used the turbine car's advantages of four wheel drive and superior torque to rise from his starting position of 22nd to 10th place within five laps, but eventually spun off into retirement. The Lotus team management, Chapman and Manager Peter Warr were less than impressed as they thought the turbine Lotus 56 had an overwhelming advantage in the conditions and Firestone tyres well suited to the rain and had Walker taken a more cautious approach he was almost guaranteed victory Walker was given a full-time Formula One seat to drive the Lotus 72 in the 1972 season, as number two driver to Emerson Fittipaldi. As the season went on, however, both Walker and the team became increasingly disenchanted. After Lotus discovered Walker had tested a Formula Two car for another team, he was dropped from the team for the Italian GP and the Canadian GP, where he was replaced by Reine Wisell. However Colin Chapman said that Lotus had never really considered Walker a F1 driver, but he was actually a lot quicker than they anticipated and Walker was back for the trip to America, as No 3 for the US GP, but retired. In all, Emerson Fittipaldi won five races and scored 61 points, winning the championship. Walker managed a fifth in the non championship round in Brazil and in the 1972 South African Grand Prix, Walker starting second last passed ten cars and was closing on 6th placed Graham Hill it a BT33 when Walker ran out of fuel, which happened often in 1972, Lotus team Manager Peter Warr said Walker drove the Lotus 72 like a F3 car, never adapting to the smoother approach required to finish F1 races while Walker never finished a Grand Prix higher than ninth place (in Spain), his best race where he had been contesting 5th place with Peter Revson, when he ran out of fuel, in the last laps. He was promising in the opening laps at Monaco where he had F3 experience, but made mistakes in the extraordinary downpour. By mid season Team Lotus was totally focused on Fittipaldi taking the Championship, and Walker's 72 was of little importance, but predictably his form at Brands and in Austria suggested some improvement, while the engine lasted. Going into the pits early in British GP, Walker took the Lotus 72 back into the race and as the leaders Ickx, Fittipaldi and Stewart