1974 French Grand Prix

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.

• This was the only Formula One race to be held on the Dijon circuit's original 3.289 km (2.044 mi) layout.
• This was the only World Championship Grand Prix in which lap times of less than one minute were set, by 12 drivers during qualifying.[4]
• Lauda's pole position lap of 58.79 seconds remains the shortest lap in Formula One history in terms of duration.

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Niki Lauda 36 2 Clay Regazzoni 32 3 Emerson Fittipaldi 31 4 Jody Scheckter 26 5 Ronnie Peterson 19 Source: [5]

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Ferrari 45 2 McLaren-Ford 43 (45) 3 Tyrrell-Ford 30 4 Lotus-Ford 22 5 Brabham-Ford 10 Source: [5]

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. Only the best 7 results from the first 8 races and the best 6 results from the last 7 races counted towards the Championship. Numbers without parentheses are Championship points; numbers in parentheses are total points scored.