1968 Belgian Grand Prix

 1968 Belgian Grand Prix

Racing data
4th of 12 races of the 1968 World Automobile Championship
Surname:	XXVIII Grand Prix de Belgique
Date:	June 9, 1968
Place:	spa
Course:	Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps
Length:	394.8 km in 28 laps of 14.1 km
Weather:	cloudy but dry
Pole position
Driver:	Chris Amon	Ferrari
Time:	3: 28.6 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	John Surtees	Honda
Time:	3: 30.5 min
Podium
First:	Bruce McLaren	McLaren
Second:	Pedro Rodríguez	BRM
Third:	Jacky Ickx	Ferrari

The 1968 Belgian Grand Prix took place on June 9th at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps and was the fourth race of the 1968 World Championship .

Reports

background

After Lotus in the Monaco Grand Prix two weeks earlier than the first team with aerodynamic wings had set out on the race car, appeared to run in Belgium several other teams with similar modifications. This also included Scuderia Ferrari . After the Monaco GP had been completely omitted, two works cars were now registered for the race weekend, with Chris Amon's one having significantly more extensive wings than Jacky Ickx's car .

Jackie Stewart was able to return to Ken Tyrrell's Matra customer team after his injury-related break . Lucien Bianchi replaced the works driver Ludovico Scarfiotti at Cooper , who wanted to take part in a hill climb in Germany on the same weekend , but had a fatal accident during training and was thus the third regular driver of Formula 1 to die that year.

Dan Gurney and Denis Hulme returned from the USA after successfully participating in the Indianapolis 500 to compete in the Belgian Grand Prix.

training

On Friday, Chris Amon achieved the fastest lap time with a lead of almost four seconds, which was immediately at least partially attributed to the new aerodynamic aids. Stewart in the Matra and Ickx in the second Ferrari also qualified for the front row. John Surtees and Denis Hulme followed in row two in front of Bruce McLaren , Piers Courage and Pedro Rodríguez . Both Lotus factory drivers struggled with problems and could therefore only qualify for the back of the grid.

Since it rained during the training sessions on Saturday, the Friday times were no longer undercut and therefore counted for the starting grid.

run

The race took place under heavy cloud cover, but in dry conditions. Amon initially took the lead in front of his teammate Ickx as well as Surtees and Hulme. At the end of the second lap, Surtees took over the top position. Meanwhile, numerous pilots retired during the first laps due to technical difficulties.

On the seventh lap, Brian Redman came off the track with a damaged suspension. His Cooper skidded over a barrier, crashed into a parked vehicle, and caught fire. Redman escaped with a broken arm and minor burns. A little later Amon retired due to a defective cooler and immediately afterwards the leading Surtees due to a suspension problem. This put Hulme in the lead, but was overtaken by Stewart shortly afterwards. The two dueled for several laps until Hulme had to retire due to a transmission problem.

On the final lap, Stewart was about half a minute ahead of second-placed Bruce McLaren when he ran out of gas. He rolled into the pits and, due to the distance covered, was classified fourth behind McLaren, Rodríguez and Ickx.

It was the first victory for Team McLaren and the fourth and last victory for team boss Bruce McLaren and the first victory for him since 1962. Jacky Ickx achieved the first podium of his Formula 1 career in his home race.

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Gold Leaf Team Lotus	1	Graham Hill	Lotus 49B	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	F.
	2	Jackie Oliver
Rob Walker Racing	3	Jo Siffert	Lotus 49		F.
Bruce McLaren Motor Racing	5	Bruce McLaren	McLaren M7A		G
	6th	Denis Hulme
Matra International (Tyrrell)	7th	Jackie Stewart	Matra MS10		D.
Matra Sports	10	Jean-Pierre Beltoise	Matra MS11	Matra MS9 3.0 V12	D.
Owen Racing Organization	11	Pedro Rodríguez	BRM P133	BRM P142 3.0 V12	G
	12	Richard Attwood	BRM P126
Reg Parnell Racing	14th	Piers Courage			G
Cooper Car Company	15th	Lucien Bianchi	Cooper T86B		G
	16	Brian Redman
Joakim Bonnier Racing Team	17th	Joakim Bonnier	McLaren M5A		G
Brabham Racing Organization	18th	Jack Brabham	Brabham BT26	Repco 860 3.0 V8	G
	19th	Jochen Rindt
Honda Racing	20th	John Surtees	Honda RA301	Honda RA301E 3.0 V12	F.
Scuderia Ferrari SpA SEFAC	22nd	Chris Amon	Ferrari 312 (67/68)	Ferrari 242 3.0 V12	F.
	23	Jacky Ickx

