Dutch GP 1969
Dutch GP, 1969
With the Belgian GP having been canceled because of a dispute over safety between the race organizers and the Grand Prix Drivers' Association there was a five week break before the teams gathered at Zandvoort for the Dutch GP. The ban on high rear wings at Monaco meant that once again there were some different interpretations of the rules as the designers struggled to find the most downforce they could. Team Lotus and Matra had been working hard to develop four-wheel-drive cars and both teams brought the prototypes to Holland: Graham Hill tried out the Lotus 63 and Jackie Stewart ran the Matra MS84. BRM also had the new P139 for John Surtees but it was rather disappointing. Antique Automobiles had replaced the ancient Cooper it had run for Vic Elford at Monaco with a rather modern McLaren Qualifying resulted in Jochen Rindt taking pole position for Lotus with Stewart's regular Matra MS80 second and Hill's normal Lotus 49 sharing the front row. Chris Amon (Ferrari) and Jacky Ickx (Brabham) shared the second row while the third row was all-Antipodean with Jack Brabham (Brabham), Denny Hulme and Bruce McLaren (McLarens). Hill took the lead at the start with Rindt behind him and Stewart third then came Amon and a fast-starting Hulme. On the third lap Rindt scrambled ahead of Hill and within a couple of laps Stewart had followed, pushing Hill down to third place. Rindt then began to drive away from Stewart until lap 17 when his Lotus suffered driveshaft failure and Stewart was left in the lead. While this was happening Jo Siffert (Walker-Durlacher Lotus) had worked his way up to third place and so he found himself second when Rindt stopped. Hill eventually headed for the pits, unhappy with the handling of his car and that left Hulme, Amon, Ickx and Brabham to fight over third place. This became the center of attention until the closing laps when Amon finally managed to get the better of Hulme, who was left holding off Ickx for fourth place. The result was not in doubt, however, with Stewart scoring a dominant victory over Siffert. That weekend was marked by an announcement from Italy that Ferrari had begun a collaboration with Fiat. Although the Italian team looked weak, the money from the deal would help the team mount a much stronger challenge in the years that followed.
POS | NO | DRIVER | ENTRANT | LAPS | TIME/RETIREMENT | QUAL POS |
1 | 4 | Jackie Stewart | Matra-Cosworth MS80 | 90 | 2h06m42.080s | 2 |
2 | 10 | Jo Siffert | Lotus-Cosworth 49B | 90 | 2h07m06.600s | 10 |
3 | 8 | Chris Amon | Ferrari 312 | 90 | 2h07m12.590s | 4 |
4 | 7 | Denny Hulme | McLaren-Cosworth M7A | 90 | 2h07m19.240s | 7 |
5 | 12 | Jacky Ickx | Brabham-Cosworth BT26A | 90 | 2h07m19.750s | 5 |
6 | 11 | Jack Brabham | Brabham-Cosworth BT26A | 90 | 2h07m52.890s | 8 |
7 | 1 | Graham Hill | Lotus-Cosworth 49B | 88 | 3 | |
8 | 5 | Jean-Pierre Beltoise | Matra-Cosworth MS80 | 87 | 11 | |
9 | 14 | John Surtees | BRM P138 | 87 | 12 | |
10 | 18 | Vic Elford | McLaren-Cosworth M7A | 84 | 15 | |
r | 17 | Silvio Moser | Brabham-Cosworth BT24 | 54 | Engine | 14 |
r | 6 | Bruce McLaren | McLaren-Cosworth M7C | 24 | Suspension | 6 |
r | 2 | Jochen Rindt | Lotus-Cosworth 49B | 16 | Cv Joint | 1 |
r | 16 | Piers Courage | Brabham-Cosworth BT26A | 12 | Clutch | 9 |
r | 15 | Jackie Oliver | BRM P133 | 9 | Gearbox | 13 |