Jochen Rindt tribute: Monaco 1970

In the most sensational finish at Monte Carlo since the war, Jochen Rindt scored a last-ditch victory for Gold Leaf Team Lotus in the Monaco Grand Prix last Sunday when Jack Brabham, who had led for nearly two-thirds of the distance, crashed into the barrier at the last corner of the last lap. He restarted to take second place ahead of Henri Pescarolo, who gave Matra their best result this year with a fine third.

From the start Jackie Stewart's Tyrrell March ran away from Chris Amon and Brabham, pulling out a handsome lead until ignition trouble forced him into the pits. Amon tailed Brabham until the rear suspension of his works March failed, and his team-mate Jo Siffert went well after a slow start until his fuel injection started to play up. The Matra of Jean-Pierre Beltoise was up with the leaders again until retiring, this time with transmission failure, while Denny Hulme finished a dogged fourth in his McLaren after losing bottom gear.

Jacky Ickx had the Ferrari lying fourth at the start but broke a driveshaft, while Graham Hill scored two more championship points with fifth place in a Lotus borrowed from non-qualifier John Miles after he crashed his own Rob Walker car in practice. The BRMs were out of luck, Jackie Oliver retiring with engine trouble but Pedro Rodriguez was sixth after an early pitstop. Ronnie Peterson qualified, and finished, in his first Formula 1 race in the new Antique Automobiles March.

In the last desperate lap as he closed on Brabham, Rindt set a tremendous new lap record in 1m23.1s in the old Lotus 49C. Brabham's second place puts him in the lead in the World Championship points table from Stewart.

Entry

Although the Automobile Club de Monaco received no fewer than 26 entries for this year's race, by the time Ferrari had reduced their team to a single car and Mario Andretti, Derek Bell, Alex Soler-Roig and Silvio Moser (entered in the still-to-be-seen Bellasi-Ford) had scratched, there were just 22 drivers for the 16 available places on the grid.

Favourite, as always, was world champion Stewart in the Tyrrell Racing Organisation March. Jackie's car was conspicuously well-presented, but sported a few innovations, just the old-type exhaust system with short tail pipes for better torque and a different wing, although some of the beefed-up areas around the pick-up points showed the team's attention to detail. The Scot was backed up by the ever-amiable Johnny Servoz-Gavin, whose car was now up to the latest specification with inboard rear brakes. As usual there was a third available, which had also been updated.

Graham Hill, Lotus © LAT

Gold Leaf Team Lotus, who are usually a most serious threat, seem to have floundered somewhere along the line with Colin Chapman's revolutionary Lotus 72, and Rindt and Miles were fielding a pair of veteran Lotus 49s, up to C specification and utilising 1970 type three-tier wings. The 72 is at present being re-designed with all the anti-dive and anti-squat removed; changing the geometry is not as straightforward as on a conventional F1 car, and it will be the Dutch Grand Prix before we see Chapman's new car again. In fact there was a 72 down there purely as a spare should either of the works cars break. Riding with Rob Walker, Hill brought the Lotus strength up to three. The five-times Monaco winner's blue 49C was also carrying the latest wing but was otherwise unchanged, even being fitted with the same engine that was used at Madrid and Silverstone.

Motor Racing Developments brought along their usual BT33s for Brabham and the Auto Motor und Sport-sponsored Rolf Stommelen. Black Jack's car had a slightly different nose with improved ducting and there were additional cockpit cooling pipes but was otherwise unchanged. The German's car had the old-type nose, but with some additional pieces of aluminium helping the hot air flow. Both BT33s had their usual driveshaft arrangement, but the crosses had been specially selected as a precaution due to the additional transmission loads of Monaco.

Unlike the Brabhams, the works McLarens had several changes, despite the team's pre-occupation with their Indy programme. They too had stronger driveshafts for this race, and both Hulme and Bruce McLaren had gone back to 15 inch front wheels as Denny finds that thus equipped the steering is more precise. There were also new front uprights, and the steering arms were attached to the rack with three bolts instead of two. Andrea de Adamich was once again hoping to qualify the M7D McLaren-Alfa, which was unchanged except for a new engine - reported to be giving a reliable 425bhp. With the addition of Team Surtees' 1969 McLaren M7C this marque was the best represented, with the exception of March. Big John's car was completely unchanged since Jarama, the team still concentrating all their efforts on their own F1 project.

