1968 German Grand Prix
F1
CountryWest Germany
Grand prixGerman
Date4 August
Year1968
Official nameXXX Großer Preis von Deutschland
XXVIII Grand Prix d'Europe
LocationNürburgring, Nürburg, West Germany
CoursePermanent racing facility
Course14.189 mi
Course22.835 km
Distance laps14
Distance198.646 mi
Distance319.690 km
WeatherHazy, Wet
Pole driverJacky Ickx
Pole teamFerrari
Pole time9:04.0
Pole countryBEL
Fast driverJackie Stewart
Fast teamMatra-Ford
Fast time9:36.0
Fast lap8
Fast countryUK
First driverJackie Stewart
First teamMatra-Ford
First countryUK
Second driverGraham Hill
Second teamLotus-Ford
Second countryUK
Third driverJochen Rindt
Third teamBrabham-Repco
Third countryAUT

The 1968 German Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at the Nürburgring on 4 August 1968. It was race 8 of 12 in both the 1968 World Championship of Drivers and the 1968 International Cup for Formula One Manufacturers. The race was held in extremely wet and foggy conditions, and British driver Jackie Stewart, racing with a broken wrist, won the race by a margin of four minutes in what is widely considered to be one of the greatest victories in the history of Formula One.[1]

The race is also notable for Dan Gurney's choice of a full-face helmet, making him the first driver to do so in Grand Prix racing.[2]

Report

Background

After Jo Siffert had surprisingly won the previous race at Brands Hatch, the paddock arrived at the Nürburgring almost unchanged. Equally unchanged was the weather: with rain over the entire weekend, this was to be the fifth wet race in a row. BMW entered a Lola-built Formula Two car driven by Hubert Hahne in order to evaluate their competitiveness in Formula One.[3]

Practice and qualifying

On Saturday, conditions were so poor, with visibility down to mere ten yards, that the organizers scheduled an additional practice session for Sunday morning. Still many drivers slid off the track during the morning session.[1] Eventually, Jacky Ickx took pole positions by a full 10 seconds from second placed Chris Amon, both in a Ferrari. Jackie Stewart in his Matra MS10 was down in sixth place on the grid.[3] At the time, Ickx became the youngest person ever to sit on pole, a record beaten 14 years later when Andrea de Cesaris achieved pole position at the 1982 United States Grand Prix West.

Race

Even with the conditions treacherous, 200,000 spectators turned up for the race on Sunday afternoon.[1] The race turned out to be a one-man show by Scotsman Jackie Stewart. While Graham Hill took the lead at the start, by the end of the first lap Stewart had moved into first place and built a nine-second lead. He put his superior Dunlop wet tires to great effect and by the end of lap 2, had extended his lead to 34 seconds. When the race ended after 14 laps, Stewart crossed the line more than 4 minutes in front of second placed Hill. The eventual World Champion had spun on lap 11, but was able to get out of the car, push it into the right direction and keep going before third-placed Jochen Rindt could catch up.[3] Chris Amon had battled with Hill for 11 laps over second place, rarely having more than a second between the two, until Amon spun out of the race on the same lap as Hill did.[1]

Reactions

Stewart described the race as a "teeth gritting effort" in his autobiography. About the first lap he wrote:

Visibility is so pathetically poor I can't even see Chris' car in front of me [...] I am simply driving into this great wall of spray. I pull out to pass him but the spray is dense and I'm driving blind.

— Jackie Stewart

The race has been described as Stewart's best drive ever, with the Scot later confirming he felt the same way.[4]

