In the interests of safety two new chicanes had been built at Monza to reduce the speeds and break up the groups of slipstreaming cars. The first chicane was just after the pits (before the old banking began) and the second where the track went on to the back straight int he old Curva del Vialone. The track alterations changed the character of the track considerably with a new emphasis on braking.

Emerson Fittipaldi had a 25-point lead in the World Championship with only three races left and so Denny Hulme needed to win all three to grab the title with the Brazilian failing to score any major results. Team, Lotus was, however, still being dogged by the Italian authorities as a result of the death of Jochen Rindt at Monza two years earlier and the team again turned up as World Wide Racing with one car for Fittipaldi. Dave Walker was left at home.

Ferrari was up to three cars with Mario Andretti rejoining Jacky Ickx and Clay Regazzoni while Surtees was up to four cars as John Surtees decided to have a rare race alongside Tim Schenken, Mike Hailwood and Andrea de Adamich. BRM was also running four cars again with Jean-Pierre Beltoise, Howden Ganley and Peter Gethin being rejoined by Reine Wisell. The Martini Tecno team ran two cars (one for Derek Bell and one for Nanni Galli).

The V12 cars were fast in qualifying with Ickx taking pole from Chris Amon's Matra. Jackie Stewart (Tyrrell) was on the second row with Regazzoni while Hulme and Fittipaldi shared the third row. Then came Andretti and Peter Revson (McLaren) with the top 10 being completed by Hailwood and Wisell.

At the start Stewart suffered a transmission failure and so there were some lively moments as the field tried to get around the stricken Tyrrell. Ickx had taken the lead from Regazzoni and Fittipaldi with Andretti and the slow-starting Amon ahead of Hailwood and Hulme. As slipstreaming was a thing of the past, the order remained fairly stable with Amon beginning his recovery by overtaking Andretti. The two Ferraris were able to pull away at the front and on lap 14 Ickx went wide and so Regazzoni took the lead. Three laps later this proved to be his downfall as the two cars arrived at the Vialone chicane to find that Pace had spun. Regazzoni clipped the March and damaged his rear suspension. He was out. Ickx was back in the lead and Fittipaldi was only just behind. Amon and Hailwood were also within range (Hailwood having overtaken Andretti earlier).

Hailwood soon lost his airbox and dropped away from the leaders and Amon's brake caught fire and put him out and so it was left as a straight fight between Ickx and Fittipaldi. With just nine laps to go Ickx's engine failed and Fittipaldi took the lead. Hailwood was second with Hulme third.

Emerson Fittipaldi was crowned as World Champion.