1969 German Grand Prix

Bruce McLaren driving the McLaren M7C during the race.

The 1969 German Grand Prix was a Formula One race held at Nürburgring on 3 August 1969 with Formula Two cars competing by invitation. It was the seventh round of the 1969 World Championship for Drivers. The F2 entrants were not eligible for points in the World Championship.

Report

Gerhard Mitter was killed during a practice session for this race at the Schwedenkreuz curve. He was practicing for BMW's 269 F2 project. 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 at Porsche, Hans Herrmann.

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.

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 at the first corner, the Sudkurve. Stewart held on but then gear selection 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.

This was the last Formula One race at the Nürburgring before it was rebuilt and fitted with Armco barriers for the 1971 race.

Classification

Mario Andretti at the 1969 German Grand Prix.

Nürburgring Nordschleife in 1969

Note: The race was run with both Formula One and Formula Two cars running together. Formula Two entrants are denoted by a pink background.

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	13
6	29	Richard Attwood	Brabham-Ford	13	+1 Lap	20
7	20	Kurt Ahrens	Brabham-Ford	13	+1 Lap	19
8	22	Rolf Stommelen	Lotus-Ford	13	+1 Lap	22
9	31	Peter Westbury	Brabham-Ford	13	+1 Lap	18
10	30	Xavier Perrot	Brabham-Ford	13	+1 Lap	24
11	11	Jo Siffert	Lotus-Ford	12	Suspension	4	2
12	8	Jean-Pierre Beltoise	Matra-Ford	12	Suspension	10	1
Ret	9	Denny Hulme	McLaren-Ford	11	Transmission	5
Ret	15	Jackie Oliver	BRM-Ford	11	Oil leak	16
Ret	2	Jochen Rindt	Lotus-Ford	10	Ignition	3
Ret	28	François Cevert	Tecno-Ford	9	Crown Wheel	14
Ret	27	Johnny Servoz-Gavin	Matra-Ford	6	Engine	12
Ret	16	Jo Bonnier	Lotus-Ford	4	Fuel leak	23
Ret	17	Piers Courage	Brabham-Ford	1	Accident	7
Ret	12	Vic Elford	McLaren-Ford	0	Accident	6
Ret	3	Mario Andretti	Lotus-Ford	0	Accident	15
DNS	14	John Surtees	BRM	-	Non Starter	11
DNS	24	Gerhard Mitter	BMW	-	Fatal Accident in practice	25
DNS	23	Hubert Hahne	BMW	-	Non Starter	17
DNS	25	Dieter Quester	BMW	-	Non Starter	21
DNS	21	Hans Herrmann	Lotus-Ford	-	Non Starter	-

Notes

• Pole position: Jacky Ickx - 7:42.1
• Fastest lap: Jacky Ickx - 7:43.8 on lap 7

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Jackie Stewart 51 2 Jacky Ickx 22 3 Bruce McLaren 21 4 Graham Hill 19 5 Jo Siffert 15

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Matra-Ford 51 2 Brabham-Ford 28 3 Lotus-Ford 28 4 McLaren-Ford 24 (26) 5 Ferrari 4

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. Only the best 5 results from the first 6 rounds and the best 4 results from the last 5 rounds counted towards the Championship. Numbers without parentheses are Championship points; numbers in parentheses are total points scored.

References

• Lang, Mike (1982). Grand Prix! Vol 2. Haynes Publishing Group. pp. 100–101. ISBN 0-85429-321-3. 
• "The Official Formula 1 website". http://www.formula1.com/results/season/1969/543/. Retrieved 2008-01-17. 
• "Formula One World". http://www.motorsport-stats.com/f1/history/1969/germany.html. Retrieved 2008-01-17.