1970 Spanish Grand Prix

The 1970 Spanish Grand Prix was the second race of the 1970 Formula One Season, held on April 19. Jackie Stewart in a won by more than a lap from Bruce McLaren in a and Mario Andretti in another March-Ford, but the entire weekend was marred by confusion, official incompetence and actual physical brutality on the part of the Spanish police. Definitely one of the worst Grand Prix weekends ever.
==Background==
The race returned to the tight track in the rather bleak desert, north of Madrid that had hosted the event in 1967 and 1968. But after having seen the Barcelona track, in a part of the country that actually welcomed the race, the teams were less enthusiastic about returning.
*: No changes to the cars since South Africa.
*: The team suffered several stub axle failures at the Race of Champions. They were now using stub axles that were machined from solid metal, as opposed to parts cast in the shape needed. Two of the cars were in the new Yardley colors, but George Eaton's car was still in the British green with a gold nose.
*: The car showed up with a new chassis number, but it was obviously the same car that had run in South Africa. The track had been widened both front and rear. The anti-dive system in front and anti-squat system in the rear had been both removed. Despite that, the car was still more than 100kg overweight, and was not competitive.
*: Both the primary and spare cars had only detail changes since South Africa.
*: The long-awaited Lotus 72 made its debut at the race. Featuring an almost perfectly wedge-shaped chassis, inboard front brakes, side radiators, progressive suspension and a triple level rear wing, this was literally the most advanced car in the world. But with something this advanced, there were bound to be teething problems. Since the car had been introduced, the openings for the side radiators were wider, due to overheating. And during practice at Jarama, bolts securing the inboard front brakes to the brake shaft were breaking, also due to overheating. This problem was solved by using ventilated discs, instead of solid ones. But Jochen Rindt was not 100% certain that the cars were ready to race.
*: The two primary factory cars were both fitted with upgrades to the rear suspension and brakes. The team also had the latest chassis built as a spare, which was claimed to be 15kg lighter, but the car was unsorted, and not driven at this event.
**The Tyrrell Marches all had the latest rear end upgrades. The team had also rebuilt the noses of their cars, to the same shape, but with larger wings that were fully adjustable. By comparison, the cars as shipped from the factory came with smaller, fixed wings, with only a small tab on the rear that could be adjusted.
**Mario Andretti's STP March was the only one still in the original configuration.
*: The cars were sporting new rear wings, and rear hubs made of titanium. They had also reverted to the original front suspension design, which was altered when trying to find a source of vibrations in the front end. The vibrations were cured by switching the type of brake discs used.
*: Bruce McLaren's car was a replacement of the car he crashed at the Race of Champions. For some reason they gave it the same chassis number as the old, now totaled chassis.
==Entry list==
The full entry list for the is outlined below:
No.	Driver 	Entrant 	Constructor	Chassis	Engine	Model 	Tyre
1 	Jackie Stewart 	Tyrrell Racing Organisation 	 	701 	 	DFV 3.0 V8 	
2 	Jacky Ickx 	Scuderia Ferrari SpA SEFAC 	 	312B 	 	001 3.0 F12 	
3 	Jochen Rindt 	Gold Leaf Team Lotus 	 	72 	 	DFV 3.0 V8 	
4 	Jean-Pierre Beltoise	Equipe Matra Elf 	 	MS120 	 	MS12 3.0 V12	
5 	Denny Hulme 	Bruce McLaren Motor Racing 	 	M14A 	 	DFV 3.0 V8 	
6 	Graham Hill 	Rob Walker Racing Team 	 	49C 	 	DFV 3.0 V8 	
7 	Jack Brabham 	Motor Racing Developments Ltd.	 	BT33 	 	DFV 3.0 V8 	
8 	John Surtees 	Team Surtees 	 	M7C 	 	DFV 3.0 V8 	
9 	Chris Amon 	March Engineering 	 	701 	 	DFV 3.0 V8 	
10 	Pedro Rodríguez 	Yardley Team BRM 	 	P153 	 	P142 3.0 V12	
11 	Bruce McLaren 	Bruce McLaren Motor Racing 	 	M14A 	 	DFV 3.0 V8 	
12 	Piers Courage 	Frank Williams Racing Cars 	 	505/38 	 	DFV 3.0 V8 	
14 	Jo Siffert 	March Engineering 	 	701 	 	DFV 3.0 V8 	
15 	Jackie Oliver 	Yardley Team BRM 	 	P153 	 	P142 3.0 V12	
16 	Johnny Servoz-Gavin 	Tyrrell Racing Organisation 	 	701 	 	DFV 3.0 V8 	
18 	Mario Andretti 	STP Corporation 	 	701 	 	DFV 3.0 V8 	
19 	John Miles 	Gold Leaf Team Lotus 	 	72 	 	DFV 3.0 V8 	
20 	Andrea de Adamich 	Bruce McLaren Motor Racing 	 	M7D 	 	T33 3.0 V8 	
21 	George Eaton 	Owen Racing Organisation 	 	P153 	 	P142 3.0 V12	
22 	Henri Pescarolo 	Equipe Matra Elf 	 	MS120 	 	MS12 3.0 V12	
23 	Alex Soler-Roig 	Garvey Team Lotus 	 	49C 	 	DFV 3.0 V8 	
24 	Rolf Stommelen 	Auto Motor und Sport 	 	BT33 	 	DFV 3.0 V8 	
25 	Werner Bickel 	Owen Racing Organisation 	 	P139 	 	P142 3.0 V12	
26 	Pete Lovely 	Pete Lovely Volkswagen Inc. 	 	49B 	 	DFV 3.0 V8 	
==Practice Overview==
==Qualifying==
===Qualifying Results===
The full qualifying results for the are outlined below:
