Interlagos heat

The JPS Team Lotus on the grid. Jacky Ickx (#2) and Ronnie Peterson (#1) are lined up in their Lotus 72E, before the start of the 1974 Brazilian Grand Prix held in the heat of the Interlagos circuit. The two black and gold cars bear the numbers 1 and 2 because Team Lotus won the 1973 International Cup for F1 Manufacturers.

The 1974 Brazilian Grand Prix was race 2 of 15 and it was won by McLaren driver Emerson Fittipaldi (who had left Lotus at the end of 1973) after he started from pole position. Clay Regazzoni finished second for the Ferrari team and Lotus driver Jacky Ickx finished in third place (his first podium since he joined Colin Chapman’s team).

It was a difficult 1974 season though for Team Lotus with the now old 72E and with the new 76 that was a disappointment. Peterson was heroic and won in Monaco (picture-below), France and Italy, while Ickx could do no better than two third places in Brazil and Great-Britain. The team slipped from first to fourth in the constructors’ standings.