1968 USA Grand Prix

 1968 USA Grand Prix

Racing data
11th of 12 races of the 1968 World Automobile Championship
Surname:	XI United States Grand Prix
Date:	October 6, 1968
Place:	Watkins Glen
Course:	Watkins Glen International
Length:	399.708 km in 108 laps of 3.701 km
Weather:	cloudy and cold, but dry
Spectator:	~ 90,000
Pole position
Driver:	Mario Andretti	lotus
Time:	1: 04.20 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Jackie Stewart	Matra
Time:	1: 05.22 min
Podium
First:	Jackie Stewart	Matra
Second:	Graham Hill	lotus
Third:	John Surtees	Honda

The 1968 USA Grand Prix took place on October 6th at Watkins Glen and was the eleventh race of the 1968 World Championship .

Reports

background

Denny Hulme in the McLaren M7A

After Mario Andretti and Bobby Unser took part in training at the Italian Grand Prix for Lotus and BRM respectively , but then decided not to start in favor of a parallel USAC race, the same teams gave them another chance to hold their Grand Prix Debuts that they also used this time.

At Ferrari , Jacky Ickx , who broke his leg in an accident during the Canadian Grand Prix , was represented by Derek Bell .

training

Bobby Unser had an accident during the first training session in which he severely damaged his racing car. The second domestic debutant Mario Andretti, however, surprised the professional world by qualifying for pole position. Next to him, Jackie Stewart took a front row seat. Graham Hill and Chris Amon started behind them, ahead of Denis Hulme , who led the world championship standings with Hill, and Jochen Rindt .

Henri Pescarolo was unable to take part in the rest of the race weekend because his Matra engine was irreparably damaged during practice.

run

While our car could be repaired in time for the race, Jackie Oliver , who also had a serious training accident, had to forego the start.

The hopes of the American spectators for a victory for the pole-setter Andretti were dispelled shortly after the start, when Stewart took the lead during the first lap and never surrendered to the finish. Amon was in third place ahead of the World Cup opponents Hill and Hulme. This sequence remained constant for a few cycles, until Amon spun on leaked cooling water from his own car and fell back.

On the 14th lap, Andretti lost some parts of the chassis without having come into contact with a competitor. Due to the necessary pit stop, he fell back to the end of the field. He then made up a few positions again, but retired on lap 32 due to a damaged clutch.

Hulme spun on an oil trail and as a result had to make a pit stop. Hoping to achieve important points in the fight for the World Championship, he resumed the race after the stop, but had an accident on the 93rd lap due to a technical defect.

While Stewart and Hill were undisputed in the first two positions, Dan Gurney and John Surtees dueled for third place. A spin and a tire problem finally caused Gurney to drop to fourth place on the final laps.

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Bruce McLaren Motor Racing	1	Denny Hulme	McLaren M7A	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	G
	2	Bruce McLaren
Brabham Racing Organization	3	Jack Brabham	Brabham BT26	Repco 860 3.0 V8	G
	4th	Jochen Rindt
Honda Racing	5	John Surtees	Honda RA301	Honda RA301E 3.0 V12	F.
Scuderia Ferrari SpA SEFAC	6th	Chris Amon	Ferrari 312 (1968)	Ferrari 242C 3.0 V12	F.
	7th	Derek Bell
Owen Racing Organization	8th	Pedro Rodríguez	BRM P133	BRM P142 3.0 V12	G
	9	Bobby Unser	BRM P138
Gold Leaf Team Lotus	10	Graham Hill	Lotus 49 B	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	F.
	11	Jackie Oliver
	12	Mario Andretti
Anglo American Racers	14th	Dan Gurney	McLaren M7A		G
Matra International (Tyrrell)	15th	Jackie Stewart	Matra MS10		D.
Rob Walker Racing	16	Jo Siffert	Lotus 49 B		F.
Joakim Bonnier Racing Team	17th	Joakim Bonnier	McLaren M5A	BRM P142 3.0 V12	G
Cooper Car Company	18th	Vic Elford	Cooper T86 B		G
	19th	Lucien Bianchi
Matra Sports	20th	Henri Pescarolo	Matra MS11	Matra MS9 3.0 V12	D.
	21st	Jean-Pierre Beltoise
Reg Parnell Racing	22nd	Piers Courage	BRM P126	BRM P142 3.0 V12	G

