South African Grand Prix 4 Mars 1972, Kyalami

Ronnie Peterson gör i Sydafrikas GP 1972 sin 22:a start i F1 sammanhang. Ronnie har endast nionde bästa tid efter kvalet, Stewart står i "pole" före Regazzoni och Fittipaldi. Ronnies gamla March 721 har fått ett nytt nosparti.

Denny Hulme i en McLaren vinner loppet, Emerson Fittipaldi (Lotus) blir tvåa före Peter Revson som trea och med Ronnie till slut på en femte plats. Snabbaste varv har Hailwood med 1.18,9. 

Loppet har sett följande förare i ledning; Hulme 1, 57-79; Stewart 2-44; Fittipaldi 45-56.

Summary in english

Although there were six weeks between the Argentine GP and South Africa, most of the cars were sent directly to Kyalami from Buenos Aires and so there were few changes in the entry. Mike Hailwood joined Surtees, having missed the first race because of clashing Formula 5000 event, while BRM ran Jean-Pierre Beltoise for the first time as he had decided not to race in Argentina because of his legal problems left over from the accident a year earlier which had claimed the life of Ignazio Giunti. The Williams team ran a new Brazilian rising star called Carlos Pace alongside regular driver Henri Pescarolo and Rolf Stommelen made his first appearance in the privately-run Eifelland March. The field was bolstered as usual by some local cars, including Dave Charlton in a Lucky Strike Lotus and Rhodesian driver John Love in a Team Gunston Surtees.

Jackie Stewart had won the opening race of the World Championship for Tyrrell and he took pole in Kyalami, beating Clay Regazzoni (FerrarI) and Emerson Fittipaldi (Lotus) by a few tenths. Hailwood was on the second row with Denny Hulme (McLaren), while Mario Andretti (Ferrari) shared the third row with his team mate Jacky Ickx and Francois Cevert in the second Tyrrell. The top 10 was completed by Ronnie Peterson (March) and Tim Schenken (Surtees).

At the start Hulme was briefly in the lead before Stewart moved ahead, while Fittipaldi, Hailwood, Cevert, Peterson and Andretti gave chase. Regazzoni made a bad start and was in the midfield. Stewart quickly built a lead while the battle for second between Hulme, Fittipaldi and Hailwood detached itself from the rest of the field. When Hulme's car began to overheat he dropped behind both his rivals and a few laps later Hailwood was also able to pass Fittipaldi to move up to second and began to challenge Stewart for the lead. Five laps later Hailwood was stopped by a rear suspension failure. This left Fittipaldi to attack Stewart. The Tyrrell driver stayed ahead but on lap 45 he suffered a gearbox failure and was out, leaving Fittipaldi in the lead with Hulme right on his tail. Fittipaldi now ran into handling problems and on lap 57 Hulme was able to take the lead and go on to win. Fittipaldi was in a strong second place as there was a big gap back to third place and it became even bigger when Chris Amon's Matra developed a serious vibration which dropped him down the order. Third place thus went to Peter Revson in the second McLaren.

 

Sammanställning Grand Prix Sydafrika Datum 4 Mars 1972 Bana Kyalami Säsong 1972 Deltävling 2 Längd (km) 4.104 Varv 79 Tid 1:45:49.100

Placering Nr Förare Team Tid Grid 1 12 Denny Hulme McLaren 1:45:49.100 5 2 8 Emerson Fittipaldi Lotus 14.100 3 3 14 Peter Revson McLaren 25.800 12 4 7 Mario Andretti Ferrari 38.500 6 5 3 Ronnie Peterson March 49.000 9 6 19 Graham Hill Brabham +1 varv 14 7 4 Niki Lauda March +1 varv 21 8 5 Jacky Ickx Ferrari +1 varv 7 9 2 François Cevert Tyrrell +1 varv 8 10 9 Dave Walker Lotus +1 varv 19 11 21 Henri Pescarolo March +2 varv 22 12 6 Clay Regazzoni Ferrari +2 varv 2 13 25 Rolf Stommelen March +2 varv 25 14 24 Helmut Marko BRM +3 varv 23 15 15 Chris Amon Matra +3 varv 13 r 27 John Love Surtees +6 varv 26 17 22 Carlos Pace March +6 varv 24 nc 23 Howden Ganley BRM +9 varv 16 nc 18 Andrea de Adamich Surtees +10 varv 20 nc 11 Peter Gethin BRM +14 varv 18 r 10 Jean-Pierre Beltoise BRM +19 varv 11 r 1 Jackie Stewart Tyrrell +34 varv 1 r 17 Mike Hailwood Surtees +51 varv 4 r 20 Carlos Reutemann Brabham +52 varv 15 r 16 Tim Schenken Surtees +70 varv 10 r 26 Dave Charlton Lotus +77 varv 17 ns 28 Willie Ferguson Brabham

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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