The 1970 Mexican Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at the Ciudad Deportiva Magdalena Mixhuca in Mexico City on October 25, 1970. It was race 13 of 13 in both the 1970 World Championship of Drivers and the 1970 International Cup for Formula One Manufacturers. The 65-lap race was won by Ferrari driver Jacky Ickx after he started from third position. His teammate Clay Regazzoni finished second and McLaren driver Denny Hulme came in third.
Ickx need to win all three remaining races of the season following Monza (Canada, USA, Mexico) in order to close the points gap to the late Jochen Rindt, but could not because Rindt's team scored an emotional victory at the previous round at Watkins Glen with Emerson Fittipaldi while Ickx finished 4th. As a result, Rindt became the first Austrian Formula One World Champion and the only driver ever to win the championship posthumously.
Qualifying classification PosNoDriverConstructorTimeGapGrid14 Clay RegazzoniFerrari1:41.86 —121 Jackie StewartTyrrell-Ford1:41.88 +0.02233 Jacky IckxFerrari1:42.41 +0.553415 Jack BrabhamBrabham-Ford1:43.57 +1.714512 Chris AmonMarch-Ford1:43.71 +1.85566 Jean-Pierre BeltoiseMatra1:43.82 +1.966719 Pedro RodríguezBRM1:44.01 +2.157814 Graham HillLotus-Ford1:44.13 +2.27892 François CevertMarch-Ford1:44.21 +2.359109 Peter GethinMcLaren-Ford1:44.46 +2.6010117 Henri PescaroloMatra1:44.55 +2.69111223 Reine WisellLotus-Ford1:44.59 +2.73121320 Jackie OliverBRM1:44.70 +2.8413148 Denny HulmeMcLaren-Ford1:44.95 +3.09141517 John SurteesSurtees-Ford1:45.03 +3.17151611 Jo SiffertMarch-Ford1:46.15 +4.29161716 Rolf StommelenBrabham-Ford1:46.30 +4.44171824 Emerson FittipaldiLotus-Ford1:48.13 +6.2718Source:
Race report The race was originally scheduled to start at 2:30pm but the crowd of 200,000 was difficult to control and almost forced the cancellation of the race. They were crammed in front of the guard-rails, sat at the trackside and ran across the track itself. Despite appeals from Jackie Stewart and local hero Pedro Rodríguez they still remained troublesome. It cause the start to be delayed to 4:00pm.
From the start, Jacky Ickx led from Stewart and Clay Regazzoni, but dropped back with steering column trouble. Later, a collision with a dog which had escaped onto the track damaged Stewart's suspension and forced his retirement, leaving the Ferraris dominant in first and second. Jack Brabham retired from third place in his final Grand Prix when the engine blew on lap 53. The Ferraris romped home with Ickx leading Regazzoni and Denny Hulme claiming the third podium spot.
The crowd control issues led to the Mexican Grand Prix being dropped from the 1971 calendar. It returned to the Formula One calendar fifteen years later in 1986.
Race classification Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 3 Jacky Ickx Ferrari 65 1:53:28.36 3 9 2 4 Clay Regazzoni Ferrari 65 + 24.64 1 6 3 8 Denny Hulme McLaren-Ford 65 + 45.97 14 4 4 12 Chris Amon March-Ford 65 + 47.05 5 3 5 6 Jean-Pierre Beltoise Matra 65 + 50.11 6 2 6 19 Pedro Rodriguez BRM 65 + 1:24.76 7 1 7 20 Jackie Oliver BRM 64 + 1 lap 13 8 17 John Surtees Surtees-Ford 64 + 1 lap 15 9 7 Henri Pescarolo Matra 61 + 4 laps 11 23 Reine Wisell Lotus-Ford 56 + 9 laps 12 15 Jack Brabham Brabham-Ford 52 Engine 4 1 Jackie Stewart Tyrrell-Ford 33 Suspension 2 9 Peter Gethin McLaren-Ford 27 Engine 10 16 Rolf Stommelen Brabham-Ford 15 Fuel system 17 2 François Cevert March-Ford 8 Engine 9 14 Graham Hill Lotus-Ford 4 Overheating 8 11 Jo Siffert March-Ford 3 Engine 16 24 Emerson Fittipaldi Lotus-Ford 1 Engine 18
Notes
This was the 10th podium finish for a Swiss driver. This was the 50th fastest lap set by a Ferrari (as a constructor and as an engine supplier); a record. This race marked the 126th and last Grand Prix start for Jack Brabham; a record that would be broken by Graham Hill at the 1971 Monaco Grand Prix.
Final championship standings
Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Jochen Rindt 45 2 Jacky Ickx 40 3 Clay Regazzoni 33 2 4 Denny Hulme 27 1 5 Jackie Stewart 25Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Lotus-Ford 59 2 Ferrari 52 (55) 3 March-Ford 48 4 Brabham-Ford 35 5 McLaren-Ford 35Source:
Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. Only the best 6 results from the first 7 rounds and the best 5 results from the last 6 rounds counted towards the Championship. Numbers without parentheses are Championship points; numbers in parentheses are total points scored. Competitors in bold are the 1970 World Champions.
References