OldRacingCars.com

German Grand Prix

Nürburgring, 4 Aug 1968

ResultsLapsTime/Speed
1 Jackie Stewart Matra MS10 [02] - Cosworth DFV V8
#6 Matra International
14 2h 19m 03.2s
2 Graham Hill Lotus 49B [R5] - Cosworth DFV V8
#3 Gold Leaf Team Lotus
14 2h 23m 06.4s
3 Jochen Rindt Brabham BT26 [2] - Repco 860 V8
#5 Brabham Racing Organisation
14 2h 23m 12.6s
4 Jacky Ickx Ferrari 312/68 [0015] - 60° 4-valve V12
#9 Scuderia Ferrari SpA SEFAC
14 2h 24m 58.4s
5 Jack Brabham Brabham BT26 [1] - Repco 860 V8
#4 Brabham Racing Organisation
14 2h 25m 24.3s
6 Pedro Rodriguez BRM P133 [01] - P101 V12
#10 Owen Racing Organisation
14 2h 25m 28.2s
7 Denis Hulme McLaren M7A [2] - Cosworth DFV V8
#1 Bruce McLaren Motor Racing
14 2h 25m 34.2s
8 Piers Courage BRM P126 [01] - P101 V12
#22 Reg Parnell Racing
14 2h 26m 59.6s
9 Dan Gurney Eagle 'T1G' [104] - Weslake 58 V12
#14 Anglo-American Racers
14 2h 27m 16.9s
10 Hubert Hahne (F1) 2-litre Lola T102 [F268/1] - BMW Apfelbeck radial valve
#18 BMW AG Munchen (see note 1)
14 2h 29m 14.6s
11 Jackie Oliver Lotus 49B [R2] - Cosworth DFV V8
#21 Gold Leaf Team Lotus
13 2h 21m 24.3s
12 Kurt Ahrens Brabham BT24 [3] - Repco 740 V8
#17 Caltex Racing Team
13 2h 22m 15.2s
13 Bruce McLaren McLaren M7A [1] - Cosworth DFV V8
#2 Bruce McLaren Motor Racing
13 2h 25m 10.9s
14 Richard Attwood BRM P126 [03] - P101 V12
#11 Owen Racing Organisation
13 2h 25m 40.7s
R Chris Amon Ferrari 312/68 [0011] - 60° 4-valve V12
#8 Scuderia Ferrari SpA SEFAC
11 accident
R Jean-Pierre Beltoise Matra MS11 [02] - MS9 V12
#12 Matra Sports
8 accident ar Höhe Acht
R Lucien Bianchi Cooper T86B [F1-1-68] - BRM P101 V12
#19 Cooper Car Company
7 fuel leak
R Jo Siffert Lotus 49B [R7] - Cosworth DFV V8
#16 Rob Walker & Jack Durlacher Racing
6 ignition
R John Surtees Honda RA301 [F-801] - V12
#7 Honda R&D Company
3 ignition
R Vic Elford Cooper T86B [F1-4-68] - BRM P101 V12
#20 Cooper Car Company
0 accident
AP Johnny Servoz-Gavin Matra MS10 [01] - Cosworth DFV V8
#6T Matra International
Also practiced
AP Johnny Servoz-Gavin Matra MS11 [01] - MS9 V12
#12T Matra Sports
Also practiced
T Denis Hulme McLaren M7A [3] - Cosworth DFV V8
#1T Bruce McLaren Motor Racing
(Only used in practice)
T Jackie Stewart Matra MS10 [01] - Cosworth DFV V8
#6T Matra International
(Only used in practice)
T Jochen Rindt Brabham BT26 [3] - Repco 860 V8
#5T Brabham Racing Organisation
(Only used in practice)
T Jean-Pierre Beltoise Matra MS11 [01] - MS9 V12
#12T Matra Sports
(Only used in practice)
T/S Chris Amon Ferrari 312/68 [0009] - 60° 4-valve V12
#8T Scuderia Ferrari SpA SEFAC
(Spare - not used in practice)
T/S Pedro Rodriguez BRM P126 [02] - P101 V12
#10T Owen Racing Organisation
(Spare - not used in practice)
DNP Silvio Moser Brabham BT20 [F1-2-66] - Repco 620 V8
#23 Charles Vogele Racing
Did not take part in official practice
(engine broke before practice)
DNA Jo Bonnier McLaren M5A [1] - BRM P101 V12
#15 Jo Bonnier Racing Team
Did not arrive

All cars are 3-litre F1 unless noted.

