Bang & Olufsen Grand Prix de Belgique 12 Maj 1974, Nivelles

Ronnie Peterson lyckas erövra en femte bästa tid i kvalet till Belgiens GP 1974 där Ronnie kommer att göra sin 52:a F1 start.

Clay Regazzoni står i första startledet tillsammans med Jody Scheckter. Niki Lauda och Emerson Fittipaldi omedelbart därefter.

Regazzoni tar starten och kan hålla ledningen under de första 38 varven. Fittipaldi går förbi och vinner loppet med en mycket liten tidsmarginal (0,35 sekunder) före Niki Lauda. Scheckter trea. Snabbaste varv av Denny Hulme med 1.11,31. Loppet ser följande förare i ledning: Regazzoni 1-38; Fittipaldi 39-85.

Ronnie då? Ja, han tvingas bryta loppet efter 56 varv p g a bränsleläckage.

- Den nya bilen är säkert bra och kan vinna så småningom, men det håller inte loppen ut, förklarade Ronnie.

Summary in english

After a year at Zolder the Belgian GP was back at Nivelles again and there were 32 cars present. Missing from the entry in Spain were Chris Amon, who had decided to have his car redesigned, and Tom Belso who had been replaced in the second Iso-Marlboro by Gijs Van Lennep. There were four Grand Prix debutantes: Tom Pryce driving a car which had been designed as a Motul by Ray Jessop for Ron Dennis and Neil Trundle of Rondel but was being run as a Token by Tony Vlassopoulo and Ken Grob; Gerard Larrousse appeared in an old Brabham entered by Bretscher Racing; Leo Kinnunen was at the wheel of an old Surtees; and local hero Teddy Pilette at the wheel of a third Brabham thanks to sponsorship from Hitachi. Australian Vern Schuppan appeared at the wheel of the Ensign thanks to backing from Macau businessman Teddy Yip.

Qualifying resulted in a rather suspect pole position for Clay Regazzoni , who was credited with a time which was a full second faster than everyone else. Then came Jody Scheckter in the new Tyrrell. The next 10 drivers were all covered by a second. Niki Lauda (Ferrari) shared the second row with Emerson Fittipaldi's McLaren while the third row featured Ronnie Peterson (Lotus) and Arturo Merzario, showing well once again in the Iso-Marlboro. The top 10 was completed by Jean-Pierre Beltoise (BRM), Carlos Pace (Surtees), James Hunt (Hesketh) and Hans Stuck (March). Local hero Jacky Ickx was a disappointing 16th in his Lotus, while Carlos Reutemann was a disastrous 24th after a troubled practice. Only Kinnunen failed to qualify.

At the start Regazzoni went off into the lead with Scheckter and Fittipaldi behind him. At the end of the lap Fittipaldi breezed past the Tyrrell to take second place. Behind the top three Peterson led Lauda, Hunt, Pace, Beltoise and Merzario. On the third lap Lauda overtook Peterson and a few laps later went past Scheckter as well. The order then stabilized until the front-runners ran into traffic. Lauda was slightly delayed by one and was retaken by Scheckter. Seven laps later they switched places again. Peterson went into the pits with a brake problem, while Regazzoni was pushed onto the grass by a backmarker and lost the lead to Fittipaldi and Lauda was able to grab second as well. Hunt disappeared when his suspension failed and he was thrown into a spin. He was replaced in fifth place by Depailler but the Frenchman went out soon afterwards with a brake problem. This elevated Beltoise and Hulme into the top six although both were overtaken later by Hailwood, although he dropped behind again because of fuel feed problems in the closing laps. Fuel problems also resulted in Regazzoni dropping behind Scheckter on the final lap and so the podium featured Fittipaldi. Lauda and Scheckter.

 

Sammanställning Grand Prix Belgien  Datum 12 Maj 1974 Bana Nivelles-Baulers Säsong 1974 Deltävling 5 Längd (km) 3.724 Varv 85 Tid 1:44:20.570

Placering Nr Förare Team Tid Grid 1 5 Emerson Fittipaldi McLaren 1:44:20.570 4 2 12 Niki Lauda Ferrari 0.350 3 3 3 Jody Scheckter Tyrrell 45.610 2 4 11 Clay Regazzoni Ferrari 52.020 1 5 14 Jean-Pierre Beltoise BRM 68.050 7 6 6 Denny Hulme McLaren 70.540 12 7 33 Mike Hailwood McLaren +1 varv 13 8 26 Graham Hill Lola +2 varv 29 9 10 Vittorio Brambilla March +2 varv 31 10 41 Tim Schenken Trojan +2 varv 23 11 28 John Watson Brabham +2 varv 19 12 27 Guy Edwards Lola +3 varv 21 13 17 Jean-Pierre Jarier Shadow +3 varv 17 14 21 Gijs van Lennep Williams +3 varv 30 15 22 Vern Schuppan Ensign +3 varv 14 16 37 Francois Migault BRM +3 varv 25 17 34 Teddy Pilette Brabham +4 varv 27 r 16 Brian Redman Shadow +5 varv 18 r 2 Jacky Ickx Lotus +13 varv 16 r 42 Tom Pryce Token +19 varv 20 r 7 Carlos Reutemann Brabham +23 varv 24 r 1 Ronnie Peterson Lotus +29 varv 5 r 43 Geraud Larrousse Brabham +32 varv 28 r 19 Jochen Mass Surtees +32 varv 26 r 4 Patrick Depailler Tyrrell +32 varv 11 r 18 Carlos Pace Surtees +35 varv 8 r 8 Rikky von Opel Brabham +36 varv 22 r 24 James Hunt Hesketh +40 varv 9 r 20 Arturo Merzario Williams +56 varv 6 r 15 Henri Pescarolo BRM +73 varv 15 r 9 Hans-Joachim Stuck March +79 varv 10 nq 44 Leo Kinnunen Surtees

NC=Not Classified NT=No time set in qualifying R=Retired EX=Excluded from meeting W=Withdrawn DQ=Disqualified NS=Did not start NQ=Did not qualify NPQ=Did not pre-qualify

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