The 1969 German Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Nürburgring on 3 August 1969. It was race 7 of 11 in both the 1969 World Championship of Drivers and the 1969 International Cup for Formula One Manufacturers. Due to the long track and few laps, Formula Two cars were again allowed to enter the race, though they were not eligible to score WC points.
The 14-lap race was won by Belgian driver Jacky Ickx, driving a works Brabham BT26-Ford. Ickx took pole position, led the final eight laps and set the fastest lap of the race. Scotland's Jackie Stewart finished second in a Matra MS80-Ford, expanding his lead in the championship, with New Zealand's Bruce McLaren third in a McLaren M7A-Ford.
Report Ferrari withdrew to focus on the upcoming Italian GP. Practising in a BMW 269 F2, Gerhard Mitter was killed at Schwedenkreuz. As a suspension or steering failure was suspected, the BMW team with Hubert Hahne and Dieter Quester withdrew from the race, as did Mitter's teammate as Porsche factory sportscar driver, Hans Herrmann, who had entered on one of the Lotus 59 of Roy Winkelmann Racing. Udo Schütz, who often shared cars with Mitter for Porsche, retired from racing.
Mario Andretti drove the 4WD Lotus 63 for very few laps in practice. The heavy fuel load for the race made the car ground out in lap 1 after a jump at Wippermann, causing a crash that also took out Vic Elford, whose car flipped upside down and landed in the trees. Elford broke his arm in 3 places, thus Porsche had lost four factory drivers for the upcoming 1000km Zeltweg. On the other hand, Jo Siffert, Kurt Ahrens and Richard Attwood participated in the Grand Prix and drove privately entered Porsche 917 at Zeltweg, with Siffert/Ahrens winning.
In the race, Jacky Ickx had a very poor start which dropped him down to 9th, but he eventually passed the entire field over 3 laps, and he and Jackie Stewart battled for 4 laps until Ickx passed Stewart under braking for the first corner, the Südkehre. Stewart held on but then gearbox problems began to slow him and he dropped away, leaving Ickx in a dominant position. Piers Courage had an accident at Breidscheid when he slipped on some oil and crashed into a ditch next to the Adenauer bridge. Luckily, he was unhurt.
Only four F1 cars finished, ahead of several F2. Two F1 received points despite being out.
This was the last Formula One race at the original bumpy Green Hell Nürburgring lined with hedges. In 1970, Bruce McLaren and Piers Courage died in June. GP drivers, who in 1969 had boycotted Spa but raced there in 1970 after armco were installed, demanded similar upgrades at the Nürburgring, which as combined Nordschleife and Südschleife was more than twice as long as the old Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. German organizers were either not able or not willing to match the demands, thus drivers boycotted and the 1970 German Grand Prix moved for the first time to the Hockenheimring, where a modern stadium section had been built in 1965. Later in 1970 and in early 1971, the Nordschleife of the Nürburgring was rebuilt and fitted with Armco barriers. Some of the bumps were ironed out, like the one at Brünnchen. F1 signed a three year contract starting with the 1971 race, and later another three year contract that expired after 1976.
