1969 French Grand Prix
The French Grand Prix 1969 was held on July 6 at the Circuit de Charade near Clermont- Ferrand place and was the fifth race of the Formula 1 season 1969.
- 3.1 Start -up
- 3.2 race
- 4.1 Drivers' Championship
- 4.2 Constructors' Championship
Reports
Background
For the first time since its premiere in 1965, the French Grand Prix was held again on the roughly eight -kilometer track in Clermont -Ferrand.
Only 13 cars were registered for the competition since the complete BRM factory team did not compete and also Jack Brabham had to recovering from a broken ankle, which he had previously contracted in the week in a testing accident at Silverstone. Ferrari Chris Amon was therefore the only vehicle in the field, which was not driven by a Ford engine. Lotus announced John Miles as third works driver to gain experience with the all-wheel drive Lotus 63. After the vehicle at the Grand Prix of the Netherlands had been only a few rounds of Graham Hill drove two weeks earlier in training, it now came to his first real Grand Prix use.
Training
Already in Training suggested that Jackie Stewart would be hard to beat this weekend. He secured the pole position with a faster lap time by almost two seconds as the second fastest Denis Hulme. The second row was shared by Jochen Rindt and Jacky Ickx. Stewart's teammate Jean -Pierre Beltoise and Chris Amon completed the third row.
Race
Stewart dominated the race from start to finish, without the guidance even to make a single time. Hulme was initially able to maintain his pace, but was forced in round 13 because of a broken roll bar for a pit stop. Ickx came by it to second place, but was harassed during almost the entire race of Beltoise. A long time he kept the pressure was, however, finally made a mistake on the last lap, so Beltoise pass to the delight of the French audience just before the finish and two tenths of a second ahead of Ickx crossed the finish line.
Jochen Rindt had long lain in fourth, but eventually gave in round 22 because of nausea that had triggered the unusually twisty track characteristics with him. Bruce McLaren benefited from and was fourth. He was, however, to after the race that he had had similar problems.
Message list
1 Jackie Stewart drove the Matra MS84 only in training and used henceforth the MS80.
Classifications
Line-up
Race
WM stands after the race
The first six of the race were 9, 6, 4, 3, 2 and 1 point (s).