United States Grand Prix 3 Oktober 1971, Watkins Glen

Ronnie Petersons 20:e start i Formel 1 och han har nummer 25 på sin röda March.

Träningen började inte bra för Ronnie. Efter endast femton minuters tidskval exploderar motorn. Inte ens en frisk motor kan hjälpa Ronnie till nya höjder och han lyckas endast prestera en 11:e startposition inför söndagens tävling. Stewart i "pole position" före Fittipaldi och Hulme.

Ronnie startar loppet med hårda däck för att möta hettan på Watkins Glen. Detta gör att han får en dålig start och är endast 14:e man efter det första varvet. Men allt eftersom tävlingen fortskrider får många problem med däcken och Ronnie kan avancera upp i fältet. Ronnie kan slutligen ta hem en tredjeplats efter François Cevert i en Tyrrell (hans enda vinst någonsin i Formel 1) och Jo Siffert i en BRM. Snabbaste varv har Ickx med 1.43,47.

Summary in english

There had been a considerable amount of safety work done at Watkins Glen with a new pit complex and an extension to the track. The field was much as it had been in Canada two weeks earlier although Rolf Stommelen was out of action because of a jaw problem. The second Surtees (a third was being run for Mike Hailwood) was entered for Sam Posey and Gijs van Lennep, the faster of the two (Posey) getting into the race. Tyrrell expanded to three cars with Peter Revson returning to F1 after seven years away. BRM continued to run five cars but George Eaton was replaced in the fifth by Formula 5000 driver John Cannon. Mark Donohue was again in the second McLaren but was sharing the car with David Hobbs as he had to fly backwards and forwards to Trenton, where a delayed USAC race was taking place. Mario Andretti decided not to bother and so Ferrari ran only two cars.

Jackie Stewart took pole position for Tyrrell with Emerson Fittipaldi's Lotus and Denny Hulme's McLaren alongside. The second row featured Clay Regazzoni in the fastest of the Ferraris and Francois Cevert in the second Tyrrell. Jo Siffert (BRM), Jacky Ickx (Ferrari) and Chris Amon (Matra) shared the third row.

Stewart took the lead from Hulme at the start with Cevert jumping up to third place, followed by Regazzoni and Siffert. Fittipaldi made a poor start and was eighth. On the seventh lap Cevert was able to pass Hulme for second place and on lap 14 he moved ahead of Stewart, who was suffering from bad oversteer. Hulme was also having handling problems and he began to drop back, being overtaken by Ickx (who had passed Siffert). Stewart also fell victim to the Ferrari and then Siffert as well. Ickx stalked Cevert until lap 40 when the Ferrari began to fall back with an alternator problem which led to the Belgian's retirement. This moved Siffert to second place and Peterson (who had passed Stewart) to take third. Howden Ganley (BRM) was fourth with Stewart fifth.

It was Cevert's first World Championship victory and with the Mexican GP having been canceled it was the last World Championship race of the 1971 season.

 

Sammanställning Grand Prix USA Datum 3 Oktober 1971 Bana Watkins Glen Säsong 1971 Deltävling 11 Längd (km) 5.435 Varv 59 Tid 1:43:51.991

Placering Nr Förare Team Tid Grid 1 9 François Cevert Tyrrell 1:43:51.991 5 2 14 Jo Siffert BRM 40.062 6 3 25 Ronnie Peterson March 44.070 11 4 16 Howden Ganley BRM 56.749 12 5 8 Jackie Stewart Tyrrell 60.003 1 6 5 Clay Regazzoni Ferrari 76.426 4 7 22 Graham Hill Brabham +1 varv 18 8 12 Jean-Pierre Beltoise Matra +1 varv 10 9 15 Peter Gethin BRM +1 varv 21 10 31 David Hobbs McLaren +1 varv 22 11 27 Andrea de Adamich March +2 varv 26 12 11 Chris Amon Matra +2 varv 8 13 17 Helmut Marko BRM +2 varv 16 14 28 Johnny Cannon BRM +3 varv 24 r 20 Mike Hailwood Surtees +5 varv 14 r 29 Jo Bonnier McLaren +5 varv 28 17 18 Johnny Surtees Surtees +5 varv 13 nc 33 Skip Barber March +7 varv 25 nc 2 Emerson Fittipaldi Lotus +10 varv 2 nc 30 Pete Lovely Lotus +10 varv 29 r 4 Jacky Ickx Ferrari +10 varv 7 r 7 Denny Hulme McLaren +12 varv 3 r 23 Tim Schenken Brabham +18 varv 15 r 24 Chris Craft Brabham +29 varv 27 r 21 Henri Pescarolo March +36 varv 20 r 19 Sam Posey Surtees +44 varv 17 r 26 Nanni Galli March +48 varv 23 r 3 Reine Wisell Lotus +54 varv 9 r 10 Peter Revson Tyrrell +58 varv 19 ns 6 Mario Andretti Ferrari     ns 31 Mark Donohue McLaren     ns 19 Gijs van Lennep 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

Total slutställning för 1971 års GP i Formel 1