abstract
| - Qualifying saw Clay Regazzoni claim a rather controversial pole position for Ferrari, with many speculating that the Swiss racer had had an unfair, but otherwise unknown, advantage to beat the rest of the field by over a second. This gap was made even more suspect by the fact that there were only three quarters of a second covering Jody Scheckter in second, and Denny Hulme down in twelfth. A 31 car grid limit meant that Leo Kinnunen missed out on making his debut in a Grand Prix. The start of the race followed a similar pattern to qualifying, with Regazzoni jetting off to an early lead, leaving Scheckter to battle with the rest of the pack. Come the end of the lap the Swiss racer was a second and a half clear, while Emerson Fittipaldi had elbowed the young South African out of the way for second. With Regazzoni out of reach, and Fittipaldi dropping Scheckter, the rest of the opening phase belonged to Niki Lauda, who barged past Ronnie Peterson and Scheckter early on. The race then began to settle, with the top five pulling clear of the rest, although this would change when the quintet came to lap the back markers. In a small melee Lauda was baulked François Migault and lost out to Scheckter, with both losing time to Fittipaldi. It took seven laps for the Austrian to retake the position, although when he did so it would be a move that effectively promoted him into second. This was because his teammate, and race leader, Regazzoni had misjudged a gap, run onto the grass, and could only scramble back into the fray after both Fittipaldi and Lauda had scrambled past. The Swiss racer was denied a shot at making up for his mistake by a worsening fuel issue, which would ultimately relegate him behind Scheckter in the closing stages. Behind them, the fight for the final points positions became a war of attrition, as Peterson, James Hunt, Patrick Depailler and Mike Hailwood all suffered mechanical woes when running in fifth place. When the chequered flag waved it would be Fittipaldi who claimed victory, ahead of an increasingly confident Lauda, those two also heading to the top of the Championship standings. Scheckter claimed his first podium finish at the expense of Regazzoni, while Jean-Pierre Beltoise and Hulme inherited the final points, having survived long enough to claim them.
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