Sad Sunday

The 1973 season saw a superb battle between the JPS Lotus 72s of Fittipaldi and Peterson and the Elf-Tyrrell 006’s of Jackie Stewart and François Cevert. The Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort was not different. Ronnie Peterson (Lotus 72) took pole by half a second over Stewart and Cevert in their Tyrrell 006.

On the 8th of the race, through the high speed esses, a suspected tyre failure caused Williamson’s March to hit the barriers at high speed and rest upside down against the barriers. The petrol thank had ignited and the car caught fire. Williamson was not seriously injured, but was trapped under the car. Fellow driver David Purley stopped and desperately tried to free him from the flames. He did not succeed and Williamson died.

The race was not stopped and the two Tyrrell’s scored a sad 1-2 in front of Hunt’s Hesketh. It was Jackie Stewart’s 26th Grand Prix victory, surpassing Jim Clark’s record of 25 successes. Stewart was crowned for the 3rd time at the end of the year, beating Fittipaldi (2nd) and Peterson (3rd), who all year long were taking points away from each other.