1973 British Grand Prix

  1973 British Grand Prix

Race details
Race 9 of 15 in the 1973 Formula One season
Date	14 July 1973
Official name	XXVI John Player British Grand Prix
Location	Silverstone Circuit, Northamptonshire, Great Britain
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	4.711 km (2.944 mi)
Distance	67 laps, 315.597 km (197.248 mi)
Weather	Dry
Pole position
Driver	Ronnie Peterson	Lotus-Ford
Time	1:16.3
Fastest lap
Driver	James Hunt	March-Ford
Time	1:18.6 on lap 50
Podium
First	Peter Revson	McLaren-Ford
Second	Ronnie Peterson	Lotus-Ford
Third	Denny Hulme	McLaren-Ford

The 1973 British Grand Prix (formally the XXVI John Player British Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held at Silverstone on 14 July 1973. It was the ninth race of the 1973 Formula One season.

The race is known for the first lap pile-up which ultimately caused eleven cars to retire. The accident happened when Jody Scheckter spun out of fourth place and into the center of the track coming out of Woodcote (the final corner) at the end of the first lap, causing many other cars to collide and crash. The race was stopped at the end of the second lap, because of the pile-up, and restarted over the original distance. Andrea de Adamich retired from the sport after this race due to injuries received in the first lap accident. Nine cars were eliminated in the pile-up (including all three works Surtees cars); and 18 cars started on the second restart out of 29 cars that started (David Purley and Graham McRae were also out of the race on the first lap in separate incidents).

On the first start, a swift start by Jackie Stewart brought him from fourth to first in less than half a lap. At Becketts corner (which was the third out of eight corners on the original Silverstone circuit) Stewart out-braked race leader Ronnie Peterson and took the lead. Unfortunately for Stewart, the massive pile-up at the end of the first lap caused the race to be restarted and he had to start from fourth again. This time it was Niki Lauda who had an excellent start and moved up behind Peterson into second, with Stewart third. Stewart passed Lauda on lap two, and charged after Peterson. On lap six, Stewart tried again to pass Peterson for the lead, but the Swedish driver shut the door; Stewart lost control of his Tyrrell and spun off into the thick grass. Although he was able to continue, Stewart recorded his worst finish of the season: 10th place out of 13 finishers.

Another notable drive came from James Hunt in his Hesketh Racing March, who ran in most of the race in 4th and was part a 4-way battle for the lead between himself, Peterson, Denny Hulme and Peter Revson. American driver Revson won his first Grand Prix by 2.8 seconds from Peterson, and he would go on to win again at Mosport in Canada. But just 8 months after his maiden F1 victory at Silverstone, he would die in a pre-testing accident at Kyalami in South Africa driving a Shadow.

Classification

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	8	Peter Revson	McLaren-Ford	67	1:29:18.5	3	9
2	2	Ronnie Peterson	Lotus-Ford	67	+ 2.8	1	6
3	7	Denny Hulme	McLaren-Ford	67	+ 3.0	2	4
4	27	James Hunt	March-Ford	67	+ 3.4	11	3
5	6	François Cevert	Tyrrell-Ford	67	+ 36.6	7	2
6	10	Carlos Reutemann	Brabham-Ford	67	+ 44.7	8	1
7	19	Clay Regazzoni	BRM	67	+ 1:11.7	10
8	3	Jacky Ickx	Ferrari	67	+ 1:17.4	19
9	25	Howden Ganley	Iso-Marlboro-Ford	66	+ 1 Lap	18
10	5	Jackie Stewart	Tyrrell-Ford	66	+ 1 Lap	4
11	15	Mike Beuttler	March-Ford	65	+ 2 Laps	24
12	21	Niki Lauda	BRM	63	+ 4 Laps	9
13	28	Rikky von Opel	Ensign-Ford	61	+ 6 Laps	21
Ret	11	Wilson Fittipaldi	Brabham-Ford	44	Oil leak	13
Ret	1	Emerson Fittipaldi	Lotus-Ford	36	Transmission	5
Ret	29	John Watson	Brabham-Ford	36	Fuel system	23
Ret	12	Graham Hill	Shadow-Ford	24	Chassis	27
Ret	22	Chris Amon	Tecno	6	Fuel system	29
Ret	30	Jody Scheckter	McLaren-Ford	0	Collision	6
Ret	23	Mike Hailwood	Surtees-Ford	0	Collision	12
Ret	31	Jochen Mass	Surtees-Ford	0	Collision	14
Ret	24	Carlos Pace	Surtees-Ford	0	Collision	15
Ret	20	Jean-Pierre Beltoise	BRM	0	Collision	17
Ret	9	Andrea de Adamich	Brabham-Ford	0	Collision	20
Ret	14	Roger Williamson	March-Ford	0	Collision	22
Ret	16	George Follmer	Shadow-Ford	0	Collision	25
Ret	17	Jackie Oliver	Shadow-Ford	0	Collision	26
Ret	26	Graham McRae	Iso-Marlboro-Ford	0	Throttle	28
Ret	18	David Purley	March-Ford	0	Spun off	16
Source:

Notes

• Last championship race held on the original Silverstone circuit, before the chicane at Woodcote was added for the next Grand Prix at Silverstone. MotoGP, which would come to Silverstone from the Isle of Man in 1977, would use the original circuit until 1986.
• Only race with 4 New Zealand drivers.

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings

	Pos	Driver	Points
	1	Jackie Stewart	42
	2	Emerson Fittipaldi	41
	3	François Cevert	33
	4	Ronnie Peterson	25
	5	Denny Hulme	23

Constructors' Championship standings

	Pos	Constructor	Points
	1	Lotus-Ford	58 (62)
	2	Tyrrell-Ford	53 (57)
	3	McLaren-Ford	35
1	4	Brabham-Ford	12
1	5	Ferrari	12

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. Only the best 7 results from the first 8 races and the best 6 results from the last 7 races counted towards the Championship. Numbers without parentheses are Championship points; numbers in parentheses are total points scored.

References

Previous race: 1973 French Grand Prix	FIA Formula One World Championship 1973 season	Next race: 1973 Dutch Grand Prix
Previous race: 1972 British Grand Prix	British Grand Prix	Next race: 1974 British Grand Prix

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