Pos.	No.	Driver 	Constructor	Time 	Gap 	Ave. Speed
1 	7 	Jack Brabham 	 	1:23.90 	— 	146.060 km/h
2 	5 	Denny Hulme 	 	1:24.10 	+0.20s 	145.712 km/h
3 	1 	Jackie Stewart 	 	1:24.20 	+0.30s 	145.539 km/h
4 	4 	Jean-Pierre Beltoise	 	1:24.46 	+0.56s 	145.091 km/h
5 	10 	Pedro Rodríguez 	 	1:24.50 	+0.60s 	145.022 km/h
6 	9 	Chris Amon 	 	1:24.65 	+0.75s 	144.766 km/h
7 	2 	Jacky Ickx 	 	1:24.70 	+0.80s 	144.680 km/h
8 	3 	Jochen Rindt 	 	1:24.80 	+0.90s 	144.509 km/h
9 	22 	Henri Pescarolo 	 	1:24.90 	+1.00s 	144.339 km/h
10 	15 	Jackie Oliver 	 	1:25.00 	+1.10s 	144.169 km/h
11 	11 	Bruce McLaren 	 	1:25.00 	+1.10s 	144.169 km/h
12 	8 	John Surtees 	 	1:25.20 	+1.30s 	143.831 km/h
13* 	12 	Piers Courage 	 	1:25.40 	+1.50s 	143.494 km/h
14 	16 	Johnny Servoz-Gavin 	 	1:25.46 	+1.56s 	143.393 km/h
15 	6 	Graham Hill 	 	1:25.54 	+1.64s 	143.259 km/h
16 	18 	Mario Andretti 	 	1:25.70 	+1.80s 	142.992 km/h
17 	24 	Rolf Stommelen 	 	1:26.20 	+2.30s 	142.162 km/h
DNQ 	20 	Andrea de Adamich 	 	1:25.15 	+1.25s 	143.915 km/h
DNQ 	19 	John Miles 	 	1:25.30 	+1.40s 	143.662 km/h
DNQ 	14 	Jo Siffert 	 	1:25.38 	+1.48s 	143.528 km/h
DNQ 	23 	Alex Soler-Roig 	 	1:25.80 	+1.90s 	142.825 km/h
DNQ 	21 	George Eaton 	 	1:26.40 	+2.50s 	141.833 km/h
WD 	25 	Werner Bickel 	 	Withdrawn	Withdrawn	Withdrawn
WD 	26 	Pete Lovely 	 	No car 	No car 	No car
** Courage had failed to take the start as his car crashed.
===Grid===
==Race==
Once the brutal scene on the grid (later found to be instigated by the CSI) ended, the cars took a warmup lap, and at the start Stewart had just the right amount of wheelspin to shoot ahead of Hulme, Brabham, Rodríguez, Ickx and Oliver. On the first lap, at the Bugatti hairpin, just to the north of the pits, Oliver suddenly lost control. The car went straight ahead at the right hand kink just before the hairpin, shot across the grass and T-boned Ickx's . Both cars were pushed up to the outside edge of the corner, as gas leaked everywhere and the cars were suddenly consumed by large flames. Oliver was able to hop out without injury, but Ickx had fuel splashed on his driving suit, and ran across to the inside of the track to the marshal station. He then dropped face down on the grass while the marshals extinguished the flames on his arms, back and legs. His worst injuries were burns to the back of his legs, which would trouble him for a couple of months.Meanwhile, the cars were becoming infernos. Both of them were constructed largely of magnesium, and neither one used racing fuel cells, so a rupture to a fuel tank caused an immediate large spillage. The nose of Oliver's car had impacted directly on the left side fuel tank of the Ferrari, causing a spill, and gas to splash on Ickx. The fuel immediately ignited, and quickly reached