1971 South African Grand Prix

It was expected the 12-cylinder cars would be dominant over the V8 Ford-Cosworths as Ferrari had won four out of the last five Grands Prix in 1970, and they had a strong line-up consisting of Mario Andretti, Clay Regazzoni and Jacky Ickx.

Jackie Stewart took pole in the Tyrrell to join Chris Amon and Regazzoni on the front row. Denny Hulme was suffering with a new suspension that he said was behaving very strangely.^{[citation needed]}

At the start, Regazzoni led the field away at the start – both Stewart and Amon suffering slow starts. Emerson Fittipaldi managed to hold off Hulme until lap three when he dived through to chase the Ferraris. On lap 17, he squeezed through under braking and the orange McLaren once again led a race. Pedro Rodríguez was forced to retire from fourth place when his bodywork started to melt and the hot air began burning his feet. The heat also took its toll on Jo Siffert, whose engine overheated and Howden Ganley who was taken ill with heat exhaustion. On lap 37, John Surtees who had steadily been moving up the field, managed to pass Regazzoni. Surtees however, suffered a gearbox failure on lap 57. Andretti took his first career victory, driving a Ferrari; his teammate Regazzoni finished in third place behind Stewart.

• This was the Formula One World Championship debut for New Zealand driver Howden Ganley.
• This was the first World Championship Grand Prix win for future World Champion Mario Andretti.
• This was the 100th race for the 1964 World Champion, John Surtees.

Constructors' Championship standings

Pos	Constructor	Points
1	Ferrari	9
2	Tyrrell-Ford	6
3	Lotus-Ford	3
4	Matra	2
5	McLaren-Ford	1
Source:[4]

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

• "chicanef1.com". Archived from the original on 17 February 2012. Retrieved 8 July 2009.