Race Report: Magny Cours, 1 October 1972

Clashing with a Shell Motor Oil round at Mallory and arguments about starting money meant that a very disappointing field arrived at Magny Cours to challenge for the F3 European Cup. Because France had been victorious in the previous years race at Thruxton they were the host nation for this year.
Only three countries were represented, France, Sweden and Italy, each having two teams. France A had the works Alpine-Renault A364s of Michel Leclere and Alain Serpaggi and France B had the Martini Mk 9s of Jacques Coulon and Bernard Beguin. Sweden A consisted of the Brabham BT35 of Conny Andersson and the Merlyn Mk21 of Hakan Dahlqvist with the B team being the Brabham BT38 of Ulf Svensson and Jorgen Jonsson in his BT35 version The Italian team were all Brabham BT35 mounted, the A team was Vittorio Brambilla and Alessandro Pesenti-Rossi and the B team Carlo Giorgio and Luigi Fontanesi.

The races were held over two heats and a final. Heat one was dominated by Jacques Coulon who led away from pole position for a flag to flag victory. Initially Brambilla held second ahead of Leclere but the Italian dropped back after a moment leaving Leclere an comfortable runner-up. Brambilla dropped away to a big dice for third which he won from Fontanesi who was in trouble with his wing falling off and Torsten Palm who was one of a number of drivers who were racing without being part of a national team.

Pole man Serpaggi won heat two with a similarly dominant display as Coulon’s, the Alpine never being headed although Conny Andersson was always close behind after Lucien Guitteny spun out of second place. Andersson eventually took second place 0.5 seconds away from Serpaggi with Dalqvist third ahead of Giorgio and Guitteny.
In the final Coulon jumped into an immediate lead followed be Serpaggi, Leclere, Brambilla, Andersson, Fontanesi and Dalqvist. Serpaggi soon found himself demoted by Leclere on lap 2 and Brambilla on lap 3, meanwhile out in front Coulon just cruised away from the rest of the field to a very easy 25 second victory. Brambilla had a huge dice with the two Alpines until he bent the front fins on his Brabham on lap 15 following a moment and he dropped away to fourth as Leclere pulled away from Serpaggi. Andersson finished a lonely fifth after both Albera and Fontanesi fell off the circuit, these incidents moving Dalqvist up to sixth at the flag.

In the European Cup the final positions were:

1 France A (Leclere and Serpaggi) 5 points
2 France B (Coulon and Beguin) 9 points
3 Sweden A (Andersson and Dahlqvist) 11 points
4 Italy A (Brambilla and Pesenti-Rossi) 13 points
5 Sweden B (Svensson and Jonsson) 24 points

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