Qualifying
1 Jacky Ickx (F1) 3-litre Ferrari 312/68 [0015] - Ferrari 60° 4-valve V12 09m 04.0s
2 Chris Amon (F1) 3-litre Ferrari 312/68 [0011] - Ferrari 60° 4-valve V12 09m 14.9s
3 Jochen Rindt (F1) 3-litre Brabham BT26 [2] - Repco 860 V8 09m 31.9s
4 Graham Hill (F1) 3-litre Lotus 49B [R5] - Cosworth DFV V8 09m 46.0s
5 Vic Elford (F1) 3-litre Cooper T86B [F1-4-68] - BRM P101 V12 09m 53.0s
6 Jackie Stewart (F1) 3-litre Matra MS10 [02] - Cosworth DFV V8 09m 54.2s
7 John Surtees (F1) 3-litre Honda RA301 [F-801] - Honda V12 09m 57.8s
8 Piers Courage (F1) 3-litre BRM P126 [01] - BRM P101 V12 10m 00.1s
9 Jo Siffert (F1) 3-litre Lotus 49B [R7] - Cosworth DFV V8 10m 03.4s
10 Dan Gurney (F1) 3-litre Eagle 'T1G' [104] - Weslake 58 V12 10m 13.9s
11 Denis Hulme (F1) 3-litre McLaren M7A [2] - Cosworth DFV V8 10m 16.0s
12 Jean-Pierre Beltoise (F1) 3-litre Matra MS11 [02] - Matra MS9 V12 10m 17.3s
13 Jackie Oliver (F1) 3-litre Lotus 49B [R2] - Cosworth DFV V8 10m 18.7s
14 Pedro Rodriguez (F1) 3-litre BRM P133 [01] - BRM P101 V12 10m 19.7s
15 Jack Brabham (F1) 3-litre Brabham BT26 [1] - Repco 860 V8 10m 23.1s
16 Bruce McLaren (F1) 3-litre McLaren M7A [1] - Cosworth DFV V8 10m 33.0s
17 Kurt Ahrens (F1) 3-litre Brabham BT24 [3] - Repco 740 V8 10m 37.3s
18 Hubert Hahne (F1) 2-litre Lola T102 [F268/1] - BMW Apfelbeck radial valve 10m 42.9s
19 Lucien Bianchi (F1) 3-litre Cooper T86B [F1-1-68] - BRM P101 V12 10m 46.6s
20 Richard Attwood (F1) 3-litre BRM P126 [03] - BRM P101 V12 10m 48.2s

Notes on the cars:

  1. Lola T102 [F268/1] (Hubert Hahne): New for Hubert Hahne to race in BMW's F2 team in 1968, first appearing in the German Grand Prix in August, where it used a 2-litre version of the BMW Apfelbeck radial valve engine. Then raced by Hahne in F2 at two races in October 1968, and retained as his F2 in early 1969. Sold in 1970 to Robs Lamplough, who had it fitted with a Mathwall-built Ford Boss 302 engine for Formula 5000, renaming it the 'Lampola'. Retained by Lamplough for many years, until sold in 2018 to Ben Mitchell, who is restoring it to its 1968 Formula 2 specification.

Sources

Note that the identification of individual cars in these results is based on the material presented elsewhere in this site and may in some cases contradict the organisers' published results.

3-litre Formula 1 World Championship events 1966-1985

These 1966 to 1985 results were initially compiled by Allen Brown, but these were in the very basic form required to track individual car histories. Since then further details, such as laps completed, qualifying times and so on, have been added from Rob Ryder's extensive database.

All comments, clarifications, corrections and additions are most welcome. Please email Allen at allen@oldracingcars.com if you can help with our research.

Individual sources for this event

Autosport 9 Aug 1968 pp8-15. Motor Sport September 1968 pp816-818,820. Motoring News 8 Aug 1968 pp1,10-12. Speedworld International 10 Aug 1968 pp10-23.

Ferrari had a new chassis 0015, and 0007 was left at the factory. McLaren had M7A/2 as a spare, which Autosport said could be distinguished by an extra row of rivets down the side, and Hulme raced this instead of his intended M7A/3. Brabham now had three BT26s, but also brought the old BT24 for Kurt Ahrens to drive. Each Matra team had two cars for one driver, as usual. All four extant V12 BRMs were present, with 126-02 as the spare. The two Coopers and singleton Eagle were unchanged except for wider wheels and a new engine for the Eagle, and the usual Honda RA301 had a new engine, RA301 E803. The Lola T100 had a 2.1-litre engine. The only privateers were the Walker/Durlacher Lotus 49B and the Moser Brabham BT20.

The Lotuses still had high rear wings and front side wings, the Brabhams a more modest height rear wing and front canards, a pattern newly followed by Honda, both Matra teams had joined McLaren and Eagle with an aerofoil over the engine, Eagle were doing their own thing with an aerofoil behind the engine and a bib slung under the nose, Cooper went the whole hog with a high rear wing and Lotus-style front wings, and poor old BRM went the other way and dispensed with all aerodynamic aids on the two Owen Racing Organisation cars but tried a huge aerofoil over the engine of the Parnell car. Only Lotus and Honda were feeding this downforce directly onto the rear suspension. The key difference in all of these was the Matra system, which was moveable. On Beltoise' car the wing angle was changed by an electric motor triggered by gear changes, but towards the end of practice Stewart's was fitted with a wing controlled by the brake pedal. The Scot had already been very fast during wet practice and said he could not feel any difference with the wing. However, he stuck with it for the race and won by a massive four minutes. Whether that was the Scot's natural abilities or the moveable wing is open to debate. Only Denis Jenkinson in his ‘Continental Notes' column (September 1968 p791) discussed Stewart's brake-activated wing; all the weeklies' reports largely overlooked it. Patrick McNally for Autosport (16 Aug 1968 p9) caught up a week later in his ‘On The Scene' column, having the benefit of Johnny Rives' articles in L'Equipe, the French sports daily newspaper. Rives had discovered that the electric motors used by Matra came from their intercontinental ballistic missile programme.