Ronnie Peterson finished second for the March team and Lotus driver Emerson Fittipaldi came in third.

Clay Regazzoni, driving for Ferrari, gained pole with a scorching lap of 1 min 18.1 secs, beating Jackie Stewart in a Tyrrell and Jo Siffert in a BRM by just a couple of hundredths of a second.

BRM were mourning the loss of Pedro Rodríguez in a sports car race a few days earlier.

In the points positions, Emerson Fittipaldi, Ronnie Peterson and Tim Schenken were having a memorable tussle.

Schenken too dropped down the field with gearbox problems and retired completely when it jammed for good 4 laps from home.