Classifications

Starting grid

Item	driver	constructor	time	Ø speed	begin
01	Chris Amon	Ferrari	3: 28.6	243.337 km / h	01
02	Jackie Stewart	Matra Ford	3: 32.3	239.096 km / h	02
03	Jacky Ickx	Ferrari	3: 34.3	236.864 km / h	03
04th	John Surtees	Honda	3: 35.0	236.093 km / h	04th
05	Denis Hulme	McLaren-Ford	3: 35.4	235.655 km / h	05
06th	Bruce McLaren	McLaren-Ford	3: 37.1	233.809 km / h	06th
07th	Piers Courage	BRM	3: 37.2	233.702 km / h	07th
08th	Pedro Rodríguez	BRM	3: 37.8	233.058 km / h	08th
09	Jo Siffert	Lotus Ford	3: 39.0	231.781 km / h	09
10	Brian Redman	Cooper-BRM	3: 41.4	229.268 km / h	10
11	Richard Attwood	BRM	3: 45.2	225.400 km / h	11
12	Lucien Bianchi	Cooper-BRM	3: 45.9	224.701 km / h	12
13	Jean-Pierre Beltoise	Matra	3: 52.9	217.948 km / h	13
14th	Graham Hill	Lotus Ford	4: 06.1	206.258 km / h	14th
15th	Jackie Oliver	Lotus Ford	4: 30.8	187.445 km / h	15th
16	Joakim Bonnier	McLaren BRM	4: 34.3	185.053 km / h	16
17th	Jochen Rindt	Brabham-Repco	4: 46.7	177.049 km / h	17th
18th	Jack Brabham	Brabham-Repco	no time	-	18th

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	Bruce McLaren	McLaren-Ford	28	0	1: 40: 02.1	06th
02	Pedro Rodríguez	BRM	28	0	+ 12.1	08th
03	Jacky Ickx	Ferrari	28	0	+ 39.6	03
04th	Jackie Stewart	Matra Ford	27	1	DNF	02		Lack of fuel
05	Jackie Oliver	Lotus Ford	26th	1	DNF	15th		Axle damage
06th	Lucien Bianchi	Cooper-BRM	26th	0	+ 2 rounds	12
07th	Jo Siffert	Lotus Ford	25th	0	DNF	09		Oil pressure loss
08th	Jean-Pierre Beltoise	Matra	25th	0	+ 3 rounds	13
-	Piers Courage	BRM	22nd	0	DNF	07th		Engine failure
-	Denis Hulme	McLaren-Ford	18th	0	DNF	05		broken drive shaft
-	John Surtees	Honda	11	0	DNF	04th	3: 30.5	Suspension damage
-	Chris Amon	Ferrari	08th	0	DNF	01		defective water cooler
-	Brian Redman	Cooper-BRM	06th	0	DNF	10		accident
-	Richard Attwood	BRM	06th	0	DNF	11		defective oil pump
-	Jack Brabham	Brabham-Repco	06th	0	DNF	18th		broken accelerator pedal
-	Graham Hill	Lotus Ford	05	0	DNF	14th		broken half-wave
-	Jochen Rindt	Brabham-Repco	05	0	DNF	17th		Engine failure
-	Joakim Bonnier	McLaren BRM	01	0	DNF	16		defective wheel attachment

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 24 02  Denis Hulme McLaren 10 03  Bruce McLaren McLaren 9 04th  Jim Clark lotus 9 05  Ludovico Scarfiotti cooper 6th 06th  Pedro Rodríguez BRM 6th 07th  Richard Attwood BRM 6th 08th  Lucien Bianchi cooper 5

Item driver constructor Points 09  Jochen Rindt Brabham 4th 10  Brian Redman cooper 4th 11  Jacky Ickx Ferrari 4th 12  Jackie Stewart Matra 3 13  Jean-Pierre Beltoise Matra 3 14th  Chris Amon Ferrari 3 15th  Jackie Oliver lotus 2

Constructors' championship

Item constructor Points 01  lotus 29 02  McLaren 17th 03  BRM 12 04th  cooper 9

Item constructor Points 05  Ferrari 7th 06th  Matra 6th 07th  Brabham 4th

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)  

Web links

• Race result on the official Formula 1 website