The British Grand Prix marked the midway point in the World Championship and thanks to his three points scored in France Jackie Stewart was leading the title race by a single point from Emerson Fittipaldi. The pair were 10 points clear of third-placed François Cévert. As usual there were additional entries for the British GP with four drivers making their Grand Prix debuts. McLaren entered a third car for Jody Scheckter while Jean-Pierre Jarier had concluded that he was wasting his time in F1 and stood down from the March team and in his place the team chose rising British star Roger Williamson. Team Surtees decided to run a third car for Jochen Mass, while John Watson made his first appearance in a Team MRD Brabham BT37, supported by BMW dealer Hexagon of Highgate. Andrea de Adamich was given one of the newer Brabham BT 42s. Williams rented out his second car to New Zealander Graham McRae. Mike Beuttler, David Purley and James Hunt were all in action in their private Marches while Chris Amon reappeared in the Tecno.

Qualifying resulted in French GP winner Ronnie Peterson taking pole position in his Lotus with the McLarens of Denny Hulme and Peter Revson alongside on the front row. Stewart was on the second row with Fittipaldi while Scheckter lined up alongside François Cévert (Tyrrell) and Carlos Reutemann (Brabham) on the third row. Then came the BRMs of Niki Lauda and Clay Regazzoni, followed by Hunt, Mike Hailwood (Surtees) and Wilson Fittipaldi (Brabham). Mass was the best of the new boys in 12th place on the grid.

At the start Lauda suffered a driveshaft failure and was hit from behind by Jackie Oliver's Shadow. Both cars were out. At the front Peterson had taken the lead but had lost it in the course of the first lap to Stewart while Reutemann had made a remarkable start to run third ahead of Scheckter and Hulme. As they arrived at Woodcote Corner at the end of the first lap Scheckter lost control and spun across the track into the pitwall. The car bounced back into the middle of the road as the main pack arrived. Eight other cars were involved in the shunt. The race was stopped. de Adamich had broken his ankle but Jean-Pierre Beltoise (BRM), George Follmer (Shadow), Mike Hailwood, Carlos Pace and Mass (all three Surtees entries), Graham Hill and Williamson were all involved. Hill was the only one able to drive away from the scene.

It took half an hour to extract de Adamich from his car and then another hour before the race could be restarted with 19 cars. Lauda's BRM had been repaired and he made a great start (thanks to having a vacant space in front of him) and jumped through into second place behind Peterson ahead of Stewart, Fittipaldi, Hulme, Revson and Cévert. Lauda's second place lasted until the second lap when Stewart overtook him but the Austrian held on to third until Fittipaldi passed him on the seventh lap. At the same time Stewart spun because of a gearbox problem. In the laps that followed Lauda drifted back down the field, being passed by Revson, Hulme, a charging Hunt, Cévert and Reutemann. The order remained unchanged until lap 37 when Fittipaldi retired with a driveshaft failure. His retirement cleared the way for Revson to challenge Peterson for the lead and on lap 39 the American went ahead. Behind them Hunt overtook Hulme and began to attack Peterson. The young Hesketh driver could not keep up his challenge, however, and as his tires faded he slipped back behind Hulme in the closing laps.

It was Revson's first Grand Prix victory and the second consecutive race with a new winner, Peterson having scored his first win in France.