With Jackie Stewart having won five of the first seven races, the World Championship was almost over by the time the teams arrived at Zeltweg in mid-August. Stewart had 51 points to Jacky Ickx's 19 and with only four races to go, making any impact was going to be difficult. There were a few changes down through the order. Peter Gethin had been released by McLaren to join BRM, where he replaced Pedro Rodríguez, who had been killed in a sportscar race a few weeks earlier at the Norisring. McLaren had taken on Jackie Oliver to replace him. For the Austrian event March had rented out a factory car to a new rising star Niki Lauda, while another Austrian Helmut Marko was running in a fourth BRM.

Qualifying saw something of an upset Jackie Stewart being outqualified by Jo Siffert's BRM. The Scotsman was second quickest and his ever-improving Tyrrell team mate François Cévert was third, just ahead of the Clay Regazzoni in the fastest of the Ferraris. Emerson Fittipaldi was on the third row in his Lotus with Ickx 's Ferrari alongside, while the Brabhams of Tim Schenken and Graham Hill were on the fourth row. The top 10 was completed by Denny Hulme (McLaren) and Reine Wisell (Lotus).

Siffert took the lead at the start and successfully held off Stewart's attacks with Regazzoni, Cévert, Ickx and Schenken chasing after them. Both Ferraris were soon in trouble, however, both dropping out of the action with engine trouble. This promoted Cévert to third place and Schenken to fourth. As the race progressed Siffert began to edge away at the front. Cévert was able to close up on Stewart, who was struggling with the handling of his car. On lap 23 Cévert was waved through into second place. On lap 36 Stewart's race ended with a broken rear axle. Four laps earlier Ickx had retired for good and so Stewart was the World Champion as Ronnie Peterson, the only man with a mathematical chance was running around in ninth place with serious handling problems. He was not going to win the race.

Cévert's charge came to an end on lap 43 when his engine failed and so Fittipaldi moved into second, having overtaken Schenken a few laps earlier. In the final laps Siffert suffered a deflating tire but he was so far ahead that he was able to nurse the car to the line, beating Fittipaldi by just over four seconds.