Emerson Fittipaldi pipped Stewart's time from the day before, but the Scot returned to the track and grabbed the pole by .017 of a second. Denny Hulme joined them on the front row in his McLaren, followed by Clay Regazzoni's Ferrari, Cevert and the soon-to-be-absent Andretti. American Peter Revson qualified nineteenth in the third Tyrrell. It was his only race for Tyrrell and his first Grand Prix since 1964.

Race

Sunday was dry in both upstate New York and Trenton, New Jersey, and word came that the USAC race would go on meaning that both Andretti and Donohue would be unable to start the race with Hobbs substituting for Donohue in the Penske-White Racing entered McLaren dismaying both the crowd and the organizers, who were robbed of seeing two of the country's best road racers. At the start, Denny Hulme jumped into the lead, ahead of Cevert and Stewart, but by the end of the first lap, Stewart led Hulme, Cevert, Regazzoni, Jo Siffert, Jacky Ickx, Chris Amon and Fittipaldi.

At first, Stewart was able to open a gap back to the following group, now headed by his teammate, but after ten laps, his tires began to go off and the gap closed. The Scot realized that Cevert's Goodyears were holding up much better in the heat, and when Cevert closed up right behind him, he waved him by on lap 14. Hulme was now struggling with a terrible vibration in his tires and was passed, first by Ickx, then Regazzoni and Siffert. On lap 15, American Sam Posey, in his first Grand Prix, retired from a fine run with a blown piston in his Surtees. By the time Ickx could get around Stewart on lap 17, Cevert's lead was 5.7 seconds.

At about half-distance, Cevert finally began to struggle with the same understeer that had plagued Stewart much earlier. Ickx was closing, and his Firestones were getting better as the race went on. On lap 43, the Belgian set the fastest lap of the race, and the gap was down to 2.2 seconds. Then, on lap 49, the Ferrari's alternator fell off, punching a hole in the gearbox and spilling oil all over the track! Hulme hit the oil and spun into the barrier, bending his front suspension. He was standing beside the track when Cevert came by and also hit the barrier, but kept going, now 29 seconds in the lead!

Jo Siffert was now in second place and 33 seconds clear of Ronnie Peterson. With four laps to go, however, Siffert began to run low on fuel. The Swede took huge chunks off the gap as Siffert jerked the BRM from side to side, trying to use every remaining drop of fuel. Cevert coasted home, taking both hands off the wheel to wave as he crossed the line, and Siffert weaved his way around to hold second place by four seconds over Peterson's March.

After taking the checkered flag, Cevert gave a nod to his teammate. "I feel pretty good with a $50,000 win. I followed Stewart in the beginning and was flagged on ahead. Jackie Stewart is a very sensible driver and a very good teacher. He let me go through." While it was the first race on the expanded Watkins Glen track, it was the third year in a row that The Glen had rewarded a driver with his first career victory. This was Cevert's only victory in Formula One.

Qualifying

Qualifying classification

Pos.No.DriverConstructorTimeGrid
18 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Jackie Stewart Tyrrell-Ford 1:42.6421
22 Flag of Brazil.svg Emerson Fittipaldi Lotus-Ford 1:42.6592
37 Flag of New Zealand.svg Denny Hulme McLaren-Ford 1:42.9253
45 Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg Clay Regazzoni Ferrari 1:43.0024
59 Flag of France.svg François Cevert Tyrrell-Ford 1:43.1525
66 Flag of the United States.svg Mario Andretti Ferrari 1:43.195DNS
714 Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg Jo Siffert BRM 1:43.4686
832 Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Jacky Ickx Ferrari 1:43.8437
911 Flag of New Zealand.svg Chris Amon Matra 1:43.9708
103 Flag of Sweden.svg Reine Wisell Lotus-Ford 1:44.0249
1112 Flag of France.svg Jean-Pierre Beltoise Matra 1:44.06710
1225 Flag of Sweden.svg Ronnie Peterson March-Ford 1:44.19311
1316 Flag of New Zealand.svg Howden Ganley BRM 1:44.43012
1418 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg John Surtees Surtees-Ford 1:44.90813
1520 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Mike Hailwood Surtees-Ford 1:45.09414
1623 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Tim Schenken Brabham-Ford 1:45.11015
1717 Flag of Austria.svg Helmut Marko BRM 1:45.20416
1819 Flag of the United States.svg Sam Posey Surtees-Ford 1:45.26717
1931 Flag of the United States.svg Mark Donohue McLaren-Ford 1:45.378DNS
2022 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Graham Hill Brabham-Ford 1:45.44818
2110 Flag of the United States.svg Peter Revson Tyrrell-Ford 1:45.51519
2221 Flag of France.svg Henri Pescarolo March-Ford 1:45.56820
2315 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Peter Gethin BRM 1:45.72921
2431 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg David Hobbs McLaren-Ford 1:46.27022
2526 Flag of Italy.svg Nanni Galli March-Ford 1:46.60823
2628 Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg John Cannon BRM 1:47.47124
2733 Flag of the United States.svg Skip Barber March-Ford 1:47.67325
2827 Flag of Italy.svg Andrea de Adamich March-Alfa Romeo 1:47.95226
2919 Flag of the Netherlands.svg Gijs van Lennep Surtees-Ford 1:48.029DNS
3024 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Chris Craft Brabham-Ford 1:48.69827
3129 Flag of Sweden.svg Jo Bonnier McLaren-Ford 1:49.39128
3230 Flag of the United States.svg Pete Lovely Lotus-Ford 1:52.14029