The works Marches, conspicuous in day-glo red and well purchased with STP decals, were also virtually unchanged. Amon has his original car with a strengthened rear cross-member, and also the later lightweight car as reserve, while Siffert was in his usual machine, its back end also suitably reinforced. Amon's Silverstone victory had given the team a much-needed fillip, and there seemed to be more rapport between the drivers and management than was evident in Spain.

Colin Crabbe of Antique Automobiles had their brand-new March 701 (running with works blessing) for the Swedish coming man Ronnie Peterson, who was having his first F1 race just a year after his win in the Monaco F3 event. The car, the only March with outboard rear brakes, was only finished last weekend and turned a wheel for the first time at the Silverstone club circuit on the Monday before the race. The yellow and Maroon car is running on Goodyears, which means that March now have cars running on all three makes of racing tyres. As March director Max Mosley commented: "Either we're going to run out of excuses or the tyre companies are."

The only other Ford-engined car in the race was the Frank Williams-entered de Tomaso of Piers Courage. The new 505-383, which was first used at Silverstone, is 65lbs lighter than the car Piers destroyed at Jarama. Engineer Gian Paolo Dallara seems to be able to get new bits made as quickly as any team, and the whole equipe is run with Tyrrell-like efficiency.

The non-Ford powered entries were as usual Ferrari, BRM and Matra. Ferrari originally entered two cars, but after Ickx's spectacular Spanish accident it was finally decided to send only a single car. Anyway, Ferrari would be pushed to rake up a driver who stood the remotest chance of qualifying. Ickx's car for this race was the one he used in South Africa, but with all the suspension pick-up points changed for special Monaco geometry. The engine was the usual flat-12 featuring all the same oil system modifications we saw in Spain. The Belgian driver, although a trifle pale, had only a scarred hand and a slight limp to show of his recent escape, since when this was his first race.

Yardley Team BRM had been very busy since the Spanish Grand Prix, and had built a brand new 153 to replace the car destroyed after Oliver's accident. They had also redesigned the front suspension on both cars with more substantial uprights enclosing larger stub axles. The suspension on Oliver's car was also more substantial, and it was hoped to have the heavier gauge wishbones on Rodriguez's car as well in time for the race. There was a third car, although not in Yardley colours, for the long-locked Canadian George Eaton, which had also been brought up to date as far as the front hubs went.

Henri Pescarolo © LAT

France's hopes were excellent with the two works V12 Matras of Beltoise and Pescarolo. After finding they were losing time through overheating rear tyres they had gone back to 15 inch diameter rear wheels, but the only other obvious change from a new wing was the adoption of slated metal discs on the front wheels to act as ventilators drawing in cool air for the front discs. The engines were unchanged, as they have proved man enough for a 1000km race as long as the revs are carefully controlled.

Practice

As usual there were three days of practice: Thursday afternoon, Friday early in the morning, and Saturday afternoon before the F3 final. There was to have been a qualification race after Saturday's practice, but after a strenuous protest from the drivers the organisers were given a dignified let-out when they were advised by the CSI that it was contrary to article 138 of the sporting code, which states that drivers in grands prix may not compete in two races in less than 24 hours! That would seem to be the last we will hear of the qualifying race idea.

Instead there was an extra 30 minute qualifying session for the non-seeded drivers, these final times not counting for grid positions. The cancellation of the qualifying race itself had been predictable, but it seems a pity that all the constructors, entrants and organisers haven't yet got together to thrash out this whole qualification question. Many people think that the arguments for every driver having to qualify if there are a restricted number of places on the grid are very strong. As it turned out, John Surtees and Rodriguez of the seeded drivers were slower than Stommelen and Servoz-Gavin, who did not qualify.