Classification
Qualifying Pos No Driver Constructor Time Gap Grid 1 6 Jacky Ickx Brabham-Ford 7:42.1 — 1 2 7 Jackie Stewart Matra-Ford 7:42.4 +0.3 2 3 2 Jochen Rindt Lotus-Ford 7:48.0 +5.9 3 4 11 Jo Siffert Lotus-Ford 7:50.3 +8.2 4 5 9 Denny Hulme McLaren-Ford 7:52.8 +10.7 5 6 12 Vic Elford McLaren-Ford 7:54.8 +12.7 6 7 17 Piers Courage Brabham-Ford 7:56.1 +14.0 7 8 10 Bruce McLaren McLaren-Ford 7:56.5 +14.4 8 9 1 Graham Hill Lotus-Ford 7:57.0 +14.9 9 10 8 Jean-Pierre Beltoise Matra-Ford 8:00.3 +18.2 10 11 27 Johnny Servoz-Gavin Matra-Ford 8:11.1 +29.0 14 12 14 John Surtees BRM 8:12.1 +30.0 13 28 François Cevert Tecno-Ford 8:13.9 +31.8 15 14 26 Henri Pescarolo Matra-Ford 8:14.8 +32.7 16 15 3 Mario Andretti Lotus-Ford 8:12.1 +30.0 11 16 15 Jackie Oliver BRM 8:16.2 +34.1 12 17 23 Hubert Hahne BMW 8:19.5 +37.4 18 31 Peter Westbury Brabham-Ford 8:20.0 +37.9 17 19 20 Kurt Ahrens Brabham-Ford 8:23.2 +41.1 18 20 29 Richard Attwood Brabham-Ford 8:24.6 +42.5 19 21 25 Dieter Quester BMW 8:26.8 +44.7 22 22 Rolf Stommelen Lotus-Ford 8:28.1 +46.0 20 23 16 Jo Bonnier Lotus-Ford 8:35.0 +52.9 13 24 30 Xavier Perrot Brabham-Ford 8:35.4 +53.3 21 25 24 Gerhard Mitter BMW 8:36.5 +54.4 26 21 Hans Herrmann Lotus-Ford 8:50.3 +1:08.2
Race Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 6 Jacky Ickx Brabham-Ford 14 1:49:55.4 1 9 2 7 Jackie Stewart Matra-Ford 14 +57.7 2 6 3 10 Bruce McLaren McLaren-Ford 14 +3:21.6 8 4 4 1 Graham Hill Lotus-Ford 14 +3:58.8 9 3 5 26 Henri Pescarolo Matra-Ford 14 +7:11.0 16 6 29 Richard Attwood Brabham-Ford 13 +1 lap 19 7 20 Kurt Ahrens Brabham-Ford 13 +1 lap 18 8 22 Rolf Stommelen Lotus-Ford 13 +1 lap 20 9 31 Peter Westbury Brabham-Ford 13 +1 lap 17 10 30 Xavier Perrot Brabham-Ford 13 +1 lap 21 11 11 Jo Siffert Lotus-Ford 12 Suspension/accident 4 2 12 8 Jean-Pierre Beltoise Matra-Ford 12 Suspension 10 1 9 Denny Hulme McLaren-Ford 11 Transmission 5 15 Jackie Oliver BRM 11 Oil leak 12 2 Jochen Rindt Lotus-Ford 10 Ignition 3 28 François Cevert Tecno-Ford 9 Crown wheel 15 27 Johnny Servoz-Gavin Matra-Ford 6 Engine 14 16 Jo Bonnier Lotus-Ford 4 Fuel leak 13 17 Piers Courage Brabham-Ford 1 Accident 7 12 Vic Elford McLaren-Ford 0 Accident 6 3 Mario Andretti Lotus-Ford 0 Accident 11 14 John Surtees BRM Non-starter 24 Gerhard Mitter BMW Fatal accident in practice 23 Hubert Hahne BMW Withdrew 25 Dieter Quester BMW Withdrew 21 Hans Herrmann Lotus-Ford Withdrew Formula Two entrants are denoted by a pink background. They were not eligible for World Championship points.
Notes Having suffered many DNF already, Ferrari decided to skip the German GP, to prepare for the home race at Monza This was the Formula One World Championship debut for German driver Rolf Stommelen, Austrian driver Dieter Quester, French driver and future Grand Prix winner François Cevert, Swiss driver Xavier Perrot and British driver Peter Westbury. This race saw the first fastest lap and Grand Slam set by a Belgian driver. This was the Formula One World Championship debut for Italian constructor Tecno. This race saw the 10th fastest lap being set by a Brabham. This was the 10th podium finish by a McLaren.
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Jackie Stewart 51 3 2 Jacky Ickx 22 1 3 Bruce McLaren 21 1 4 Graham Hill 19 1 5 Jo Siffert 15Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Matra-Ford 51 2 2 Brabham-Ford 28 1 3 Lotus-Ford 28 1 4 McLaren-Ford 24 (26) 5 Ferrari 4Source:
References
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