United States GP 1972

United States GP, 1972

There was a huge field of 31 cars for the final race of the year with many teams entering third cars. Team Lotus had Dave Walker and Reine Wisell alongside Emerson Fittipaldi, while Tyrrell ran a third car for Patrick Depailler. McLaren ran its spare car for a youngster called Jody Scheckter. Surtees loaned out one car to Sam Posey while running Tim Schenken, Mike Hailwood and Andrea de Adamich. John Surtees himself briefly drove a fifth car but did not race. BRM had four cars as in Canada but Bill Brack was replaced by Brian Redman.

Qualifying saw Jackie Stewart fastest for Tyrrell with Peter Revson and Denny Hulme alongside him on the front row in their McLarens. Francois Cevert shared the second row with Carlos Reutemann's Brabham while Clay Regazzoni (Ferrari), Chris Amon (Matra) and the impressive young Scheckter were on the third row. Emerson Fittipaldi and Mario Andretti (Ferrari) completed the top 10. On Sunday morning Amon ran into trouble and so decided to start from the back in a spare car, leaving his grid position vacant.

At the start Stewart went into the lead with Hulme second but Regazzoni ran into Reutemann and Revson. This enabled Fittipaldi to grab third place with Scheckter fourth, a fast-starting Jacky Ickx (Ferrari) fifth and then the recovering Regazzoni. Both Revson and Reutemann had to stop for repairs. On lap five Fittipaldi had to pit because of a slow puncture and so Scheckter moved to third place. Cevert now began to charged and after passing the Ferraris he was able to catch and overtake Scheckter for third place. At half distance Cevert caught and passed Hulme to give Tyrrell a 1-2. When rain started to fall Scheckter made a mistake a spun, dropping down the order and so fourth place went to Ronnie Peterson's March with Ickx behind him.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
1 1 Jackie Stewart Tyrrell-Cosworth 005 59 1h41m45.354s  1 
2 2 Francois Cevert Tyrrell-Cosworth 006 59 1h42m17.622s  4 
3 19 Denny Hulme McLaren-Cosworth M19C 59 1h42m22.882s  3 
4 14 Ronnie Peterson March-Cosworth 721G 59 1h43m07.870s  26 
5 7 Jacky Ickx Ferrari 312B2 59 1h43m08.473s  12 
6 9 Mario Andretti Ferrari 312B2 58  10 
7 3 Patrick Depailler Tyrrell-Cosworth 004 58  11 
8 8 Clay Regazzoni Ferrari 312B2 58  6 
9 21 Jody Scheckter McLaren-Cosworth M19A 58  8 
10 12 Reine Wisell Lotus-Cosworth 72D 57  16 
11 28 Graham Hill Brabham-Cosworth BT37 57  27 
12 34 Sam Posey Surtees-Cosworth TS9B 57  23 
13 6 Mike Beuttler March-Cosworth 721G 57  21 
14 26 Henri Pescarolo March-Cosworth 721 57  22 
15 18 Chris Amon Matra Simca-Matra MS120D 57  7 
16 33 Skip Barber March-Cosworth 711 57  20 
17r 23 Mike Hailwood Surtees-Cosworth TS9B 56 Accident 14 
18r 20 Peter Revson McLaren-Cosworth M19C 54 Ignition 2 
nc 5 Niki Lauda March-Cosworth 721G 49  25 
r 27 Carlos Pace March-Cosworth 711 48 Fuel Injection 15 
r 14 Peter Gethin BRM P160C 47 Engine 28 
r 16 Howden Ganley BRM P160C 44 Engine 17 
r 11 David Walker Lotus-Cosworth 72D 44 Coil 30 
r 30 Wilson Fittipaldi Brabham-Cosworth BT34 43 Engine 13 
r 17 Jean-Pierre Beltoise BRM P180 40 Mechanical 18 
r 15 Brian Redman BRM P180 34 Engine 24 
r 29 Carlos Reutemann Brabham-Cosworth BT37 31 Engine 5 
r 25 Andrea de Adamich Surtees-Cosworth TS9B 25 Suspension  19 
r 22 Tim Schenken Surtees-Cosworth TS14 22 Suspension 31 
r 10 Emerson Fittipaldi Lotus-Cosworth 72D 17 Suspension 9 
r 31 Derek Bell Tecno PA123 8 Engine 29 
ns 24 John Surtees Surtees-Cosworth TS14  Engine Shortage 32