the ignition temperature of magnesium, setting both cars' chassis ablaze. The incompetent marshaling trained water on the cars, which in the case of magnesium, simply makes the flames hotter. Eventually a foam truck was brought to the location, but before then Ickx's car slowly rolled on its own down to the inside of the corner, in front of several cars racing. Fortunately the car continued onto the grass, but that placed it beyond the reach of the foam truck. The flames and pall of smoke were a feature of the race almost until the checkered flag.As soon as the word and circumstances of the accident got back to the pits, decided to withdraw Rodríguez' car as a precaution, as they suspected another stub axle failure. Rodriguez was quite unhappy about being withdrawn, but cooler heads prevailed. Ironically the fire burned up the cause of the accident. When the cars passed the accident on lap 2, they found that they had to pick their way through the flames, with the officials just standing around. Soon after the start, Amon's engine started running roughly, and a couple of pit stops did nothing to alleviate the problem. Stewart was leading from Hulme, Brabham, Pescarolo and Beltoise. Brabham was right behind Hulme until he spun on the water being used on the cars at the hairpin. Pescarolo promptly did the same thing, allowing Beltoise to pass him.Stewart had pulled out a five second lead before Hulme's car suddenly quit just behind the pits. He managed to determine that the distributor had a broken rotor, and after a mechanic brought him a new one, he restarted the car, but now several laps down. A couple of laps later, the car died again, and it was retired with a suspected bent rotor shaft. Rindt had retired with ingition problems, so they were already down to 10 cars. Beltoise was lapping quicker and quicker, and got past Brabham for second. But Stewart was sailing away, and the best that Beltoise could do was keep the gap steady.At 20 laps, Stewart was more than 10 seconds ahead of Beltoise, followed by Brabham, Pescarolo, Surtees and McLaren. Stewart had already lapped his teammate Servoz-Gavin, running a lonely race at the back of the field. On lap 29 Beltoise suddenly started slowing, and on lap 31 he pulled into the pits with a seized engine. Two laps later, Pescarolo had his engine seize up suddenly, putting him off into the dirt and out of the race, emitting a large cloud of white smoke, which contrasted with the black smoke from the other two burning cars. Stommelen was the next to suffer engine problems, retiring on lap 44. Several drivers were having gearbox problems, from the constant shifting required at this track, even more than at Monaco. One driver with that problem was Stewart, which enabled Brabham to catch