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1968 Canadian Grand Prix

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1968 Canadian Grand Prix
Race details
Date September 22, 1968
Official name VIII Player's Grand Prix
Location Circuit Mont-Tremblant, Mont-Tremblant, Quebec, Canada
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 4.265 km (2.650 miles)
Distance 90 laps, 383.850 km (238.501 miles)
Weather Sunny with temperatures reaching up to 27.8 °C (82.0 °F) and wind speeds up to 10.1 kilometres per hour (6.3 mph); no precipitation reported throughout the day[1]
Pole position
Driver Brabham-Repco
Time 1:33.8
Fastest lap
Driver Switzerland Jo Siffert Lotus-Ford
Time 1:35.1 on lap 22
Podium
First McLaren-Ford
Second McLaren-Ford
Third BRM
Lap leaders

The 1968 Canadian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at the Circuit Mont-Tremblant in St. Jovite, Quebec, Canada on September 22, 1968. It was race 10 of 12 in both the 1968 World Championship of Drivers and the 1968 International Cup for Formula One Manufacturers. The 90-lap race was won by McLaren driver Denny Hulme after starting from sixth position. Hulme's teammate Bruce McLaren finished second and BRM driver Pedro Rodríguez came in third.

After the success of the 1967 Canadian Grand Prix, the event was given a place on the 1968 calendar, but was moved from Mosport Park to the Circuit Mont-Tremblant.[2] Attention centred on the battle for the Drivers' Championship, with Graham Hill leading on 30 points, closely followed by Jacky Ickx on 27, Jackie Stewart on 26 and defending champion Denny Hulme on 24.[2]

Report

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Entry

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A total of 22 cars were entered for this event, the first of three races in the Americas.

Dan Gurney was present in a third Bruce McLaren Motor Racing prepared McLaren M7A, although entered by his Anglo American Racers team, having given up on his Eagle-Weslake project. Despite this, there was an Eagle T1F in Quebec, in the hands of local Formula A/5000 driver, Al Pease. Another local driver from this series, Bill Brack, appeared in Team Lotus's third car. Meanwhile, BRM ran only one car for Pedro Rodríguez. Matra Sports expanded their operation to two cars, with Henri Pescarolo joining Jean-Pierre Beltoise, while Johnny Servoz-Gavin drove a second car prepared by Matra International, following his second place at the previous race in Italy. Alongside Jackie Stewart, this made four Matras in the field.[2]

Qualifying

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With his Repco engine finally beginning to work, Jochen Rindt secured pole position for the Brabham Racing Organisation in their Brabham-Repco BT26, with an average speed of 101.711 mph. He was joined on the front row by Chris Amon's Ferrari 312 and Jo Siffert in Rob Walker's Lotus 49B. The fastest McLaren was that of Dan Gurney, qualifying on the second row, alongside the works Lotus of Graham Hill, while the third row featured both of the Bruce McLaren Motor Racing entered McLaren M7As of Denny Hulme and Bruce McLaren, sandwiching the sole Honda RA301 of John Surtees.[2][3]

During qualifying, Jacky Ickx's hopes of winning the World title ended when he crashed his Ferrari 312, after the throttle stuck open. As a result, Ickx suffered a broken leg.[2]

Race

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The race was held over 90 laps of the Circuit Mont-Tremblant, taking place in sunny conditions, with the Ferrari of Chris Amon leading straight from the off, with Jo Siffert chasing him. Then followed Jochen Rindt, Dan Gurney and Graham Hill. The positions at the front remained stable, with John Surtees retiring from eighth place with gearbox troubles. On lap 14, Hill managed pass Gurney, and 12 laps later, the American dropped away with a broken radiator. An oil leak accounted for Siffert, on lap 29, and so Rindt was second, although he too retired shortly afterwards with an engine failure. This promoted Hill to second. That too was short-lived, as he soon dropped behind the McLarens of Denny Hulme and Bruce McLaren because of a serious vibration issues. As Hill's Lotus 49B gradually fell back, he was overtaken by Pedro Rodríguez and Johnny Servoz-Gavin. A few laps later (lap 71), the Matra of Servoz-Gavin had spun out and Hill was back up to fifth.[2][3]

While all this was going on, Amon seemed to have everything under control for the first 72 laps of the race, however, on the 73rd lap, his legendary bad luck struck when his Ferrari's transmission failed. This gave McLaren a 1-2 victory with Rodríguez grabbing third for BRM. Hulme won in a time of 2hr 27.11.2mins., averaging a speed of 97.799 mph, and was a full lap ahead of his team-mate.[2][3]

The result put reigning World Champion Hulme level on points with Hill, with two races remaining.[2]