The first practice was held in ideal weather conditions, but times were not that impressive as the circuit, which had been resurfaced in many places, was too dusty for the tyres to get hot enough to give maximum adhesion. Nevertheless four drivers got below Courage's official 1969 lap record of 1m25.8s (although Stewart had done a 1m25.1s in that race before retiring). Fastest was Stewart, who tried some special qualifying tyres near the end of the session and put in three consecutive quick times: the fastest was 1m24.1s, although Tyrrell's own watch got a better time than this. Amon had at one time been the quickest in the works March, the new Firestone YB17s obviously helping a great deal, but Chris's best was a full half-second slower than Jackie's. Towards the end of practice Amon left the road at Mirabeau, creasing the monocoque slightly and damaging the suspension. The New Zealander had been baulked by Rodriguez's BRM, which was having ignition trouble, and had been so busy letting the Mexican know he was in the way that he forgot to brake for the corner until too late - and he was honest enough to admit it!

Third fastest was Hulme, who was in great from after his recent 169mph laps at the brickyard; looking neater than either Stewart or Amon he wheeled the M14A around in 1m 25.1s. Denny was finding that his Goodyear G20s were not really getting to grips with the new surface, like they usually do, due to the dust.

Beltoise in the V12 Matra was again very impressive and, under the watchful eye of Matra director Jen-Luc Lagardere, was half a second slower than Hulme. The 15 inch rear wheels seemed to have no adverse effect on handling - though on this particular occasion the 13s might have been better as the tyres would have heated up quicker. Anyway Bruno Morin of Matra said that this was the first time so far that the MS120 had needed no sorting at all in the handling department before a race. Team-mate Pescarolo got in very little practice: first he was on the wrong mix tyres, and then just when he wanted to get really going the fuel system played up.

As ever, Brabham was very fast, and despite locking the brakes was fifth quickest, 0.2s slower then Beltoise. The BT33's brake balance seemed to have gone haywire; first the fronts would lock on, and then without touching the balance bar the same thing would happen at the rear: Very twitchy!

Jochen Rindt, Lotus © LAT

Rindt had been one of the fastest early on, but just when the track was getting quick, the engine in his Lotus 49 blew and he had to stand by and watch others go faster than his 1m25.9s. The second works Lotus was not particularly fast, as Miles was busy learning the circuit and was wisely content to do this without fireworks that might have resulted in a broken car.

Ickx's Spanish accident didn't seem to have destroyed any of the young Ferrari driver's confidence, and he tweaked the flat-12 machine round in 1m26.2s without apparently extending himself. The special suspension seems to work well, especially when coupled to the new Firestone tyre, and the engine apparently has plenty of torque.

Fastest of the non-seeded divers was McLaren, who was 0.4s slower than Ickx, eighth best overall. Bruce seemed to like the car's steering round the tight twists and turns on the larger front wheels. His engine went off towards the end, and that night it was changed. Then came those two Monaco aces, Hill and Courage. Graham's best was 1m26.8s in a trouble-free run, while Piers' fastest time was 1m27.2s in the De Tomaso, which had lost its water, got hot and started to misfire. Even so, the Williams car was still the second fastest non-seeded entry.

Surtees seemed happy enough with the way his McLaren was going, although his time of 1m27.4s was equalled by both Servoz-Gavin and newcomer Peterson and was only 11th best. Johnny loves this course and, although he found it hard work, seemed justifiably content with his time. The real surprise of practice was Peterson, who managed very well in the Antique Automobiles March in spite of a disconcertingly poor brake pedal.

Then came De Adamich in the McLaren Alfa, 0.2s faster than Stommelen in the second Brabham, both driving on the course for the first time but looking as if they stood a reasonable chance of getting in the race. Siffert in the second works March got in only a couple of laps before his engine went off-song, and spend the rest of the session as a spectator. Apparently Cosworth are suffering a whole crop of similar valve spring failures, and Duckworth has tried everything to cure this malady without success.

The BRMs were having their share of troubles, neither Rodriguez nor Oliver getting much practice. Pedro's car refused to run cleanly and was hopelessly undergeared; Oliver broke second and fifth gears in three laps. Eaton's car seemed to be keeping the mechanics busy but the Canadian's time was not particularly impressive.

