1969 Spanish Grand Prix

 1969 Spanish Grand Prix

Racing data
2nd of 11 races of the 1969 Automobile World Championship
Surname:	Gran Premio de España
Date:	4th May 1969
Place:	Barcelona
Course:	Circuit de Montjuïc
Length:	341.173 km in 90 laps of 3.791 km
Weather:	sunny and warm
Pole position
Driver:	Jochen Rindt	lotus
Time:	1: 25.7 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Jochen Rindt	lotus
Time:	1: 28.3 min
Podium
First:	Jackie Stewart	Matra
Second:	Bruce McLaren	McLaren
Third:	Jean-Pierre Beltoise	Matra

The 1969 Spanish Grand Prix took place on May 4th at the Circuit de Montjuïc in Barcelona and was the second race of the 1969 World Cup .

Reports

background

The racetrack on Montjuïc in Barcelona, ​​on which the Spanish Grand Prix was held between 1968 and 1975, alternating annually with the Circuito del Jarama near Madrid , was equipped with guard rails for the 1969 Grand Prix. Nevertheless, it was still considered one of the most difficult and dangerous tracks in Formula 1 history.

In the two months between the first round of the World Championship in South Africa and the Spanish GP, two Formula 1 races that were not part of the World Championship had taken place in Great Britain. Jackie Stewart and Jack Brabham each won one of these events.

Only 14 drivers were registered for the Spanish Grand Prix, as local private drivers who had completed the field in South Africa were not available. There were no significant changes within the factory team. This time, Lotus decided not to use a third factory car. For the first time, Frank Williams' private racing team competed in a World Championship run, with driver Piers Courage .

As in the first run, the teams competed with the cars, some with lavish wing constructions.

training

In his best training lap , Jochen Rindt was the only driver this weekend to achieve a time of under 1:26 minutes, securing pole position in front of Chris Amon and Graham Hill . Jackie Stewart and Jack Brabham formed the second row, followed by Joseph Siffert , Jacky Ickx and Denis Hulme in row three.

run

Rindt took the lead from pole position and was able to quickly gain an advantage over second-placed Amon. It was followed by Hill, who had fought his way up to third, ahead of Siffert in fourth.

On the ninth lap, the wheel suspension and rear wing on Hills Lotus 49 broke in the area of ​​a knoll at the end of the start-and-finish straight at around 230 km / h . The car, which became uncontrollable as a result, hit the crash barriers several times on both sides of the route and finally came to a stop after around 150 meters. Hill was unharmed and walked back to the box. The wreckage of his car was not recovered, but - as was customary at the time - left on the edge of the track in front of the guardrail. Hill feared a similar break in the components of his team colleague Jochen Rindt's identical car and tried to warn Rindt with a show of hands, but this failed. Hill's assumption was confirmed on lap 20 when Rindt had an accident almost the same as he had a few minutes earlier. Rindt's car also hit the guardrails several times, slid several meters along them and finally rammed the wreckage of Hills Lotus at high speed, whereupon he overturned and lay upside down. Hill rushed back there and helped the marshals rescue the pilot, who was difficult to get out of his badly bent monocoque. With a broken nose and a concussion, Rindt got off relatively lightly.

Now Cris Amon was in the lead with a relatively comfortable margin. When his pit crew signaled to him a little later that runner-up Siffert had failed on lap 31, he slowed down as the lead over the now runner-up Stewart seemed unrecoverable. However, Amon had the misfortune that on lap 57 his cooling system failed and the engine failed as a result. From this point on, Stewart was in the lead, initially closely followed by Jacky Ickx, but the rear wing of his car could not withstand the load either and bent upwards. Ickx drove three more laps with the damaged wing before he had a new one fitted to the pits. Then he dropped back to third and had to leave second place to Bruce McLaren . A few laps before the end, Ickx finally had to give up after the lower left wishbone of the rear suspension was probably damaged by the downforce generated by the rear wing. Third place went to Jean-Pierre Beltoise .

Jackie Stewart ultimately won the race by more than two laps over the runner-up. A similar situation occurred only once in the further course of Formula 1 history, namely at the 1995 Australian Grand Prix , when Damon Hill won two laps ahead of Olivier Panis .

In view of the two severe accidents, a ban on the towering wings was discussed after the race.

