The 1971 British Grand Prix was a Formula One race held at Silverstone on July 17, 1971.
Race report[]
On one of the fastest circuits on the calendar, horsepower counted for everything. Clay Regazzoni gained pole with a scorching lap of 1 min 18.1 secs, beating off Jackie Stewart and Jo Siffert in the BRM, who were mourning the loss of Pedro Rodríguez in a sports car race a few days earlier.
The start itself was a shambles, with a bungled flag drop causing a collision between Jackie Oliver and Graham Hill, for which Oliver was rather harshly fined £50. Regazzoni led away from Jacky Ickx and Stewart, but after just one lap Stewart had passed Ickx, with Siffert following him through. On lap 4 the Scot took Regazzoni and disappeared into the distance - by lap 10 he was over 3 seconds ahead. In the points positions, Emerson Fittipaldi, Ronnie Peterson and Tim Schenken were having a memorable tussle. Regazzoni repassed Siffert - who was suffering from vibration problems - on lap 15, but the BRM driver managed to hang on to the back of the Ferrari for several more laps. Stewart increased his lead to 14 seconds on lap 20 and 18 seconds by half distance. Ickx dropped out of fourth place with rubber breaking off from his front left tyre, and Siffert dropped way down with a broken coil bracket. The battle between Peterson, Schenken and Fittipaldi moved up into 3rd, 4th and 5th places.
On lap 48, tyre problems struck Regazzoni and further problems ensued when he tried to leave the pits after his tyre change to find his engine had no oil pressure. Schenken too dropped down the field with gearbox problems and retired completely when it jammed for good 4 laps from home.
Henri Pescarolo and Rolf Stommelen thus moved up into the battle for 4th and 5th, duelling right to the line, with Pescarolo winning out by just 0.5 seconds. John Surtees gained 6th place.
Stewart took a commanding home win and extended his lead in the Championship to 23 points.
Classification[]
| Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Laps | Time/Retired | Grid | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 12 |  Jackie Stewart
|
Tyrrell-Ford | 68 | 1:31:31.5 | 2 | 9 |
| 2 | 18 |  Ronnie Peterson
|
March-Ford | 68 | + 36.1 | 5 | 6 |
| 3 | 1 |  Emerson Fittipaldi
|
Lotus-Ford | 68 | + 50.5 | 4 | 4 |
| 4 | 26 |  Henri Pescarolo
|
March-Ford | 67 | + 1 Lap | 17 | 3 |
| 5 | 24 |  Rolf Stommelen
|
Surtees-Ford | 67 | + 1 Lap | 12 | 2 |
| 6 | 23 | John Surtees
|
Surtees-Ford | 67 | + 1 Lap | 18 | 1 |
| 7 | 22 | Jean-Pierre Beltoise
|
Matra | 66 | + 2 Laps | 15 | |
| 8 | 17 |  Howden Ganley
|
BRM | 66 | + 2 Laps | 11 | |
| 9 | 16 |  Jo Siffert
|
BRM | 66 | + 2 laps | 3 | |
| 10 | 14 | François Cevert
|
Tyrrell-Ford | 65 | + 3 Laps | 10 | |
| 11 | 20 |  Nanni Galli
|
March-Ford | 65 | + 3 Laps | 21 | |
| 12 | 8 |  Tim Schenken
|
Brabham-Ford | 63 | Gearbox | 7 | |
| NC | 3 | Reine Wisell
|
Lotus-Pratt & Whitney | 57 | Not classified | 19 | |
| NC | 19 | Andrea de Adamich
|
March-Alfa Romeo | 56 | Not classified | 24 | |
| Ret | 10 | Peter Gethin
|
McLaren-Ford | 53 | Engine | 14 | |
| Ret | 4 |  Jacky Ickx
|
Ferrari | 51 | Engine | 6 | |
| Ret | 5 | Clay Regazzoni
|
Ferrari | 48 | Oil Pressure | 1 | |
| Ret | 21 | Chris Amon
|
Matra | 35 | Engine | 9 | |
| Ret | 9 | Denny Hulme
|
McLaren-Ford | 32 | Engine | 8 | |
| Ret | 25 | Derek Bell
|
Surtees-Ford | 23 | Suspension | 23 | |
| Ret | 6 | Mike Beuttler
|
March-Ford | 21 | Oil Pressure | 20 | |
| Ret | 2 |  Dave Charlton
|
Lotus-Ford | 1 | Engine | 13 | |
| Ret | 7 | Graham Hill
|
Brabham-Ford | 0 | Accident | 22 | |
| Ret | 11 | Jackie Oliver
|
McLaren-Ford | 0 | Accident | 16 |
Notes[]
- Pole position: Clay Regazzoni - 1:18.1
- Fastest lap: Jackie Stewart - 1:19.9
- Regazzoni beat Stewart to the pole by a couple ten-thousandths of a second.
Standings after the race[]
|
|
- Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
References[]
- "The Official Formula 1 website". http://www.formula1.com/results/season/1971/519/. Retrieved 2008-01-19.
| Previous race: 1971 French Grand Prix |
FIA Formula One World Championship 1971 season |
Next race: 1971 German Grand Prix |
| Previous race: 1970 British Grand Prix |
British Grand Prix | Next race: 1972 British Grand Prix |
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This page uses some content from Wikipedia. The original article was at 1971 British Grand Prix. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Autopedia, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License. |