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Motor car race
The
1971 French Grand Prix
was a
Formula One
motor race held at the
Circuit Paul Ricard
on 4 July 1971. It was race 5 of 11 in both the
1971 World Championship of Drivers
and the
1971 International Cup for Formula One Manufacturers
. The 55-lap race was won by
Tyrrell
driver
Jackie Stewart
after he started from
pole position
. His teammate
Francois Cevert
finished second and
Lotus
driver
Emerson Fittipaldi
came in third.
Race report
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This was the first French Grand Prix to be held at the new
Circuit Paul Ricard
near
Marseille
. The
Tyrrell
team had new front bodywork for
Jackie Stewart
's car, and the Briton gained pole position with this revised car ? also helped by extensive tyre testing in the weeks before ? from
Clay Regazzoni
,
Jacky Ickx
and
Graham Hill
. Stewart led away from Regazzoni,
Pedro Rodriguez
and
Jean-Pierre Beltoise
, whilst Ickx was jostled through the first chicane and dropped back. Stewart streaked ahead, setting fastest lap on lap 2 and pulling out a 10-second lead by lap 7. His only real challenger, Regazzoni, hit a patch of oil and sailed into the guardrail, breaking a wheel on lap 20. On lap 28 Rodriguez dropped out with a faulty coil, leaving the
Tyrrells
in 1?2 formation, with
Francois Cevert
proving his worth on his home ground. Hill dropped out of fifth place with a broken oil pipe, having previously hit the guardrail whilst avoiding Regazzoni.
This left
Jo Siffert
in third place, holding off
Emerson Fittipaldi
, who was in pain and heavily bandaged after a road accident. Despite this, the Brazilian took 3rd on lap 39. Siffert retook this briefly, but Fittipaldi held on for the final podium place from the Swiss.
Chris Amon
took 5th in an unconvincing performance by home team
Matra
, duelling with
Tim Schenken
until Schenken ran out of oil 6 laps from the end.
It was a 1?2 success for the Tyrrells on a tricky circuit, the
Cosworth DFV
engine providing extra power down the very long Mistral straight.
This was to be Pedro Rodriguez's last Formula One race. He was killed a week later while driving a privately entered
Ferrari 512
at an
Interserie
sports car race at the
Norisring
in Germany.
Classification
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Qualifying
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Race
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Championship standings after the race
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- Drivers' Championship standings
|
- Constructors' Championship standings
|
- Note
: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
References
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