Friday

Friday morning's practice was a washout. It has rained most of the night and, although the track was drying when the F1 cars went out at 8am, a further downpour ensured that the times would be of no real significance.

Stewart certainly looked the most impressive in the wet, coming through the Tabac only inches from the guard rail, the blue car sliding hard but under superb control. The world champion's quickest lap was 1m37.1s, over 2.5s better than his nearest rival, that other great wet weather driver Rodriguez. The Mexican's BRM, now fitted with Marelli ignition, was going a lot better, although it was still undergeared.

Ickx, Peterson, Oliver and Surtees were all in the 1m40s bracket, Ickx looking as if he was really trying and fastest of the four, while Peterson continued to impress even though the young Swede was now having trouble with the clutch. Oliver, whose BRM was also now using Marelli ignition, confirmed his machine too was a lot better, while Surtees was happy to find an opportunity to set his car up for the wet, Brabham did more laps than most making sure his brakes were better, and right at the end of practice when the rain was falling heavily he did a couple of laps with an umbrella held over the cockpit, to the great amusement of all.

The rest of the drivers did very few laps. Rindt was content to see that his new engine worked properly, while Amon tried the lightweight car fitted with all the bits off his crashed car and pronounced it sorted. The only incidents concerned Hill and McLaren, both of whom slid wide coming out of the Gasworks Hairpin. Graham damaged a couple of wheels and twisted the bottom rear wishbone pickup crossmember, while Bruce seemed to have got away with just a broken wheel.

Quite a lot of people found further problems. Pescarolo's Matra still wouldn't run properly; a suspect fuel pump had been changed and it was now thought that the non-return valves within the fuel system itself were the cause of the problem. JPB in the other Matra found that the engine didn't run properly in the wet, which was useful to know if they could find a cure. Courage's De Tomaso developed a fuel leak due to a faulty gasket or the metering unit which was difficult to replace; he must have been relieved that this occurred then and not during his qualification session. Unhappiest of all was Siffert, whose March after an overnight engine change, was now in clutch trouble; so once again the Swiss driver was forced to sit and watch and worry whether he would ever get a chance to qualify.

Saturday

Despite a threat of rain the track remained more or less dry for the final day's practice. An added hazard was a pool of water which ebbed and flowed just before the tunnel formed by waves breaking over the promenade. Halfway through the session came another change of rules: all times set in any practice session were to be counted for qualification - a sensible decision taken at a stupid time.

The F3 heats had left a good deal of rubber and oil on the road, and to start with times were slow. It wasn't until right at the end of the session that Stewart put in three really good laps, the best of which was 1m24.0s, which assured him of pole position. Amon was also on the front row by virtue of his Thursday time, though the New Zealander wasn't able to get it together in either the lightweight car or his original one, which had now been repaired. Later that evening the March mechanics got busy transferring the engine and suspension bits back on to 701-001 as the patched crease in the monocoque seemed no cause for worry. Many people couldn't understand why Amon was running as number 28 and not 18 as in the programme - the latter number was Lorenzo Bandini's three years ago when the Italian suffered his fatal accident at this circuit, and Amon is very superstitious.

Neither did Hulme improve on his Thursday's time, not that he was having any troubles, he just never went out when the track was suitable. Denny was content to spectate for much of the time as he was already on the second row alongside Brabham. The Australian was still unsure of his brakes and, although he got down to 1m25.4s, he never really got both a clear and dry track to show his potential.

After two pretty unsuccessful days of training Ickx really got the Ferrari buzzing in this final session, rewarding the large number of Ferrari fans among the spectators with 1m25.5s - third fastest time of the day and fifth overall. This put him on the third row alongside Beltoise in the Matra; two non-Cosworth cars so high on the grid was indicative that Northampton's total supremacy is now seriously challenged. Beltoise had a trouble-free session but still wasn't quite as fast as he had been on the first day. Pescarolo did extremely well to record exactly the same time as his Matra team-mate in this session, 1m25.7s which put him on the fourth row with Rindt's Lotus. Henri's effort was all the more commendable because throughout the session his engine continued to suffer from fuel starvation, and it wasn't until right at the end of the day that a stray pop rivet was discovered to be blocking open a non-return valve.

