TZ 350s. Due to the poor reliability of the MV Agusta 350 4C, even in 1973, the team sometimes rode the "old" three-cylinder. Agostini led the opening race in France race from start to finish Phil Read came second. Although it had been sunny in Austria during practice, race day was wet. Phil Read retired because of a problem with his visor. Agostini built up a large lead over János Drapál, but on the penultimate lap the MV Agusta stopped due to water in the ignition, giving the victory to Drapál. In Germany, the Harley-Davidson factory team was missing, working hard on getting water-cooled machines ready. In the practice sessions private driver John Dodds (Yamaha TZ 350) was fastest. In the race Read fell on the fifth lap and on the eleventh lap the same happened to Agostini whilst he was in the lead. Teuvo Länsivuori won the race. The 350 cc race in Monza was initially quite exciting. The Harley-Davidson team had skipped the German GP to work on the new water-cooled machines and that paid off: Pasolini was less than a second slower than Agostini in practice. The race was initially led by Agostini and Read, but Read went into the pit with a bad running engine and Agostini won. Read, Agostini and Länsivuoridid not race in Yugoslavia, where János Drapál won. The 350 cc race in Assen led to a great fight between Agostini, Read and Länsivuori, until the latter had problems with his gearbox and had to quit. Agostini won with a 0.1 second lead over Read and Länsivuori was still third. Länsivuori won the 350 cc GP of Czechoslovakia with a big lead over Agostini and Read and also in Sweden, Länsivuori won, while Agostini came in second and Phil Read third. In Imatra, Agostini used the four-cylinder again. Teuvo Länsivuori had to win this race to still have a chance of winning the world title, but he was expertly kept in third place by Phil Read, who thus allowed Agostini to stay on top. In the end Länsivuori fell on the 9th lap and so Agostini was able to grab first place and the 350 cc world title. 1974 Giacomo Agostini left for the Yamaha team at the end of 1973 and Phil Read became No 1 at MV Agusta. He was supported by Franco Bonera, but only in the 500 cc class. MV