57. 1970 Belgian GP: Rodriguez wins fierce fight with Amon on 'old' Spa

June 7, Spa-Francorchamps

Pedro Rodríguez loved its naked dangers – and said so. Even if it rained, he told his GPDA peers at a meeting on Saturday evening, he would not give it a second thought: he would race. Hard.

The Mexican, who had recorded a startling 160mph fastest lap in a Porsche 917 during May’s 1000-kilometre sports car race here, was not a rival that Stewart entirely trusted on track, although Stewart would concede that the faster the circuit, the better Pedro usually drove. Perhaps, thought Stewart, he needed the danger to perform, to concentrate.

In the same way, Stewart’s ‘enemies’ had to concede that the Scot himself was no chicken. JYS disliked his March almost as much as he did Spa and yet he put it on pole by more than two seconds. Rodríguez, expected to shine in the V12 BRM, could do no better than sixth after losing much running time during practice because of first gearbox and then engine problems. Chris Amon, who missed the entire final session while the engine was changed in his works March, would start from the outside of the three-car front row.

“Perhaps Rodríguez needed the danger to perform, to concentrate him”

Stewart’s problems occurred during the (bone-dry) race. His Cosworth V8 broke an outer valve spring on the warm-up lap and, although he took the lead from Amon on the second lap, he sensed his impending doom as his engine ran progressively flatter before detonating as he passed the pits at mid-distance. Rodríguez and Amon were long gone by this stage. The latter, his new engine running particularly strongly, had felt invincible – until Pedro blew by him on lap five. Chris ducked into the streamline, tucked his elbows in and clung on. A slide for Rodríguez exiting La Source on lap eight allowed the red March alongside – and to be credited with the lead of that lap – but nobody was braver than Pedro through Eau Rouge and he promptly resumed the lead.

The pair of them were rarely more than two seconds apart but Amon could do nothing about the super-concentrated Rodríguez. The New Zealander set the fastest lap on the last tour – just a 152mph average because of the insertion of a first-gear chicane at Malmédy – to close to within a second of the staunchly resonant BRM. And that was that.

Rodríguez had the victory he so craved. BRM had ended its four-year drought. And Spa, the old Spa, had held its last grand prix. Stewart had been incontrovertibly right about the track. But at least Rodríguez had got his chance to be gloriously,
magnificently wrong. PF

Results

1st Pedro Rodríguez (BRM), 1hr 38min 09.9sec, 149.94mph
2nd Chris Amon (March-Ford)
3rd Jean-Pierre Beltoise (Matra)
Pole position Jackie Stewart (March-Ford), 3min 28.0sec, 151.42mph