penultimate race of the season at Watkins Glen, winning $50,000—the largest monetary prize in Formula One history at the time. His victory was overshadowed by a serious accident involving his teammate Hill, who crashed after a high speed puncture and suffered major leg injuries. 1970 season For , Rindt's partner at Lotus was John Miles; Graham Hill had left the team to drive for Rob Walker's customer franchise. Rindt became the clear team leader. At the first Grand Prix of the season in South Africa, he qualified fourth, but eventually retired with an engine failure after a first lap incident with Chris Amon and Jack Brabham, the latter of whom went on to win for the final time in his career. At the following race, the , Lotus introduced their revolutionary new car design. Instead of one conventional front radiator, the Lotus 72 featured two, one on each side of the cockpit. Further innovations included torsion bar suspension in place of the widely used coil-springs, and all four brakes mounted inboard to reduce unsprung weight. During its first practice session, the left semi-axle of the car broke, sending Rindt into a spin. The car also proved ineffective in the race; Rindt retired after nine laps. As the Lotus 72 was not as effective as the team hoped, it was returned to the factory to be re-built and Rindt used the old Lotus 49 for the next race in Monaco. The necessity of using tyres intended for the new design made the older car unstable. Seemingly unaffected by this, Rindt produced what his race engineer Herbie Blash called "the race of his life". From eighth on the grid, he worked his way through the field on a track notorious for presenting few overtaking opportunities. In the closing stages, he was second, steadily closing the gap on leader Jack Brabham. On the final lap, on the final corner, Brabham braked too late, touched the kerbstone and went straight ahead into the straw bales, allowing Rindt through to take his first victory of the season. Rindt used the Lotus 49 one last time at the , a race at which he heavily criticised the organisers for installing guardrails that had gaps of several metres between them. He had originally started practice in the remodelled 72, but the car came to a halt early in the session with a broken lower wishbone, forcing Rindt