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It was on this day in 1970 that we tragically lost one of Formula One's great heroes, Austrian driver Jochen Rindt.
Born 18 April 1942 in Mainz, Rindt made his Grand Prix début at the 1964 Austrian Grand Prix in a loaned Brabham BT11 supplied by the Rob Walker Racing Team. The following season he was handed a permanent drive with the Cooper Car Company where he was initially paired with Bruce McLaren and then the following year with John Surtees.
Rindt claimed his first podium with second place in Belgium in 1966 and went on to finish in third place in that year's championship, but a poor season the following year saw him switch to Brabham and then to Lotus in 1969 where he clinched his first Grand Prix victory in the United States Grand Prix at the Watkins Glen Grand Prix Race Course. That boosted Rindt to new heights in 1970 where he claimed five races during the season, four of them in back-to-back outings, meaning that he arrived in Monza for the tenth of the year's 13 races with a big lead in the world drivers championship.
Tragically he crashed at the Parabolica during practice for the Italian Grand Prix having suffered a brake shaft failure. The crash barriers failed and the car hit a stanchion head-on, destroying the front of the car. Rindt had always distrusted crotch straps on his safety harness fearing they would prevent him getting out of the car in the event of a fire, but instead it meant he slid under the belts and suffered fatal throat injuries in the impact. He was pronounced dead on the way to a local hospital, aged just 28.
The Grand Prix went ahead and Clay Regazzoni took his maiden victory, but Rindt's death overshadowed all else. Italian authorities prosecuted Lotus chief Colin Chapman over the accident, but he was finally cleared of all charges in 1976. Rindt himself was buried at the central cemetery in Graz on 11 September 1970; two months later, the drivers' championship trophy was presented to Rindt's widow Nina after he became motor racing's only posthumous world champion.
