The 1971 South African Grand Prix, formally the Fifth AA Grand Prix of South Africa (Afrikaans: Vyfde AA Suid-Afrikaanse Grand Prix), was a Formula One motor race held at Kyalami Circuit on 6 March 1971. It was race 1 of 11 in both the 1971 World Championship of Drivers and the 1971 International Cup for Formula One Manufacturers. The race was won by Mario Andretti who was driving for the Ferrari team in what was his first Formula One victory, but would not win another Formula One race until .
Report It was expected the 12-cylinder cars would be dominant over the V8 Ford-Cosworths as Ferrari had won four out of the last five Grands Prix in , and they had a strong line-up consisting of Mario Andretti, Clay Regazzoni and Jacky Ickx.
Jackie Stewart took pole in the Tyrrell to join Chris Amon and Regazzoni on the front row. Denny Hulme was suffering with a new suspension that he said was behaving very strangely.
Regazzoni led the field away at the start – with both Stewart and Amon suffering slow starts. Emerson Fittipaldi managed to hold off Hulme until lap three when he dived through to chase the Ferraris. On lap 17, he squeezed through under braking and the orange McLaren once again led a race. Pedro Rodríguez was forced to retire from fourth place when his bodywork started to melt and the hot air began burning his feet. The heat also took its toll on Jo Siffert, whose engine overheated and Howden Ganley who was taken ill with heat exhaustion. On lap 37, John Surtees who had steadily been moving up the field, managed to pass Regazzoni. Surtees however, suffered a gearbox failure on lap 57. Andretti took his first career victory, driving a Ferrari; his teammate Regazzoni finished in third place behind Stewart.
Classification
Qualifying Pos No Driver Constructor Time Gap 1 9 Jackie Stewart Tyrrell-Ford 1:17.8 — 2 19 Chris Amon Matra 1:18.4 +0.6 3 5 Clay Regazzoni Ferrari 1:18.7 +0.9 4 6 Mario Andretti Ferrari 1:19.0 +1.2 5 2 Emerson Fittipaldi Lotus-Ford 1:19.1 +1.3 6 20 John Surtees Surtees-Ford 1:19.1 +1.3 7 11 Denny Hulme McLaren-Ford 1:19.1 +1.3 8 4 Jacky Ickx Ferrari 1:19.2 +1.4 9 10 François Cevert Tyrrell-Ford 1:19.2 +1.4 10 16 Pedro Rodríguez BRM 1:19.3 +1.5 11 12 Peter Gethin McLaren-Ford 1:19.6 +1.8 12 15 Dave Charlton Brabham-Ford 1:19.8 +2.0 13 7 Ronnie Peterson March-Ford 1:19.9 +2.1 14 3 Reine Wisell Lotus-Ford 1:19.9 +2.1 15 21 Rolf Stommelen Surtees-Ford 1:20.1 +2.3 16 17 Jo Siffert BRM 1:20.2 +2.4 17 28 Brian Redman Surtees-Ford 1:20.2 +2.4 18 22 Henri Pescarolo March-Ford 1:20.2 +2.4 19 14 Graham Hill Brabham-Ford 1:20.5 +2.7 20 25 Jackie Pretorius Brabham-Ford 1:21.7 +3.9 21 24 John Love March-Ford 1:21.9 +4.1 22 8 Andrea de Adamich March-Alfa Romeo 1:22.2 +4.4 23 23 Jo Bonnier McLaren-Ford 1:22.3 +4.5 24 27 Howden Ganley BRM 1:23.7 +5.9 25 26 Alex Soler-Roig March-Ford 1:25.8 +8.0
Race Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 6 Mario Andretti Ferrari 79 1:47:35.5 4 9 2 9 Jackie Stewart Tyrrell-Ford 79 + 20.9 1 6 3 5 Clay Regazzoni Ferrari 79 + 31.4 3 4 4 3 Reine Wisell Lotus-Ford 79 + 1:09.4 14 3 5 19 Chris Amon Matra 78 + 1 Lap 2 2 6 11 Denny Hulme McLaren-Ford 78 + 1 Lap 7 1 7 28 Brian Redman Surtees-Ford 78 + 1 Lap 17 8 4 Jacky Ickx Ferrari 78 + 1 Lap 8 9 14 Graham Hill Brabham-Ford 77 + 2 Laps 19 10 7 Ronnie Peterson March-Ford 77 + 2 Laps 13 11 22 Henri Pescarolo March-Ford 77 + 2 Laps 18 12 21 Rolf Stommelen Surtees-Ford 77 + 2 Laps 15 13 8 Andrea de Adamich March-Alfa Romeo 75 + 4 Laps 22 2 Emerson Fittipaldi Lotus-Ford 58 Engine 5 20 John Surtees Surtees-Ford 56 Gearbox 6 10 François Cevert Tyrrell-Ford 45 Accident 9 27 Howden Ganley BRM 42 Physical 24 16 Pedro Rodríguez BRM 33 Overheating 10 15 Dave Charlton Brabham-Ford 31 Engine 16 17 Jo Siffert BRM 31 Overheating 12 24 John Love March-Ford 30 Differential 21 25 Jackie Pretorius Brabham-Ford 22 Engine 20 12 Peter Gethin McLaren-Ford 7 Fuel Leak 11 23 Jo Bonnier McLaren-Ford 5 Suspension 23 26 Alex Soler-Roig March-Ford 5 Engine 25
Notes
This was the Formula One World Championship debut for New Zealand driver Howden Ganley. This race marked the 200th podium finish for a British driver. This race saw the first podium finish for British constructor Tyrrell.
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Mario Andretti 9 2 Jackie Stewart 6 3 Clay Regazzoni 4 4 Reine Wisell 3 5 Chris Amon 2Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Ferrari 9 2 Tyrrell-Ford 6 3 Lotus-Ford 3 4 Matra 2 5 McLaren-Ford 1Source:
Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
References
External links