The final race of the 1970 Formula One season, confirming Jochen Rindt as the only driver to win the World Championship posthumously.
Key Facts
- Race winner
- Jacky Ickx (Ferrari)
- Starting position of winner
- 3rd
- Race length
- 65 laps
- Race number in season
- 13 of 13
- Second place
- Clay Regazzoni (Ferrari)
- Third place
- Denny Hulme (McLaren)
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Jacky Ickx needed to win the final three races of the 1970 season to overtake the points total of Jochen Rindt, who had died in a crash at Monza. However, Ickx finished only fourth at Watkins Glen, where Rindt's Lotus team won with Emerson Fittipaldi, effectively clinching the title for the deceased Austrian driver before the Mexican round.
On October 25, 1970, the Mexican Grand Prix was held at Ciudad Deportiva Magdalena Mixhuca in Mexico City as the thirteenth and final race of the season. Ferrari's Jacky Ickx, starting from third on the grid, won the 65-lap race ahead of teammate Clay Regazzoni and McLaren's Denny Hulme, but the championship outcome had already been decided.
With Ickx's victory coming too late to overturn the points deficit, Jochen Rindt was confirmed as the 1970 Formula One World Champion. Rindt became the first Austrian to win the drivers' title and remains the only driver in history to be crowned world champion posthumously.