 In the 250cc division, Saarinen would win a tight race in a season-long battle with Renzo Pasolini and Rod Gould.Angel Nieto claimed a double, winning the 125cc and 50cc championships for Derbi before the Spanish factory announced its pull out from Grand Prix racing.The Yamaha factory won its first-ever 500cc Grand Prix race at the season ending Spanish Grand Prix at Jarama when Chas Mortimer won the race after Agostini sat out the event after already winning the championship,

This would be the final season for the East German Grand Prix as a championship race, as SED officials, troubled by fans singing "Das Lied der Deutschen" (the West German national anthem) after Dieter Braun's victory the previous season, limited entries to only Eastern Bloc nations beginning in 1973.