Race Report: Magny Cours, 14 July 1973

This Bastille day meeting at Magny Cours clashed with the John Player Championship event supporting the British GP so unsurprisingly the field was restricted to French national runners.

Alain Serpaggi’s Alpine Renault took pole position from the Martini of Bernard Beguin and as the flag fell he made a superb start to lead from Beguin, Jean-Pierre Paoli (Martini), Jacques Lafitte (Martini), Michel Leclere (Alpine), Alain Cudini (Martini), Philippe Albera (March), Pierre-Francois Rousselot (March), Jean Max (Martini), Christian Ethuin (Martini), Bernard Chevanne (Martini) and Jean Ragnotti (March). Lafitte and Leclere running together demoted Paoli on lap 3 and two laps later Ethuin and Albera managed to hit each other forcing Albera into retirement.

Beguin began to come under pressure from Lafitte and Leclere and on lap 12 Beguin spun down to sixth, restarting just ahead of a battling Rousselot and Ethuin. Ethuin then got ahead of Rousselot on lap 15 as Beguin pulled up to the battle between Paoli and Cudini. Second place man Lafitte had a bit of a moment on lap 15 and Leclere took advantage to move up to second to make it an Alpine 1-2 at the finish, Lafitte took third whilst Beguin passed Cudini and Paoli to take fourth at the flag. Paoli lost three laps with a pit stop right at the end caused by a spin and Ethuin dropped back to ninth hampered by clutch problems.

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