Rindt's fortunes were not improving in the veteran Lotus 49, and it was only his good time in the first practice that saw him so far up the grid. During the final day's training the Austrian was disappointingly slow, the car handling badly after changes to camber settings. Late on Saturday night the Lotus boys were busy re-setting up the car trying to get it as it had been previously.

Side by side on the fifth row were Courage and McLaren. Piers and Bruce had both managed 1m26.1s in the general practice, but were still worried about qualifying. In the final session for the non-seeded folk Piers managed a fantastic 1m25.3s, which normally would have put him on the second row with Hulme, had these times counted, while Bruce managed an equally creditable 1m25.7s.

Behind these two on the grid were Siffert in the second works March and Hill in the Rob Walker Lotus. At last things were going well for Seppi, who got down to 1m26.2s in the general session, and a staggering 1m24.6s in the final half hour qualification period, which would have also put him on the second row of the grid had it counted, for this was identical to Amon's best time. Siffert takes his time to get really going, and after two days of troubles he only had this last period to get in the groove.

Hill's practice came to a sudden halt when he hit a damp patch and the car turned sharp left into the guardrail just before the Casino. The Walker Lotus was badly bent, the whole front suspension being written off and the monocoque also being damaged; Graham himself escaped uninjured, well secured by his Willans harness, but there was some doubt as to whether he would be able to start the race. However, when Miles failed to qualify Walker went straight to Chapman to borrow the second works car.

The new boy and an ex-world champion were on the second last row, for Peterson, in a last ditch-effort managed to qualify with 1m26.2s, which put him alongside Surtees. Peterson at one time looked to be out of the race when a timekeeper's error showed Stommelen to be a tenth faster, but the error was soon put right and the Swede was in.

On the last row were the two BRMs of Oliver and Rodriguez. Both BRMs were still having ignition trouble despite the Marelli equipment, their engines misfiring due to oil being sucked up the bores on overrun, the spark not being strong enough to burn away the excess. Pedro never managed a clear lap, but Oliver, after numerous plug checks, finally got going at the very last moment and got down to 1m25.8s, which was a really good time in anybody's book.

The unfortunates not in the race were Stommelen, who was pipped by Peterson (though the German's engine was missing at the top end, which couldn't have helped); Servoz-Gavin, who hit a patch of oil at the chicane in the Tyrrell March and tore off the right rear suspension (he borrowed Stewart's spare car to try to qualify but the gear lever came out of the gate, which ruined his chances); Miles who, although quicker than Rindt on the final day, was just not quick enough in his old Lotus; De Adamich, who again failed to qualify by only 0.1s after hitting a kerb and damaging a wheel in the final bend; and Easton, who never looked to be a likely runner.

One of the closest-kept secrets of practice was that Stewart and Brabham were using only four of the five speeds in their DG300 gearboxes. Brabham had had a special first gear cut at considerable expense by Hewlands, while Stewart had managed to gear with readily available cogs. This meant more widely-spaced ratios but cut out several gear-changes per lap, with resulting reduction of strain on gearbox, driveshafts and driver. As fifth was not needed, Stewart had a special fifth only 500 rpm or so higher than fourth as a spare should fourth fail. On the Brabham the spring-loading on fifth and reverse was increased to avoid inadvertent selection.

On the same front, the techniques of the two Matra drivers varied, particularly into the hairpins, where Beltoise was coming down the box while Pescarolo usually went from fourth straight into bottom. The Matras were also relying strongly on fourth gear, only getting into top coming out of the tunnel.

Race

On the morning of the race the circuit was a dismal sight, for it had rained all night and showed no signs of stopping. Just after midday the sun suddenly poked through the clouds to brighten the hearts of everyone, and the track was soon bone dry.