up, but not pass. For more than 10 laps, the two champions had quite an exciting duel for the lead, with Brabham sometimes pulling abreast of Stewart, but never able to pass. Sadly, the battle ended quite suddenly when Brabham retired on lap 61 with a broken piston.Stewart was left with a huge lead over Surtees, the only other car on the lead lap. The remaining cars were McLaren, Hill and Andretti (one lap down, with the latter two fighting gearbox problems) and Servoz-Gavin in the second Tyrrell , now two laps down. Suddenly the gearbox bug bit Surtees. First losing second gear, and then fourth, he had no choice but to give up a sure second place on lap 76. Following that, the only interest was provided by Andretti, who had been driving a quiet race, but suddenly figured out how to work around his gearbox problems. He passed Hill for third, and set out after McLaren, but ran out of laps. All five finishers were fighting some type of mechanical problems at the end, and no one was sorry to see the end of a very poorly organized and unpleasant race. At the end, both cars involved in the first lap crash had been reduced to random smoldering steel and aluminum parts, and engine blocks.
===Results===
Pos.	No.	Driver 	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts
1 	1 	Jackie Stewart 	 	90 	2:10:58.2 	3 	9
2 	11 	Bruce McLaren 	 	89 	+1 Lap 	11 	6
3 	18 	Mario Andretti 	 	89 	+1 Lap 	15 	4
4 	6 	Graham Hill 	 	89 	+1 Lap 	14 	3
5 	16 	Johnny Servoz-Gavin 	 	88 	+2 Laps 	13 	2
Ret 	8 	John Surtees 	 	76 	Gearbox 	12 	 
Ret 	7 	Jack Brabham 	 	61 	Engine 	1 	 
Ret 	24 	Rolf Stommelen 	 	43 	Engine 	16 	 
Ret 	22 	Henri Pescarolo 	 	33 	Engine 	9 	 
Ret 	4 	Jean-Pierre Beltoise	 	31 	Engine 	4 	 
Ret 	5 	Denny Hulme 	 	11 	Electrics 	2 	 
Ret 	9 	Chris Amon 	 	11 	Engine 	6 	 
Ret 	3 	Jochen Rindt 	 	10 	Electrics 	8 	 
Ret 	10 	Pedro Rodríguez 	 	4 	Withdrawn 	5 	 
Ret 	2 	Jacky Ickx 	 	0 	Accident 	7 	 
Ret 	15 	Jackie Oliver 	 	0 	Accident 	10 	 
==Milestones==
* First race for the Lotus 72.
==Standings after race==
 
Drivers' World Championship	Drivers' World Championship	Drivers' World Championship	Drivers' World Championship
Pos. 	Driver 	Pts 	+/-
1 	Jackie Stewart 	13 	2
2 	Jack Brabham 	9 	1
3 	Denny Hulme 	6 	1
3 	Bruce McLaren 	6 	5
5 	Mario Andretti 	4 	4
5 	Graham Hill 	4 	1
7 	Jean-Pierre Beltoise 	3 	3
8 	John Miles 	2 	3
8 	Johnny Servoz-Gavin 	2 	1
Intercontinental Cup for Manufacturers	Intercontinental Cup for Manufacturers	Intercontinental Cup for Manufacturers	Intercontinental Cup for Manufacturers
Pos. 	Team 	Pts 	+/-
1 	 	13 	2
2 	 	12 	
3 	 	9 	2
4 	 	5 	1
5 	 	3 	1
Category:Grand Prix articles
Category:Grand Prix articles
Category:1970 Grands Prix
Category:Spanish Grand Prix
Category:Formula One races in Spain