1969 French Grand Prix

 1969 French Grand Prix

Racing data
5th of 11 races of the 1969 Automobile World Championship
Surname:	Grand Prix de France
Date:	July 6, 1969
Place:	Clermont-Ferrand
Course:	Circuit de Charade
Length:	306.09 km in 38 laps of 8.055 km
Weather:	sunny and warm
Pole position
Driver:	Jackie Stewart	Matra
Time:	3: 00.6 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Jackie Stewart	Matra
Time:	3: 02.7 min
Podium
First:	Jackie Stewart	Matra
Second:	Jean-Pierre Beltoise	Matra
Third:	Jacky Ickx	Brabham

The 1969 French Grand Prix took place on July 6th at the Circuit de Charade near Clermont-Ferrand and was the fifth race of the 1969 World Cup .

Reports

background

For the first time since its premiere in 1965 , the French Grand Prix took place on the approximately eight-kilometer circuit near Clermont-Ferrand.

Only 13 cars were registered for the race because the entire BRM factory team did not compete and Jack Brabham also had to cure a broken ankle that he had sustained in a test accident at Silverstone the week before . Chris Amon's Ferrari was the only vehicle in the field that was not powered by a Ford engine. Lotus announced John Miles as the third works driver to gain experience with the all-wheel drive Lotus 63 . After the vehicle had only been driven a few laps by Graham Hill in practice two weeks earlier at the Dutch Grand Prix , it was now being used for its first real Grand Prix.

training

Already in practice it was clear that Jackie Stewart would be hard to beat this weekend. He secured pole position with a lap time almost two seconds faster than the second fastest Denis Hulme . Jochen Rindt and Jacky Ickx shared the second row . Stewart's team mates Jean-Pierre Beltoise and Chris Amon completed the third row.

run

Stewart dominated the race from start to finish without relinquishing the lead even once. Hulme was able to keep his pace at first, but was forced to make a pit stop on lap 13 due to a broken roll bar. This put Ickx in second place, but was pushed by Beltoise for almost the entire race. He withstood the pressure for a long time, but finally made a mistake on the last lap, so that, to the delight of the French spectators, Beltoise was able to pass shortly before the finish and crossed the finish line two tenths of a second ahead of Ickx.

Jochen Rindt had been in fourth place for a long time, but finally gave up on lap 22 because of nausea caused by the unusually winding track characteristics. Bruce McLaren benefited from this and finished fourth. However, he admitted after the race that he had similar problems.

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Gold Leaf Team Lotus	1	Graham Hill	Lotus 49B	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	F.
	15th	Jochen Rindt
	14th	John Miles	Lotus 63
Matra International (Tyrrell)	2T	Jackie Stewart	Matra MS84 1		D.
	2		Matra MS80
	7th	Jean-Pierre Beltoise
Rob Walker Racing Team	3	Jo Siffert	Lotus 49B		F.
Bruce McLaren Motor Racing	4th	Denis Hulme	McLaren M7A		G
	5	Bruce McLaren	McLaren M7C
Scuderia Ferrari SpA SEFAC	6th	Chris Amon	Ferrari 312 (1969)	Ferrari 255C 3.0 V12	F.
Frank Williams Racing Cars	9	Piers Courage	Brabham BT26A	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	D.
Antique Automobiles	10	Vic Elford	McLaren M7B		G
Motor Racing Developments	11	Jacky Ickx	Brabham BT26A		G
Silvio Moser Racing Team	12	Silvio Moser	Brabham BT24		G

¹ Jackie Stewart only rode the Matra MS84 in training and used the MS80 from then on.

Classifications

Starting grid

Item	driver	constructor	time	Ø speed	begin
01	Jackie Stewart	Matra Ford	3: 00.6	160.565 km / h	01
02	Denis Hulme	McLaren-Ford	3: 02.4	158.980 km / h	02
03	Jochen Rindt	Lotus Ford	3: 02.5	158.893 km / h	03
04th	Jacky Ickx	Brabham-Ford	3: 02.6	158.806 km / h	04th
05	Jean-Pierre Beltoise	Matra Ford	3: 02.9	158.546 km / h	05
06th	Chris Amon	Ferrari	3: 04.2	157.427 km / h	06th
07th	Bruce McLaren	McLaren-Ford	3: 05.5	156.323 km / h	07th
08th	Graham Hill	Lotus Ford	3: 05.9	155.987 km / h	08th
09	Jo Siffert	Lotus Ford	3: 06.3	155.652 km / h	09
10	Vic Elford	McLaren-Ford	3: 08.0	154.245 km / h	10
11	Piers Courage	Brabham-Ford	3: 09.9	152.701 km / h	11
12	John Miles	Lotus Ford	3: 12.8	150.405 km / h	12
13	Silvio Moser	Brabham-Ford	3: 14.6	149.013 km / h	13

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	Jackie Stewart	Matra Ford	38	0	1: 56: 47.4	01	3: 02.7
02	Jean-Pierre Beltoise	Matra Ford	38	0	+ 57.1	05	3: 03.7
03	Jacky Ickx	Brabham-Ford	38	0	+ 57.3	04th	3: 03.9
04th	Bruce McLaren	McLaren-Ford	37	0	+ 1 lap	07th	3: 07.4
05	Vic Elford	McLaren-Ford	37	0	+ 1 lap	10	3: 07.9
06th	Graham Hill	Lotus Ford	37	0	+ 1 lap	08th	3: 10.1
07th	Silvio Moser	Brabham-Ford	36	0	+ 2 rounds	13	3: 14.1
08th	Denis Hulme	McLaren-Ford	35	1	+ 3 rounds	02	3: 03.2
09	Jo Siffert	Lotus Ford	34	1	+ 4 rounds	09	3: 08.6
-	Chris Amon	Ferrari	30th	0	DNF	06th	3: 06.7	Engine failure
-	Jochen Rindt	Lotus Ford	22nd	0	DNF	03	3: 06.4	Quit because of nausea
-	Piers Courage	Brabham-Ford	21st	1	DNF	11	3: 08.9	broken chassis
-	John Miles	Lotus Ford	01	0	DNF	12	4: 28.2	defective fuel pump

World Cup stands after the race

The first six of the race got 9, 6, 4, 3, 2 and 1 point (s) respectively.

Driver ranking

Item driver constructor Points 01  Jackie Stewart Matra 36 02  Graham Hill lotus 16 03  Jo Siffert lotus 13 04th  Bruce McLaren McLaren 13 05  Jean-Pierre Beltoise Matra 11 06th  Denis Hulme McLaren 11 07th  Jacky Ickx Brabham 7th

Item driver constructor Points 08th  Piers Courage Brabham 6th 09  Chris Amon Ferrari 4th 10  Richard Attwood lotus 3 11  John Surtees BRM 2 12  Vic Elford McLaren 2 13  Jack Brabham Brabham 1

Constructors' championship

Item constructor Points 01  Matra 36 02  lotus 22nd 03  McLaren 18th

Item constructor Points 04th  Brabham 13 05  Ferrari 4th 06th  BRM 2

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "Training" ( Memento of the original from December 10, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Motorsportarchiv.de; accessed on June 18, 2011)  
2. ^ "Report" (accessed on June 18, 2011)
3. ↑ "World Cup stands"  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Motorsportarchiv.de; accessed on June 18, 2011)