There was a three gap gap after the Swedish GP, where Tyrrell had scored a remarkable 1-2 with the new six-wheeler, before the teams gathered again at Paul Ricard for the French GP. Chris Amon was out of action with bad problems after his crash at Anderstorp and the Ensign was being driven by Patrick Nève. Larry Perkins's Boro team had run out of money but both Jacky Ickx (Williams) and Henri Pescarolo (Team Norev Surtees) were back in action having missed the Swedish race because of the Le Mans 24 Hours. Guy Edwards was back in the second Hesketh and Ingo Hoffmann was having another try in the second Fittipaldi while RAM Racing had taken on Damien Magee in place of Jac Nelleman.

Qualifying resulted in pole position going to James Hunt (McLaren) with Niki Lauda (who had more than twice as many points in the World Championship than his nearest rival Jody Scheckter) was second. Patrick Depailler was third fastest and Clay Regazzoni fourth with Carlos Pace showing well (for a change) in the Brabham-Alfa Romeo. Ronnie Peterson was sixth in his March while Mario Andretti (Lotus) was seventh, John Watson (Penske) eighth, Scheckter (Tyrrell) ninth and Carlos Reutemann (Brabham-Alfa Romeo) 10th.

At the start Lauda made the better start and took the lead from Hunt with Regazzoni third, Depailler fourth and Peterson fifth. In the course of the first lap Peterson moved ahead of Depailler, while on the second lap Watson was push back to seventh place by Scheckter. The order then settled and it was not until lap nine that there were any major developments. Lauda's Ferrari blew up and slewed off the line. The World Champion was out. This put Hunt into the lead with Regazzoni chasing him but on lap 18 Regazzoni suffered an engine failure and Hunt was left alone in the lead while Depailler was second, having repassed Peterson and Scheckter was third, having also overtaken the March. Watson challenged Peterson for fifth place but after a tussle Peterson went ahead and then recaught Scheckter and moved to third, the Tyrrell fading because of engine trouble. On lap 52, however, Peterson stopped with a fuel problem and so third place went to Watson. Pace and Andretti finished fourth and fifth with Scheckter surviving to pick up a single point.