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Gold Leaf Team Lotus	1	Graham Hill	Lotus 49B	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	F.
	2	Jochen Rindt
Motor Racing Developments	3	Jack Brabham	Brabham BT26A		G
	4th	Jacky Ickx
Bruce McLaren Motor Racing	5	Denis Hulme	McLaren M7A		G
	6th	Bruce McLaren	McLaren M7C
Matra International (Tyrrell)	7th	Jackie Stewart	Matra MS80		D.
	8th	Jean-Pierre Beltoise
Reg Parnell Racing	9	Pedro Rodríguez	BRM P126	BRM P142 3.0 V12	D.
Rob Walker Racing Team	10	Joseph Siffert	Lotus 49B	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	F.
Frank Williams Racing Cars	11	Piers Courage	Brabham BT26A		D.
Owen Racing Organization	12	Jackie Oliver	BRM P133	BRM P142 3.0 V12	D.
	14th	John Surtees	BRM P138
Scuderia Ferrari SpA SEFAC	15th	Chris Amon	Ferrari 312 (1969)	Ferrari 255C 3.0 V12	F.

Classifications

Starting grid

Item	driver	constructor	time	Ø speed	begin
01	Jochen Rindt	Lotus Ford	1: 25.7	159.249 km / h	01
02	Chris Amon	Ferrari	1: 26.2	158.325 km / h	02
03	Graham Hill	Lotus Ford	1: 26.6	157.594 km / h	03
04th	Jackie Stewart	Matra Ford	1: 26.9	157.049 km / h	04th
05	Jack Brabham	Brabham-Ford	1: 27.8	155.440 km / h	05
06th	Joseph Siffert	Lotus Ford	1: 28.2	154.735 km / h	06th
07th	Jacky Ickx	Brabham-Ford	1: 28.4	154.385 km / h	07th
08th	Denis Hulme	McLaren-Ford	1: 28.6	154.036 km / h	08th
09	John Surtees	BRM	1: 28.9	153.516 km / h	09
10	Jackie Oliver	BRM	1: 29.2	153,000 km / h	10
11	Piers Courage	Brabham-Ford	1: 29.3	152.829 km / h	11
12	Jean-Pierre Beltoise	Matra Ford	1: 29.5	152.487 km / h	12
13	Bruce McLaren	McLaren-Ford	1: 29.7	152.147 km / h	13
14th	Pedro Rodríguez	BRM	1: 34.1	145.033 km / h	14th

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	Jackie Stewart	Matra Ford	90	0	2: 16: 54.0	04th	1: 29.5
02	Bruce McLaren	McLaren-Ford	88	0	+ 2 rounds	13	1: 31.6
03	Jean-Pierre Beltoise	Matra Ford	87	1	+ 3 rounds	12	1: 29.7
04th	Denis Hulme	McLaren-Ford	87	1	+ 3 rounds	08th	1: 29.3
05	John Surtees	BRM	84	2	+ 6 rounds	09	1: 30.0
06th	Jacky Ickx	Brabham-Ford	83	1	DNF	07th	1: 30.5	Suspension damage
-	Pedro Rodríguez	BRM	73	0	DNF	14th	1: 32.7	Engine failure
-	Chris Amon	Ferrari	56	0	DNF	02	1: 28.5	Engine failure
-	Jack Brabham	Brabham-Ford	51	0	DNF	05	1: 30.5	Engine failure
-	Joseph Siffert	Lotus Ford	30th	0	DNF	06th	1: 29.5	Engine failure
-	Jochen Rindt	Lotus Ford	19th	0	DNF	01	1: 28.3	accident
-	Piers Courage	Brabham-Ford	18th	0	DNF	11	1: 31.8	Engine failure
-	Graham Hill	Lotus Ford	08th	0	DNF	03	1: 29.4	accident
-	Jackie Oliver	BRM	01	0	DNF	box	-	defective oil 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 18th 02  Bruce McLaren McLaren 8th 03  Denis Hulme McLaren 7th 04th  Graham Hill lotus 6th

Item driver constructor Points 05  Jean-Pierre Beltoise Matra 5 06th  Joseph Siffert lotus 3 07th  John Surtees BRM 2 08th  Jacky Ickx Brabham 1

Constructors' championship

Item constructor Points 01  Matra 18th 02  McLaren 10 03  lotus 6th 04th  BRM 2 05  Brabham 1

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "Training" ( memento of the original from May 19, 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. ↑ 60 years of Formula 1 , Michael Schmidt, Motorbuch Verlag: Stuttgart, ISBN 978-3-613-03127-2 , pp. 70–73
3. ↑ Fight at the limit. The Formula 1 Chronicle 1950–2000 , ed. v. Willy Knupp, RTL book edition: Zeitgeist Verlag: Düsseldorf / Gütersloh 2000, ISBN 3-89748-277-0 , p. 143
4. ^ "Report" (accessed on June 18, 2011)
5. ↑ "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)