Classifications

Starting grid

Item	driver	constructor	time	Ø speed	begin
01	Mario Andretti	Lotus Ford	1: 04.20	207.533 km / h	01
02	Jackie Stewart	Matra Ford	1: 04.27	207.307 km / h	02
03	Graham Hill	Lotus Ford	1: 04.28	207.274 km / h	03
04th	Chris Amon	Ferrari	1: 04.37	206.985 km / h	04th
05	Denis Hulme	McLaren-Ford	1: 04.57	206.344 km / h	05
06th	Jochen Rindt	Brabham-Repco	1: 04.81	205.579 km / h	06th
07th	Dan Gurney	McLaren-Ford	1: 05.22	204.287 km / h	07th
08th	Jack Brabham	Brabham-Repco	1: 05.25	204.193 km / h	08th
09	John Surtees	Honda	1: 05.32	203.974 km / h	09
10	Bruce McLaren	McLaren-Ford	1: 05.69	202.825 km / h	10
11	Pedro Rodríguez	BRM	1: 06.10	201.567 km / h	11
12	Jo Siffert	Lotus Ford	1: 06.17	201.354 km / h	12
13	Jean-Pierre Beltoise	Matra	1: 06.96	198.978 km / h	13
14th	Piers Courage	BRM	1: 07.02	198.800 km / h	14th
15th	Derek Bell	Ferrari	1: 07.06	198.682 km / h	15th
16	Jackie Oliver	Lotus Ford	1: 07.46	197.504 km / h	16
17th	Vic Elford	Cooper-BRM	1: 08.53	194.420 km / h	17th
18th	Joakim Bonnier	McLaren BRM	1: 08.93	193.292 km / h	18th
19th	Bobby Unser	BRM	1: 09.60	191.431 km / h	19th
20th	Lucien Bianchi	Cooper-BRM	1: 09.77	190.965 km / h	20th
21st	Henri Pescarolo	Matra	1: 10.43	189.175 km / h	DNS

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	Jackie Stewart	Matra Ford	108	0	1: 59: 20.29	02	1: 05.22
02	Graham Hill	Lotus Ford	108	0	+ 24.68	03
03	John Surtees	Honda	107	0	+ 1 lap	09
04th	Dan Gurney	McLaren-Ford	107	0	+ 1 lap	07th
05	Jo Siffert	Lotus Ford	105	0	+ 3 rounds	12
06th	Bruce McLaren	McLaren-Ford	103	0	+ 5 rounds	10
-	Piers Courage	BRM	093	0	DNF	14th		Lack of fuel
-	Denis Hulme	McLaren-Ford	092	1	DNF	05		accident
-	Lucien Bianchi	Cooper-BRM	088	0	NC	20th		Unrated
-	Jack Brabham	Brabham-Repco	077	0	DNF	08th		Engine failure
-	Jochen Rindt	Brabham-Repco	073	0	DNF	06th		Engine failure
-	Vic Elford	Cooper-BRM	071	0	DNF	17th		Engine failure
-	Pedro Rodríguez	BRM	066	0	DNF	11		Suspension damage
-	Joakim Bonnier	McLaren BRM	062	1	NC	18th		Unrated
-	Chris Amon	Ferrari	059	0	DNF	04th		defective cooling water pump
-	Jean-Pierre Beltoise	Matra	044	0	DNF	13		defective power transmission
-	Bobby Unser	BRM	035	0	DNF	19th		Engine failure
-	Mario Andretti	Lotus Ford	032	2	DNF	01		Clutch damage
-	Derek Bell	Ferrari	014th	0	DNF	15th		Engine failure
-	Jackie Oliver	Lotus Ford	-	0	DNS	16		not started

World Cup stands after the race

The first six of the race got 9, 6, 4, 3, 2 and 1 point (s) respectively.

Driver ranking

Item driver constructor Points 01  Graham Hill lotus 39 02  Jackie Stewart Matra 36 03  Denis Hulme McLaren 33 04th  Jacky Ickx Ferrari 27 05  Bruce McLaren McLaren 16 06th  Pedro Rodríguez BRM 15th 07th  John Surtees Honda 12 08th  Jean-Pierre Beltoise Matra 11 09  Jo Siffert lotus 11 10  Chris Amon Ferrari 10 11  Jim Clark lotus 9 12  Jochen Rindt Brabham 8th

Item driver constructor Points 13  Ludovico Scarfiotti cooper 6th 14th  Johnny Servoz-Gavin Matra 6th 15th  Richard Attwood BRM 6th 16  Lucien Bianchi cooper 5 17th  Vic Elford cooper 5 18th  Piers Courage BRM 4th 19th  Brian Redman cooper 4th 20th  Dan Gurney McLaren 3 21st  Jackie Oliver lotus 2 22nd  Jack Brabham Brabham 2 23  Silvio Moser Brabham 2 24  Joakim Bonnier McLaren 1

Constructors' championship

Item constructor Points 01  lotus 53 02  Matra 45 03  McLaren 43 04th  Ferrari 32

Item constructor Points 05  BRM 25th 06th  cooper 14th 07th  Honda 12 08th  Brabham 10

Web links

• Race result on the official Formula 1 website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "Training" ( Memento of the original from March 7, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Motorsportarchiv.de; accessed on August 14, 2011)  
2. ^ "Report" (accessed on August 14, 2011)
3. ↑ "World Cup stands" ( Memento of the original from March 7, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Motorsportarchiv.de; accessed on August 14, 2011)