The cars formed up with all the usual pomp and ceremony, a colourful parade of drum majorettes smacking somewhat of Indy. There were no overnight changes to the grid, except that Hill was right at the back behind the BRMs in Miles's car (duly painted blue) as his own was proved irreparable. As the cars moved forward from the dummy grid the Tyrrell camp got their first hint of trouble when Stewart's engine refused to fire, and this held up the proceedings a few minutes. Finally Jackie's V8 burst into life and they all moved forward in neat formation, a most colourful collection set against the background that only Monaco can offer.

As Paul Frere raised the flag aloft, Brabham was already creeping forward from the second row. Down came the tricolor and off they swept in a cloud of rubber smoke, with Stewart leading Amon and Brabham up the hill, hounded by the rest of the pack. Hill made a terrific start from the back of the grid and had passed the two BRMs. When they came into sight again the blue Tyrrell March was already several lengths ahead of Amon's similar works car, with Brabham only inches behind; then came Ickx well up in the leading Ferrari pursued by Beltoise in the leading Matra, Hulme's McLaren, Rindt's Lotus and Courage in the De Tomaso all in a tight bunch. Siffert lay tenth just ahead of McLaren and Surtees, with Rodriquez, who had got by both Peterson and Hill, bringing up the rear. Oliver was right at the tail of the field having completed his first ever racing lap at Monaco.

Brabham leads Chris Amon © LAT

After two laps Stewart's advantage was already 2s, while the scrap behind him continued to be led by Amon and Brabham, who were still nose to tail. Beltoise slipped by Ickx at the Gasworks hairpin to claim fourth place in a heart-stopping manoeuvre, for there were cars filling the whole track as this bunch went through. Hulme, Rindt, Pescarolo, Courage, Siffert and McLaren continued to dive inside and outside each other but maintained their positions, while Surtees dropped back a couple of lengths. When Rodriguez pulled into the pits complaining of a sticking throttle Peterson moved up to 13th place, trailed by Oliver, who had just re-passed Hill. Graham had had the pedals of Miles's car adjusted without his seat belt being done up, and he was now having trouble reaching the pedals. Pedro's stop at the BRM pit lost him almost exactly a lap.

Stewart's progress continued to draw him away from the rest, and after five laps he was as many seconds ahead. Amon continued to hold Brabham at bay to the Australian's disgust, and he was already waving his fist every time they went through the Gasworks hairpin. JPB was staying with these two, the Matra sounding superb, but there still was nothing to choose between Ickx, Hulme, Pescarolo and Rindt, who formed a long chain behind Amon as they all accelerated out of Casino bend and down to the Station Hairpin. Courage was just behind this group being pushed hard by Siffert and McLaren, while Surtees was falling back and was in danger of being caught by Peterson and Oliver.

There seemed to be no stopping the Scot who, after 10 laps, was 8s ahead and very much mastering the situation; however the battle behind him was growing more intense at every moment as Brabham vainly searched for a way past the red March that blocked his path. The Matra continued to harry both of them, for it was being pushed all the time by Ickx, and even after the Ferrari went out with a broken driveshaft on lap 11 the Frenchman stayed with the Brabham-March battle. Ickx's departure saw Hulme move into fifth place a second or so behind, the New Zealander still shadowed by the second Matra, Rindt and Courage - who had succeeded in pulling away from Siffert. Peterson and Oliver at the tail of the field both moved up a place when Surtees slowed with low oil pressure, and a few laps later the 1964 world champion retired after being passed by Hill as well.

As Stewart continued to increase his advantage, setting a new lap record of 1m25.0s, Brabham was going nearly mad trying to pass Amon, for he obviously felt he was being held up while Stewart was getting unhindered. Brabham tried the inside of the Gasworks hairpin on lap 17, but didn't make it and had to brake hard; this nearly let Beltoise by, the two cars accelerating past the pits side by side. While the rest of the field held station Peterson, Oliver, Hill and Rodriguez all moved up a place when McLaren's dice with Siffert came to a sudden halt: Bruce misjudged the chicane and clouted the right front suspension, damaging a wheel and the top pick-up point. After a lap or so in the pits, when the wheel was changed, Bruce rejoined, but the car wouldn't handle and he retired.

