1973 United States Grand Prix
| Race details | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 15 of 15 in the 1973 Formula One season | |||
 |
|||
| Date | October 7, 1973 | ||
| Official name | XVI United States Grand Prix | ||
| Location |
Watkins Glen Grand Prix Race Course Watkins Glen, New York |
||
| Course | Permanent road course | ||
| Course length | 5.435 km (3.377 mi) | ||
| Distance | 59 laps, 320.67 km (199.24 mi) | ||
| Weather | Cloudy with temperatures approaching 68 °F (20 °C); wind speeds up to 8 miles per hour (13 km/h) | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | Lotus-Ford | ||
| Time | 1:39.657 | ||
| Fastest lap | |||
| Driver |
 James Hunt
|
March-Ford | |
| Time | 1:41.652 on lap 58 | ||
| Podium | |||
| First |
|
Lotus-Ford | |
| Second |
|
March-Ford | |
| Third | Brabham-Ford | ||
The 1973 United States Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on October 7, 1973, at the Watkins Glen Grand Prix Race Course in Watkins Glen, New York. It was the fifteenth and final race of both the 1973 World Championship of Drivers and the 1973 International Cup for F1 Manufacturers. The 59-lap race was won by Lotus driver Ronnie Peterson after he started from pole position. James Hunt finished second for the March team and Brabham driver Carlos Reutemann came in third.
Ronnie Peterson ended his first year with Lotus by taking his fourth win of the season, as a thrilling two-man battle ended with Peterson beating James Hunt to the flag by the smallest winning margin in USGP history at that time. The Englishman finished less than a second behind in his Hesketh March, but the normal celebrations were tempered by the death of François Cevert during qualifying and the premature end of the career of three-time World Champion Jackie Stewart.
Stewart had already clinched his third World Driver's Championship when the teams came to Watkins Glen, and he intended the final Grand Prix of 1973 to be his swan song. "I had decided in April that I would retire at the end of the season, win or lose," Stewart recalled. "Watkins Glen was going to be my last race in a Formula One car. François Cevert was going to be number one in the team for 1974, although he never knew it. Ken Tyrrell and I had kept it a secret that I was going to retire after that race. In fact, not even my wife, Helen, who was with me that weekend, knew."
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