The 1973 French Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at the

Paul Ricard Circuit The Circuit Paul Ricard () is a French motorsport race track built in 1969 at Le Castellet, Var, near Marseille, with finance from pastis magnate Paul Ricard. Ricard wanted to experience the challenge of building a racetrack. The circuit has ho ...

on July 1, 1973. It was race 8 of 15 in both the

1973 World Championship of Drivers Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel car, open-wheel single-seater Formula racing, formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The ...

and the

1973 International Cup for Formula One Manufacturers The 1973 Formula One season was the 27th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 1973 World Championship of Drivers and the 1973 International Cup for F1 Manufacturers, which were contested concurrently over a fifteen-race seriesR ...

. It was the first victory for two-time World Championship runner-up Ronnie Peterson.

Qualifying

Qualifying classification

Race

Controversy

This race was notable for a collision involving Jody Scheckter and Emerson Fittipaldi. Scheckter, who was given an opportunity to drive a factory McLaren for this event was leading from the start in just his third Formula One race. On lap 41, Fittipaldi had closed and attempted to pass the South African, but Scheckter closed the door and they made heavy contact, forcing Emerson into retirement. Scheckter continued but retired shortly afterwards with suspension damage. Fittipaldi ran to the McLaren pits, eventually resulting in fierce words between the two drivers. Scheckter claimed years later that Fittipaldi had called him a 'young hooligan' for his role in the incident. Many drivers wanted him banned from the sport, but McLaren instead decided to put him on the sidelines for a number of races.

Results

Meanwhile, after so many promising races turned to nothing, Swedish driver Ronnie Peterson finally celebrated victory for the first time in his career, driving a

Lotus Lotus may refer to: Plants *Lotus (plant), various botanical taxa commonly known as lotus, particularly: ** ''Lotus'' (genus), a genus of terrestrial plants in the family Fabaceae **Lotus flower, a symbolically important aquatic Asian plant also ...

. Tyrrell driver François Cevert finished in second place, whilst Carlos Reutemann finished in third place, driving a

Brabham Brabham () is the common name for Motor Racing Developments Ltd., a British racing car manufacturer and Formula One racing team. Founded in 1960 by Australian driver Jack Brabham and British-Australian designer Ron Tauranac, the team won four ...

, followed by Jackie Stewart's Tyrrell in fourth, Jacky Ickx fifth for Ferrari, and James Hunt scoring his first point of his F1 career driving a Hesketh-owned March.

Classification

Championship standings after the race

;Drivers' Championship standings ;Constructors' Championship standings *Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. Only the best 7 results from the first 8 races and the best 6 results from the last 7 races counted towards the Championship. Numbers without parentheses are Championship points; numbers in parentheses are total points scored.

References

{{F1GP 70-79 French Grand Prix French Grand Prix 1973 in French motorsport