The order after 20 laps was Stewart, Amon, Brabham, Beltoise, Hulme, Pescarolo, Rindt, Courage, Siffert, Oliver, Hill and Rodriquez. The Tyrrell car was 11.4s ahead of Amon who was less than 1s in front of Brabham, who was keeping the pressure on and had now done a 1m24.9s lap; the Matra had fallen back a little and was 3.8s behind, but still less than 30s covered the first nine drivers. The vast crowd (estimated at 120,000), having braved the early morning rain to pick their vantage points, were now being rewarded by some really close motor racing.

A couple of laps later, to a sigh of disappointment from the grandstands, the fourth placed Matra came into the pit and JPB pulled off his helmet: the crown wheel and pinion had failed. Seconds before the Brabham had finally managed to get inside Amon at the Gasworks Hairpin and was now firmly in second place, although some 14s behind Stewart.

On lap 24 Stewart got down to 1m24.6s as he continued to draw away from Brabham and Amon. There was now a small gap to Hulme, who was having a hard time fending off Pescarolo and Rindt. Courage was in seventh place fighting for every inch of the road with an equally determined Siffert, and this was bringing them both closer to Rindt and co.

The dramatic change came after 27 laps when Stewart's engine, although he was now settling down to a steady drive with his comfortable lead, suddenly went rough. After a slow lap, which let Brabham and Amon by, he came into the pits. The Tyrrell mechanics changed the dreaded back box and the rotor arm in double-quick time, but Stewart still lost a couple of laps. He rejoined at unabated speed and, although at the tail of the field, did many more laps before the engine went right off again, and he retired rather than blow the whole thing asunder.

With no Stewart the race suddenly came very much to life. Brabham and Amon were now battling for first place, and the others knew the position too as pit boards flashed the message that the dominating Stewart was out and that they were in with a chance. Hulme was now third, still with constant attention from the surviving Matra and Rindt, while just behind them Siffert had succeeded in passing Courage. There was quite a battle at the end of the field, for Peterson, Oliver and Hill were all very close together; the BRM driver got by the Swede, to be followed by Hill nine laps later.

The reason why Courage had dropped behind Siffert became apparent on lap 36 when he brought the De Tomaso in with steering that was seizing up. Although the rack and pinion were changed in record time, poor Piers was out of the fight. The De Tomaso went back into the race well behind, but kept lapping at a healthy rate until finally its brakes started to fail, although Piers kept it going to the end.

It was at this time that Rindt started to go places. He picked off Pescarolo under braking for the Gasworks Hairpin, and set off after Hulme with a vengeance, showing his determination in a new lap record of 1m24.3s. As half-distance came up on the board 10 cars were still running in the order of Brabham, Amon, Hulme, Rindt, Pescarolo, Siffert, Hill, Oliver, Peterson and Rodriquez.

The gap between Brabham and Amon was 2.6s; Hulme was 11.9s behind Amon with Rindt pinned to his tail. Further back Hill had moved ahead of Oliver, whose BRM had gone sick; two laps later Ollie retired with a blown engine.

While Brabham continued to lead Amon by a couple of seconds, Rindt now snatched third place from Hulme and began to catch the Brabham/March duo, if only fractionally. Siffert was also in a hurry and, having gradually closed on Pescarolo, left the Matra behind on lap 44. Seppi pulled up into fourth place four laps later when he passed Hulme, who was being slowed by the loss of first gear, making negotiating the hairpins very awkward.

The gap between Brabham and Amon was remaining constant, although Amon lost time when he got caught up behind Rodriguez's BRM, which cost him 2s at least, for he couldn't get by for an entire lap despite shaking his fist at every available occasion. Rindt had an easier passage through the slower cars and was now only 9s behind Amon, driving like one inspired. Hulme lost another place on lap 54 when Pescarolo moved the still healthy-sounding Matra up into fifth place behind Siffert's March.

