A look back at Monaco: 1970

In the build-up to the Monaco Grand Prix, F1Today will be revisiting some of the most famous Grand Prix that have been held at Monaco throughout Formula 1's history. First up, we look at the 1970 Monaco Grand Prix, which played host to third round of the season.

1970 Monaco Grand Prix

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The practice sessions in Monaco in 1970 were littered with rain. It was a downpour, so much so that on the first day of practice on Friday, Jack Brabham drove with an umbrella propped out from the car, something that is considered unthinkable in today's Formula.

The race would be Bruce McLaren's final ever entry, as he died days before the next event while testing his McLaren M8D. It was also a debut race for eventual 10 time Grand Prix winner Ronnie Peterson, who entered in a non-works March.

Jackie Stewart was the fastest man in qualifying and would start the race from pole position, with the March of Chris Amon alongside him. As the lights went out, Stewart led the field away and kept his lead, remaining untroubled. Denny Hulme, who started from P3, dropped multiple positions due to a poor getaway. It was relatively clean and calm and the first retirement only came on lap 11, in the form of Jacky Ickx who had a half shaft problem.

On lap 22, Brabham overtook Chris Amon and promoted himself up into second position. Problems hit leader Stewart on lap 27 when his engine began to misfire. Brabham, who was now running in second, set his eyes on Stewart in front until, on lap 57, Stewart's engine gave out and he was forced into retirement.

Brabham inherited the lead and was followed by Chris Amon and Denny Hulme. Over the next number of laps, both Amon and Hulme began to suffer in their cars, causing Hulme to drop back and Amon to retire completely with a suspension failure. This left Jochen Rindt in second and the Matra of Henri Pescarolo in third.

With 18 laps to go, Rindt began to apply pressure to Brabham. He pushed and pushed and soon closed up behind Brabham, who was running in a car by the same name. The pressure seemingly became too much for Brabham, as on the final corner of the final lap, he made a mistake and hit the barriers. This allowed Rindt to coome through and take his first victory on the road to his F1 championship.

The man with the chequered flag was so bewildered that he failed to wave it for Rindt. Brabham reversed his damaged car out of barriers and limped home in second. Henri Pescarolo held on to claim his one and only podium in Formula 1, while Denny Hulme, Graham Hill and Pedro Rodriguez took the final point positions.

Tomorrow, we will once again be revisiting one of the most spectacular races in Monaco.

Fergal Walsh