The race was won by Lotus-Ford driver Jochen Rindt in his new monocoque-chassis Type 72, a radical wedge shape first used on the 1968 Indianapolis Lotus, with inboard braking and torsion bar suspension, it represented a major technical advance, giving the driver superior ride and vision in a better ventilated seat.

Rindt had only raced the car twice before (but in a different spec) and had preferred his old Lotus 49 in the preceding Monaco and Belgian rounds of the World Championship.

Colin Chapman had persisted with anti-squat and dive on John Miles' Lotus 72 which was fifth on the first lap and proved difficult to pass.

However the race was marred by the violent fatal accident of British driver Piers Courage driving the Frank Williams-entered De Tomaso-Ford on lap 22, at Tunnel Oost, when his car's suspension was damaged after hitting a curb, and the car went straight up a grass embankment.

It then somersaulted and exploded, and Courage had died instantly after being hit on the head by one of the car's front wheels.