Then, with only 20 laps to go, Amon found his car handling most oddly. He slowly brought the car round to the pits as Brabham disappeared off into the distance. A bolt had fallen out of the bottom rear wishbone pick-up and the rear wheel was steering the car: Amon's hopes of a grand prix victory were once again dashed.

But there was still plenty of action, for Rindt was only 13.5s down on Brabham and Siffert going just as quickly and making a tremendous bid to catch the Austrian. Now it was Seppi's turn to break the lap record with a 1m24.1s, and he had pulled well clear of the Matra. But he was also out of luck, and with only 18 laps to go the second March started to pop and bang with fuel starvation, and both Pescarolo and Hulme started to catch up fast.

Brabham, fully informed of the speed of Rindt by his pit, still seemed to have the race well sewn-up, and he was holding the Lotus at 13s distance on lap 65; but Jochen redoubled his efforts, and the gap was 10s with the same number of laps to go. However. When Jochen started to close at a couple of seconds a lap, experienced spectators thought that Brabham was doing his usual trick of winning by the smallest possible margin.

Then with only four laps to go Rindt closed dramatically when Brabham got caught behind the ailing works March; Seppi was swerving all over the road trying to get the fuel pumps to pick up better. As they went into their last lap the two cars were separated by a mere 1.5s. Still it looked a certain Brabham victory, for it is one thing to catch Black Jack, and quite another thing to pass him.

With the crowd beside themselves with excitement, egging Rindt on for all they were worth, the two cars arced round a couple of lengths apart, sweeping through Tabac for the last time and coming up to lap Courage and Peterson (who kept well out of the way) just before the Gasworks Hairpin, the final corner of the race. Brabham, presumably anxious not to leave the door open for Rindt, took the inside line - and for some inexplicable reason left his braking too late, locked up all four wheels and skated straight on into the guard rail. Jochen, who had been poised to try to get round the Brabham on the outside, shot by the crippled car and passed the open-mouthed man with the chequered flag (who was so surprised he forgot to drop it!) in what must be the most dramatic finish ever at Monaco, certainly since the pre-war battle between Achille Varzi and Tazio Nuvolari.

Afterwards Brabham said that, although his brakes were not up to par by the end of the race, the cause of his accident was missing his braking point after lapping the slower cars. With the help of a marshal he managed to extract the slightly crumpled BT33 and set off to claim second place - with his poor unfortunate helper still on the nose of the car for the first few yards! Meanwhile, almost at once came he news that on that last incredible lap Rindt chopped another massive chunk off the lap record in his chase of Brabham, leaving it at a fantastic 1m22.2s.

Rindt on his way to victory © LAT

The last few laps saw the ailing Siffert passed by both Pescarolo and Hulme, and when the Swiss driver finally stopped at the chicane, Hill, Rodriguez and Peterson also got by. Pedro's progress after his early pitstop had brought him up with Peterson, whom he passed with 10 laps to go to claim a championship point for BRM.

Matra took third place, Pescarolo finishing 30s behind Brabham after circulating for some time in company with Hill and Rodriguez, who were both on different laps.

There was talk that Jack might be disqualified for the outside assistance received after his accident, but in the excitement this was apparently forgotten. A tried Hulme brought his four-speed McLaren home fourth, still on the same lap as the winner, while the indomitable Hill did extremely well to bring his borrowed Lotus home fifth only one lap behind. One of the first people to congratulate him was the surgeon who operated on his legs and who, unknown to Graham, was at the race. Peterson had only just missed scoring a championship point in his first F1 race, and had showed himself to be a sensible and professional driver who should go far.

After all their bad luck recently both Rindt and Chapman were deserving victors - it was the third win on the trot in the race for Gold Leaf Team Lotus - but one couldn't help feeling just a little bit sorry for Black Jack. However, he now leads the world championship again with 15 points to Stewart's 13, while Rindt and Hulme are joint third with nine.

As a postscript to this astonishing race, 20 minutes after the flag fell thunder roared, lightning flashed, the heavens opened and a hailstorm of such ferocity ensued that the track was completely awash in a matter of minutes. If the race had still been going, the final laps would have been reduced to a complete shambles.

1970 Monaco GP results