The Swedish Grand Prix
Sponsored by Hitachi, the 1973 Swedish
Grand Prix was run at Scandinavian Raceway, a flat circuit laid out on reclaimed swampland at Anderstorp in south-west Sweden. Of 2.497 miles in length, it features eight corners and one long, wide straight which doubles as an aircraft runway. The race quickly -developed into a Lotus monopoly with the John Player Special/Lotus 72-Fords of Ronnie Peterson and
Emerson Fittipaldi out-distancing the field.
It seemed Peterson would win his long-overdue first Grand Prix, and on home ground, too. But it was not to be. First he slowed with braking problems on the 70th of the 80 laps and with three laps to go his gearbox failed. Peterson suffered a puncture and with two laps to complete was forced to slow, allowing
Denny Hulme (Yardley McLaren M23-Ford) to sweep by and snatch a fortuitous victory. Hulme, in fact, had made a remarkable comeback after losing 15 seconds midway through the race when his car's throttle slides stuck and the New Zealander set the fastest lap of 1 minute 26.146 seconds, 104.33 mph, during his recovery. Peterson salvaged second place with Francois Cevert third.