Race

Classification

PosNoDriverConstructorLapsTime/RetiredGridPoints
19 Flag of France.svg François Cevert Tyrrell-Ford 591:43:51.99159
214 Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg Jo Siffert BRM 59+ 40.06266
325 Flag of Sweden.svg Ronnie Peterson March-Ford 59+ 44.070114
416 Flag of New Zealand.svg Howden Ganley BRM 59+ 56.749123
58 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Jackie Stewart Tyrrell-Ford 59+ 1:00.00312
65 Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg Clay Regazzoni Ferrari 59+ 1:16.42641
722 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Graham Hill Brabham-Ford 58+ 1 lap18 
812 Flag of France.svg Jean-Pierre Beltoise Matra 58+ 1 lap10 
915 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Peter Gethin BRM 58+ 1 lap21 
1031 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg David Hobbs McLaren-Ford 58+ 1 lap22 
1127 Flag of Italy.svg Andrea de Adamich March-Alfa Romeo 57+ 2 laps26 
1211 Flag of New Zealand.svg Chris Amon Matra 57+ 2 laps8 
1317 Flag of Austria.svg Helmut Marko BRM 57+ 2 laps16 
1428 Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg John Cannon BRM 56+ 3 laps24 
1520 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Mike Hailwood Surtees-Ford 54Accident14 
1629 Flag of Sweden.svg Jo Bonnier McLaren-Ford 54Out of fuel28 
1718 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg John Surtees Surtees-Ford 54+ 5 laps13 
NC33 Flag of the United States.svg Skip Barber March-Ford 52+ 7 laps25 
NC2 Flag of Brazil.svg Emerson Fittipaldi Lotus-Ford 49+ 10 laps2 
NC30 Flag of the United States.svg Pete Lovely Lotus-Ford 49+ 10 laps29 
Ret32 Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Jacky Ickx Ferrari 49Alternator7 
Ret7 Flag of New Zealand.svg Denny Hulme McLaren-Ford 47Accident3 
Ret23 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Tim Schenken Brabham-Ford 41Engine15 
Ret24 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Chris Craft Brabham-Ford 30Suspension27 
Ret19 Flag of the United States.svg Sam Posey Surtees-Ford 15Piston17 
Ret21 Flag of France.svg Henri Pescarolo March-Ford 23Engine20 
Ret26 Flag of Italy.svg Nanni Galli March-Ford 11Wheel23 
Ret3 Flag of Sweden.svg Reine Wisell Lotus-Ford 5Brakes9 
Ret10 Flag of the United States.svg Peter Revson Tyrrell-Ford 1Clutch19 
DNS6 Flag of the United States.svg Mario Andretti Ferrari  Non-starter  
DNS19 Flag of the Netherlands.svg Gijs van Lennep Surtees-Ford  Driven by Posey  
DNS31 Flag of the United States.svg Mark Donohue McLaren-Ford  Driven by Hobbs  
Source: [2]

Notes

Championship standings after the race

References

  1. "1971 United States Grand Prix Entry list".
  2. "1971 United States Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on October 17, 2013. Retrieved December 22, 2015.
  3. 1 2 "United States 1971 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved March 21, 2019.

Further reading

Previous race:
1971 Canadian Grand Prix
FIA Formula One World Championship
1971 season
Next race:
1972 Argentine Grand Prix
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1970 United States Grand Prix
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1972 United States Grand Prix