1968 Canadian Grand Prix

  1968 Canadian Grand Prix

Race details
Race 10 of 12 in the 1968 Formula One season
Date	September 22, 1968
Official name	VIII Player's Canadian Grand Prix
Location	Circuit Mont-Tremblant, Mont-Tremblant, Quebec, Canada
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	4.265 km (2.650 mi)
Distance	90 laps, 383.830 km (238.501 mi)
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	Jochen Rindt	Brabham-Repco
Time	1:33.8
Fastest lap
Driver	Jo Siffert	Lotus-Ford
Time	1:35.1 on lap 22
Podium
First	Denny Hulme	McLaren-Ford
Second	Bruce McLaren	McLaren-Ford
Third	Pedro Rodríguez	BRM

The 1968 Canadian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at the Circuit Mont-Tremblant on September 22, 1968. It was the tenth round of the 1968 Formula One season. The 90-lap race was won by McLaren driver Denny Hulme after starting from sixth position. His teammate Bruce McLaren finished second and BRM driver Pedro Rodríguez came in third.

After the success of the 1967 Canadian Grand Prix, the event remained on the calendar, although for 1968, the race was moved from Mosport Park to the Mont-Tremblant at St. Jovite.^[2]

The attention was centred on the battle for the World Championship with Graham Hill, leading after his early season victories on 30 points. Jacky Ickx was second on 27 points, third was Jackie Stewart with 26 points and Denny Hulme on 24, fresh from his win last time out in Italy.^[2]

Report

Entry

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 just the one car for Pedro Rodríguez. Matra Sports expanded their operation to two cars, with Henri Pescarolo joining Jean-Pierre Beltoise, while Johnny Servoz-Gavin driving another prepared by Matra International, following his second place at Monza. Alongside Jackie Stewart, this made four Matras in the field.^[2]

Qualifying

With his Repco engine finally beginning to work, Jochen Rindt secured pole position for the Brabham Racing Organisation, in their Brabham-Repco BT26, averaging a 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

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 97.799mph, 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

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	1	Denny Hulme	McLaren-Ford	90	2:27:11.2	6	9
2	2	Bruce McLaren	McLaren-Ford	89	+ 1 Lap	8	6
3	16	Pedro Rodríguez	BRM	88	+ 2 Laps	12	4
4	3	Graham Hill	Lotus-Ford	86	+ 4 Laps	5	3
5	21	Vic Elford	Cooper-BRM	86	+ 4 Laps	16	2
6	14	Jackie Stewart	Matra-Ford	83	+ 7 Laps	11	1
Ret	18	Jean-Pierre Beltoise	Matra	77	Gearbox	15
Ret	9	Chris Amon	Ferrari	72	Transmission	2
Ret	15	Johnny Servoz-Gavin	Matra-Ford	71	Accident	13
NC	20	Lucien Bianchi	Cooper-BRM	56	Not Classified	18
Ret	19	Henri Pescarolo	Matra	54	Oil Pressure	19
Ret	6	Jochen Rindt	Brabham-Repco	39	Overheating	1
Ret	4	Jackie Oliver	Lotus-Ford	32	Halfshaft	9
Ret	5	Jack Brabham	Brabham-Repco	31	Suspension	10
Ret	12	Jo Siffert	Lotus-Ford	29	Oil Leak	3
Ret	11	Dan Gurney	McLaren-Ford	29	Radiator	4
Ret	24	Piers Courage	BRM	22	Gearbox	14
Ret	27	Bill Brack	Lotus-Ford	18	Halfshaft	20
Ret	8	John Surtees	Honda	10	Gearbox	7
Ret	22	Jo Bonnier	McLaren-BRM	0	Fuel System	17
DNS	10	Jacky Ickx	Ferrari		Practice accident/injury
DNS	25	Al Pease	Eagle-Climax		Engine
Sources:[4][2][3][5]

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Graham Hill 33 2 2 Denny Hulme 33 3 Jackie Stewart 27 2 4 Jacky Ickx 27 4 5 Bruce McLaren 15

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Lotus-Ford 47 2 2 McLaren-Ford 40 1 3 Matra-Ford 36 1 4 Ferrari 32 5 BRM 25

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

References