On his way to the title

After taking a win on its first outing in Holland, Jochen Rindt was going to take four successive victories at the wheel of the revolutionary, wedge shaped Lotus 72, including the French Grand Prix held at Charade, on the foothills of the Puy de Dôme, close to Clermont-Ferrand (picture-above).

This triumph was shared by his wife Nina and his boss Colin Chapman, although some tension was evident, because Rindt was worried of the fragility of his single-seater, witness a letter written at the time. He sadly would die a few weeks later at Monza, but had accumulated enough points in the standings and was not caught, and thus was posthumously crowned, a unique fact in F1 history.