The 1974 French Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Dijon-Prenois near Dijon, France on 7 July 1974. It was race 9 of 15 in both the 1974 World Championship of Drivers and the 1974 International Cup for Formula One Manufacturers.
The 80-lap race was won by Ronnie Peterson, driving a Lotus-Ford. Niki Lauda finished second in a Ferrari, having started from pole position, with teammate Clay Regazzoni third. Until the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix, this was the only World Championship Grand Prix in which lap times of less than one minute were set, by 12 drivers during qualifying, including pole position starter Lauda.
Qualifying
Qualifying classification Pos.DriverConstructorTimeGrid1 Niki LaudaFerrari0:58.7912 Ronnie PetersonLotus-Ford0:59.0823 Tom PryceShadow-Ford0:59.1134 Clay RegazzoniFerrari0:59.1345 Emerson FittipaldiMcLaren-Ford0:59.2056 Mike HailwoodMcLaren-Ford0:59.2267 Jody ScheckterTyrrell-Ford0:59.3278 Carlos ReutemannBrabham-Ford0:59.3689 Patrick DepaillerTyrrell-Ford0:59.43910 James HuntHesketh-Ford0:59.511011 Denny HulmeMcLaren-Ford0:59.541112 Jean-Pierre JarierShadow-Ford0:59.591213 Jacky IckxLotus-Ford1:00.001314 John WatsonBrabham-Ford1:00.021415 Arturo MerzarioIso-Marlboro-Ford1:00.161516 Vittorio BrambillaMarch-Ford1:00.261617 Jean-Pierre BeltoiseBRM1:00.361718 Jochen MassSurtees-Ford1:00.481819 Henri PescaroloBRM1:00.671920 Guy EdwardsLola-Ford1:00.682021 Graham HillLola-Ford1:00.732122 François MigaultBRM1:00.862223 Vern SchuppanEnsign-Ford1:01.24—24 Carlos PaceBrabham-Ford1:01.35—25 Jean-Pierre JabouilleIso-Marlboro-Ford1:01.52—26 Hans-Joachim StuckMarch-Ford1:01.60—27 José DolhemSurtees-Ford1:01.70—28 Rikky von OpelBrabham-Ford1:01.79—29 Leo KinnunenSurtees-Ford1:03.15—30 Gérard LarrousseBrabham-Ford1:03.27—
*Positions with a pink background indicate drivers that failed to qualify
Race
Race summary To honor the 80th birthday of the ACF, a parade of vintage cars was organized with a selection of great drivers from the 20s and 30s up to the present day. The race itself was largely uneventful. Tom Pryce put in a superb performance to be 3rd on the grid behind Ronnie Peterson and Niki Lauda. However, he was slow off the start and was hit by Carlos Reutemann, ending his race. James Hunt and Henri Pescarolo were also taken out in the ensuing accident. Lauda led convincingly from Peterson and Clay Regazzoni with Emerson Fittipaldi up to 4th by lap 15. Lauda dropped back with handling problems on lap 16, and was passed by Peterson, who led to the flag. He was followed by Lauda and Regazzoni, who came home 3rd despite vibration problems. Regazzoni had been challenged strongly by Fittipaldi, but just as the McLaren driver was preparing to pass, Fittipaldi's engine exploded, ending his race. Jody Scheckter was fourth, less than a second behind Regazzoni.
Classification Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 1 Ronnie Peterson Lotus-Ford 80 1:21:55.02 2 9 2 12 Niki Lauda Ferrari 80 + 20.36 1 6 3 11 Clay Regazzoni Ferrari 80 + 27.84 4 4 4 3 Jody Scheckter Tyrrell-Ford 80 + 28.11 7 3 5 2 Jacky Ickx Lotus-Ford 80 + 37.54 13 2 6 6 Denny Hulme McLaren-Ford 80 + 38.14 11 1 7 33 Mike Hailwood McLaren-Ford 79 + 1 Lap 6 8 4 Patrick Depailler Tyrrell-Ford 79 + 1 Lap 9 9 20 Arturo Merzario Iso-Marlboro-Ford 79 + 1 Lap 15 10 14 Jean-Pierre Beltoise BRM 79 + 1 Lap 17 11 10 Vittorio Brambilla March-Ford 79 + 1 Lap 16 12 17 Jean-Pierre Jarier Shadow-Ford 79 + 1 Lap 12 13 26 Graham Hill Lola-Ford 78 + 2 Laps 21 14 37 François Migault BRM 78 + 2 Laps 22 15 27 Guy Edwards Lola-Ford 77 + 3 Laps 20 16 28 John Watson Brabham-Ford 76 + 4 Laps 14 5 Emerson Fittipaldi McLaren-Ford 27 Engine 5 7 Carlos Reutemann Brabham-Ford 24 Handling 8 19 Jochen Mass Surtees-Ford 4 Clutch 18 16 Tom Pryce Shadow-Ford 1 Collision 3 15 Henri Pescarolo BRM 1 Clutch 19 24 James Hunt Hesketh-Ford 0 Collision 10 22 Vern Schuppan Ensign-Ford 8 Rikky von Opel Brabham-Ford 34 Carlos Pace Brabham-Ford 21 Jean-Pierre Jabouille Iso-Marlboro-Ford 9 Hans Joachim Stuck March-Ford 18 José Dolhem Surtees-Ford 23 Leo Kinnunen Surtees-Ford 43 Gérard Larrousse Brabham-Ford
Notes
This was the Formula One World Championship debut for French drivers José Dolhem and future Grand Prix winner Jean-Pierre Jabouille. This was the 100th Grand Prix start for a German driver. In those 100 races, German drivers had won 2 Grands Prix, achieved 10 podium finishes, 1 pole position and 2 fastest laps. This was the first fastest lap set by a South African driver.
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 1 Niki Lauda 36 1 2 Clay Regazzoni 32 2 3 Emerson Fittipaldi 31 4 Jody Scheckter 26 3 5 Ronnie Peterson 19Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 1 Ferrari 45 1 2 McLaren-Ford 43 (45) 3 Tyrrell-Ford 30 4 Lotus-Ford 22 5 Brabham-Ford 10Source:
References