Classification

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Qualifying

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Pos No Driver Constructor Time Gap
1 6 Austria Jochen Rindt Brabham-Repco 1:33.8
2 9 New Zealand Chris Amon Ferrari 1:33.8 +0.0
3 12 Switzerland Jo Siffert Lotus-Ford 1:34.5 +0.7
4 11 United States Dan Gurney McLaren-Ford 1:34.5 +0.7
5 3 United Kingdom Graham Hill Lotus-Ford 1:34.8 +1.0
6 1 New Zealand Denny Hulme McLaren-Ford 1:34.9 +1.1
7 8 United Kingdom John Surtees Honda 1:34.9 +1.1
8 2 New Zealand Bruce McLaren McLaren-Ford 1:35.0 +1.2
9 4 United Kingdom Jackie Oliver Lotus-Ford 1:35.2 +1.4
10 5 Australia Jack Brabham Brabham-Repco 1:35.4 +1.6
11 14 United Kingdom Jackie Stewart Matra-Ford 1:35.4 +1.6
12 16 Mexico Pedro Rodríguez BRM 1:35.7 +1.9
13 15 France Johnny Servoz-Gavin Matra-Ford 1:36.6 +2.8
14 10 Belgium Jacky Ickx Ferrari 1:36.6 +2.8
15 24 United Kingdom Piers Courage BRM 1:37.3 +3.5
16 18 France Jean-Pierre Beltoise Matra 1:38.7 +4.9
17 21 United Kingdom Vic Elford Cooper-BRM 1:39.4 +5.6
18 22 Sweden Jo Bonnier McLaren-BRM 1:39.6 +5.8
19 20 Belgium Lucien Bianchi Cooper-BRM 1:40.5 +6.7
20 19 France Henri Pescarolo Matra 1:41.2 +7.4
21 27 Canada Bill Brack Lotus-Ford 1:41.2 +7.4
22 25 Canada Al Pease Eagle-Climax 1:49.6 +15.8
Source:[4][5]

Race

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Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 1 New Zealand Denny Hulme McLaren-Ford 90 2:27:11.2 6 9
2 2 New Zealand Bruce McLaren McLaren-Ford 89 + 1 Lap 8 6
3 16 Mexico Pedro Rodríguez BRM 88 + 2 Laps 12 4
4 3 United Kingdom Graham Hill Lotus-Ford 86 + 4 Laps 5 3
5 21 United Kingdom Vic Elford Cooper-BRM 86 + 4 Laps 16 2
6 14 United Kingdom Jackie Stewart Matra-Ford 83 + 7 Laps 11 1
Ret 18 France Jean-Pierre Beltoise Matra 77 Gearbox 15  
Ret 9 New Zealand Chris Amon Ferrari 72 Transmission 2  
Ret 15 France Johnny Servoz-Gavin Matra-Ford 71 Accident 13  
NC 20 Belgium Lucien Bianchi Cooper-BRM 56 + 34 Laps 18  
Ret 19 France Henri Pescarolo Matra 54 Oil pressure 19  
Ret 6 Austria Jochen Rindt Brabham-Repco 39 Overheating 1  
Ret 4 United Kingdom Jackie Oliver Lotus-Ford 32 Halfshaft 9  
Ret 5 Australia Jack Brabham Brabham-Repco 31 Suspension 10  
Ret 12 Switzerland Jo Siffert Lotus-Ford 29 Oil leak 3  
Ret 11 United States Dan Gurney McLaren-Ford 29 Radiator 4  
Ret 24 United Kingdom Piers Courage BRM 22 Gearbox 14  
Ret 27 Canada Bill Brack Lotus-Ford 18 Halfshaft 20  
Ret 8 United Kingdom John Surtees Honda 10 Gearbox 7  
Ret 22 Sweden Jo Bonnier McLaren-BRM 0 Fuel system 17  
DNS 10 Belgium Jacky Ickx Ferrari Practice accident/Injury  
DNS 25 Canada Al Pease Eagle-Climax Engine  
Sources:[6][2][3][7]

Notes

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  • This was the Formula One World Championship debut for Canadian driver Bill Brack and French driver and future Le Mans winner Henri Pescarolo.

Championship standings after the race

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  • Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

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  1. ^ "Weather information for the "1968 Canadian Grand Prix"". The Old Farmers' Almanac. Retrieved 10 November 2013.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Grand Prix Results: Canadian GP, 1968". Grandprix.com. Retrieved 11 March 2014.
  3. ^ a b c d "1968 Canadian Grand Prix". Racing-Reference.info. Retrieved 11 March 2014.
  4. ^ "1968 Canadian GP Qualification". www.chicanef1.com. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
  5. ^ "1968 Canadian Grand Prix". Motor Sport Magazine. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
  6. ^ "1968 Canadian Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 19 January 2015. Retrieved 26 September 2015.
  7. ^ "Results 1968 Formula 1 Grand Prix of Canada". F1 Fansite. 22 September 1968. Retrieved 11 March 2014.
  8. ^ a b "Canada 1968 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 14 March 2019.


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