1970 Formula One season
It featured the 21st World Championship of Drivers, the 13th International Cup for F1 Manufacturers and three non-championship races open to Formula One cars.
Jochen Rindt, driving for Lotus, won his first Drivers' Championship, although he died four races before the end of the season.
Piers Courage, driver for Frank Williams's team, was killed during the Dutch Grand Prix on 21 June.
[14] During the weekend of the Spanish Grand Prix, the organisers of the event, backed by the Commission Sportive Internationale (currently known as the FIA), had a falling out with a large number of teams and drivers, represented by the F1CA (later known as FOCA).
On lap 22, Brabham finally managed to pass Amon, and when Stewart's Cosworth engine started misfiring badly, he acquired the lead of the race.
With three quarters of the race, Amon crashed out with a broken rear suspension and Hulme fell back with gearbox issues.
This gave Jochen Rindt a surprising chance for a podium finish and the inspired Austrian actually came within a few car lengths of Brabham.
On the last corner of the last lap, the Australian took a different line than usual to prevent any chance of an overtake, but he locked his wheels and slid straight on into the barrier.
The Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps had received an upgrade in safety measures: Armco barriers lined around the track and a slow chicane instead of the infamous high-speed Masta kink.
Their respective constructors filled the Manufacturers' Cup standings in the same order: March led with 25 points, ahead of Lotus with 23 and Brabham with 17.
Jochen Rindt in his new Lotus 72 was favourite for the French Grand Prix, but he was suffering from a stomach ulcer and the twisty nature of the track brought on heavy sickness.
To add to the misery, in practice, a stone was thrown up by a car in front, hitting his face and cutting his right cheek deeply.
After qualifying, it seemed that, like in Spa, the V12-powered cars would be dominant: Jacky Ickx put his Ferrari on pole position, ahead of Jean-Pierre Beltoise in the Matra.
[16] For the British Grand Prix, Rindt was again favourite, but his Firestone tyres were not working perfectly in the high summer temperatures.
Rindt and Brabham were inseparable for the next 60 laps, until the Austrian missed a gear and the Australian outbraked him into South Bank corner.
After the race, Rindt was disqualified for running an illegally high rear wing, but team boss Colin Chapman successfully appealed and the decision was reverted.
[17] The German Grand Prix was planned to be held at the Nürburgring Nordschleife, but in light of the deaths of Bruce McLaren and Piers Courage, the drivers asked the FIA to find a safer circuit.
Jacky Ickx started on pole in his Ferrari, with championship leader Jochen Rindt and teammate Clay Regazzoni next to him.
Rindt's main rival Jack Brabham could only manage a twelfth starting position and when his engine suffered an oil leak, he was already out of the race after four laps.
With the Scuderia Ferrari coming off a dominant victory in Austria, the tifosi were praying for a repeat during the Italian Grand Prix.
It allowed them to reach top speeds of over 300 km/h (190 mph) but made them quite unstable in the corners, which Emerson Fittipaldi found out during practice: he crashed going into the Parabolica, escaped unhurt, but gave his Lotus mechanics a big repair job.
Ickx fell back to seventh place, but the other three put up a brilliant fight for the lead, switching positions almost every lap.
[11] The championship concluded with three races in North America, starting with the Canadian Grand Prix at the spectacular Circuit Mont-Tremblant.
Jackie Stewart immediately snatched pole position, going four tenths faster than in his March, ahead of the Ferrari pair of Ickx and Regazzoni.
[22] For the United States Grand Prix, Ickx qualified on pole position, ahead of Stewart and Fittipaldi, the leading Lotus driver after Rindt's demise.
Ickx needed to win the two remaining races to stand a chance of overtaking Rindt's points total, but at the start, he fell back to third.
On lap 16, he overtook Rodríguez for second, but around half distance, had to make a pit stop to repair a fuel leak.
[23] For the Mexican Grand Prix, Clay Regazzoni qualified on pole, ahead of the three "Jacks": Stewart, Ickx and Brabham.
