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1969 German Grand Prix

West Germany  1969 German Grand Prix
Race details
Race 7 of 11 in the 1969 Formula One season
Circuit Nürburgring-1967-Nordschleife.svg
Date August 3, 1969
Official name XXXI Großer Preis von Deutschland
Location Nürburgring, Nürburg, West Germany
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 22.835 km (14.189 mi)
Distance 14 laps, 319.690 km (198.646 mi)
Pole position
Driver Brabham-Ford
Time 7:42.1
Fastest lap
Driver Belgium Jacky Ickx Brabham-Ford
Time 7:43.8 on lap 7
Podium
First Brabham-Ford
Second Matra-Ford
Third McLaren-Ford

The 1969 German Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Nürburgring on 3 August 1969 with Formula Two cars competing by invitation. It was the seventh round of the 1969 World Championship for Drivers. The F2 entrants were not eligible for points in the World Championship. The 14-lap race was won by Brabham driver Jacky Ickx after starting from pole position. Jackie Stewart finished second for the Matra team and McLaren driver Bruce McLaren came in third.

Gerhard Mitter was killed during a practice session for this race at Schwedenkreuz. He was practicing for BMW's 269 F2 project. As a suspension or steering failure was suspected, the BMW team with Hubert Hahne and Dieter Quester withdrew from the race, as did Mitter's teammate at Porsche, Hans Herrmann.

Mario Andretti drove the 4WD Lotus 63 for very few laps in practice. The heavy fuel load for the race made the car ground out in lap 1 after a jump at Wippermann, causing a crash that also took out Vic Elford, whose car flipped upside down and landed in the trees. Elford broke his arm in 3 places.

In the race, Jacky Ickx had a very poor start which dropped him down to 9th, but he eventually passed the entire field over 3 laps, and he and Jackie Stewart battled for 4 laps until Ickx passed Stewart at the first corner, the Südkehre. Stewart held on but then gearbox problems began to slow him and he dropped away, leaving Ickx in a dominant position. Piers Courage had an accident at Breidscheid when he slipped on some oil and crashed into a ditch next to the Adenauer bridge. Luckily, he was unhurt.


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