South African GP 1972
South African GP, 1972
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.
POS | NO | DRIVER | ENTRANT | LAPS | TIME/RETIREMENT | QUAL POS |
1 | 12 | Denny Hulme | McLaren-Cosworth M19A | 79 | 1h45m49.100s | 5 |
2 | 8 | Emerson Fittipaldi | Lotus-Cosworth 72D | 79 | 1h46m03.200s | 3 |
3 | 14 | Peter Revson | McLaren-Cosworth M19A | 79 | 1h46m14.900s | 12 |
4 | 7 | Mario Andretti | Ferrari 312B2 | 79 | 1h46m27.600s | 6 |
5 | 3 | Ronnie Peterson | March-Cosworth 721 | 79 | 1h46m38.100s | 9 |
6 | 19 | Graham Hill | Brabham-Cosworth BT33 | 78 | 14 | |
7 | 4 | Niki Lauda | March-Cosworth 721 | 78 | 21 | |
8 | 5 | Jacky Ickx | Ferrari 312B2 | 78 | 7 | |
9 | 2 | Francois Cevert | Tyrrell-Cosworth 002 | 78 | 8 | |
10 | 9 | David Walker | Lotus-Cosworth 72D | 78 | 19 | |
11 | 21 | Henri Pescarolo | March-Cosworth 721 | 77 | 22 | |
12 | 6 | Clay Regazzoni | Ferrari 312B2 | 77 | 2 | |
13 | 25 | Rolf Stommelen | Eifelland March-Cosworth 721 | 77 | 25 | |
14 | 24 | Helmut Marko | BRM P153 | 76 | 23 | |
15 | 15 | Chris Amon | Matra Simca-Matra MS120C | 76 | 13 | |
16r | 27 | John Love | Surtees-Cosworth TS9 | 73 | Puncture/ Accident | 26 |
17 | 22 | Carlos Pace | March-Cosworth 711 | 73 | 24 | |
nc | 23 | Howden Ganley | BRM P160B | 70 | 16 | |
nc | 18 | Andrea de Adamich | Surtees-Cosworth TS9B | 69 | 20 | |
nc | 11 | Peter Gethin | BRM P160B | 65 | 18 | |
r | 10 | Jean-Pierre Beltoise | BRM P160B | 60 | Engine | 11 |
r | 1 | Jackie Stewart | Tyrrell-Cosworth 003 | 45 | Gearbox | 1 |
r | 17 | Mike Hailwood | Surtees-Cosworth TS9B | 28 | Suspension | 4 |
r | 20 | Carlos Reutemann | Brabham-Cosworth BT34 | 27 | Fuel Line | 15 |
r | 16 | Tim Schenken | Surtees-Cosworth TS9B | 9 | Engine | 10 |
r | 26 | Dave Charlton | Lotus-Cosworth 72D | 2 | Fuel Pump | 17 |
ns | 28 | Willie Ferguson | Brabham-Cosworth BT33 | Engine | 27 |