Classification

Qualifying

PosNoDriverConstructorTimeGap
19Jacky IckxFerrari9:04.0—
28Chris AmonFerrari9:14.9+10.9
35Jochen RindtBrabham-Repco9:31.9+27.9
43Graham HillLotus-Ford9:46.0+42.0
520Vic ElfordCooper-BRM9:53.0+49.0
66Jackie StewartMatra-Ford9:54.2+50.2
77John SurteesHonda9:57.8+53.8
822Piers CourageBRM10:00.1+56.1
916Jo SiffertLotus-Ford10:03.4+59.4
1014Dan GurneyEagle-Weslake10:13.9+1:09.9
111Denny HulmeMcLaren-Ford10:16.0+1:12.0
1212Jean-Pierre BeltoiseMatra10:17.3+1:13.3
1321Jackie OliverLotus-Ford10:18.7+1:14.7
1410Pedro RodríguezBRM10:19.7+1:15.7
154Jack BrabhamBrabham-Repco10:23.1+1:19.1
162Bruce McLarenMcLaren-Ford10:33.0+1:29.0
1717Kurt Ahrens Jr.Brabham-Repco10:37.3+1:33.3
1818Hubert HahneLola-BMW10:42.9+1:38.9
1919Lucien BianchiCooper-BRM10:46.6+1:42.6
2011Richard AttwoodBRM10:48.2+1:44.2
2123Silvio MoserBrabham-Repco
Source:[5][6]

Race

PosNoDriverConstructorLapsTime/RetiredGridPoints
16Jackie StewartMatra-Ford142:19:03.269
23Graham HillLotus-Ford14+ 4:03.246
35Jochen RindtBrabham-Repco14+ 4:09.434
49Jacky IckxFerrari14+ 5:55.213
54Jack BrabhamBrabham-Repco14+ 6:21.1152
610Pedro RodríguezBRM14+ 6:25.0141
71Denny HulmeMcLaren-Ford14+ 6:31.011 
822Piers CourageBRM14+ 7:56.48 
914Dan GurneyEagle-Weslake14+ 8:13.710 
1018Hubert HahneLola-BMW14+ 10:11.418 
1121Jackie OliverLotus-Ford13+ 1 Lap13 
1217Kurt Ahrens Jr.Brabham-Repco13+ 1 Lap17 
132Bruce McLarenMcLaren-Ford13+ 1 Lap16 
1411Richard AttwoodBRM13+ 1 Lap20 
Ret8Chris AmonFerrari11Accident2 
Ret12Jean-Pierre BeltoiseMatra8Accident12 
Ret16Jo SiffertLotus-Ford6Ignition9 
Ret19Lucien BianchiCooper-BRM6Fuel Leak19 
Ret7John SurteesHonda3Ignition7 
Ret20Vic ElfordCooper-BRM0Accident5 
DNS23Silvio MoserBrabham-RepcoOil Pump 
WD15Jo BonnierMcLaren-BRM 
Sources:[7][8]

Notes

  • This was the 100th race for a Lotus. In those 100 races, the British constructor had won 33 Grands Prix, had achieved 52 podiums, 43 pole positions, 35 fastest laps, 12 Grand Slams and had won 2 Driver's and 2 Constructor's World Championships.

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings
PosDriverPoints
1Graham Hill30
12Jackie Stewart26
13Jacky Ickx23
4Denny Hulme15
5Pedro Rodríguez11
Source:[9]
Constructors' Championship standings
PosConstructorPoints
1Lotus-Ford44
22Matra-Ford29
13Ferrari28
14McLaren-Ford22
5BRM18
Source:[9]
  • Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

  1. ^ "Masterful Stewart tames treacherous Nurburgring". espnf1.com. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
  2. ^ "Eagle Eye: The Eagle Gurney-Weslake F1 Effort". Allamericanracers.com. Archived 28 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 9 January 2016.
  3. ^ "GRAND PRIX RESULTS: GERMAN GP, 1968". grandprix.com. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
  4. ^ Dougall, Angus (2013). The Greatest Racing Driver: The Life and Times of Great Drivers. Bloomington, IN: BalboaPressAU. p. 85. ISBN 978-1452510965. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
  5. ^ "1968 German GP Qualification". www.chicanef1.com. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
  6. ^ "1968 German Grand Prix". Motor Sport Magazine. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
  7. ^ "1968 German Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived 18 January 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 26 September 2015.
  8. ^ "GRAND PRIX RESULTS: GERMAN GP, 1968". grandprix.com. Retrieved February 5, 2016.
  9. ^ "Germany 1968 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 18 March 2019.

Further reading

  • Lang, Mike (1982). Grand Prix! Vol 2. Haynes Publishing Group. pp. 74–75. ISBN 0-85429-321-3.