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1968 French Grand Prix

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1968 French Grand Prix
The Rouen Les Essarts circuit in 1968
The Rouen Les Essarts circuit in 1968
Race details
Date 7 July 1968
Official name LIV Grand Prix de France
Location Rouen-Les-Essarts, Grand-Couronne, France
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 6.542 km (4.065 miles)
Distance 60 laps, 392.520 km (243.901 miles)
Weather Wet
Pole position
Driver Brabham-Repco
Time 1:56.1
Fastest lap
Driver Mexico Pedro Rodríguez BRM
Time 2:11.5 on lap 19
Podium
First Ferrari
Second Honda
Third Matra-Ford
Lap leaders

The 1968 French Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at the Rouen-Les-Essarts Circuit on 7 July 1968. It was race 6 of 12 in both the 1968 World Championship of Drivers and the 1968 International Cup for Formula One Manufacturers. The 60-lap race was won by Ferrari driver Jacky Ickx after he started from third position. John Surtees finished second for the Honda team and Matra driver Jackie Stewart came in third.

The French driver Jo Schlesser had a fatal accident on the third lap of the race,[1][2] when he lost control in the then-new Honda RA302 chassis which overturned and caught fire partially due to its magnesium content.[citation needed] He was chosen as driver when regular Honda F1 driver John Surtees refused to drive the new car, opting for the older RA301 chassis, on the grounds that the new car was unsafe. This race was a turning point in Formula One as the death of Schlesser prompted many safety precautions in later races.

This was also the last F1 race to take place at Rouen-Les Essarts.

Classification

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Qualifying

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Pos No Driver Constructor Time Gap
1 2 Austria Jochen Rindt Brabham-Repco 1:56.1
2 28 United Kingdom Jackie Stewart Matra-Ford 1:57.3 +1.2
3 26 Belgium Jacky Ickx Ferrari 1:57.7 +1.6
4 8 New Zealand Denny Hulme McLaren-Ford 1:57.7 +1.6
5 24 New Zealand Chris Amon Ferrari 1:57.8 +1.7
6 10 New Zealand Bruce McLaren McLaren-Ford 1:58.0 +1.9
7 16 United Kingdom John Surtees Honda 1:58.2 +2.1
8 6 France Jean-Pierre Beltoise Matra 1:58.9 +2.8
9 12 United Kingdom Graham Hill Lotus-Ford 1:59.1 +3.0
10 20 Mexico Pedro Rodríguez BRM 1:59.3 +3.2
11 14 United Kingdom Jackie Oliver Lotus-Ford 2:00.2 +4.1
12 34 Switzerland Jo Siffert Lotus-Ford 2:00.3 +4.2
13 22 United Kingdom Richard Attwood BRM 2:00.8 +4.7
14 4 Australia Jack Brabham Brabham-Repco 2:00.8 +4.7
15 36 United Kingdom Piers Courage BRM 2:01.1 +5.0
16 32 France Johnny Servoz-Gavin Cooper-BRM 2:01.2 +5.1
17 18 France Jo Schlesser Honda 2:04.5 +8.4
18 30 United Kingdom Vic Elford Cooper-BRM 2:05.5 +9.4

Race

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Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 26 Belgium Jacky Ickx Ferrari 60 2:25:40.9 3 9
2 16 United Kingdom John Surtees Honda 60 + 1:58.6 7 6
3 28 United Kingdom Jackie Stewart Matra-Ford 59 + 1 Lap 2 4
4 30 United Kingdom Vic Elford Cooper-BRM 58 + 2 Laps 17 3
5 8 New Zealand Denny Hulme McLaren-Ford 58 + 2 Laps 4 2
6 36 United Kingdom Piers Courage BRM 57 + 3 Laps 14 1
7 22 United Kingdom Richard Attwood BRM 57 + 3 Laps 12  
8 10 New Zealand Bruce McLaren McLaren-Ford 56 + 4 Laps 6  
9 6 France Jean-Pierre Beltoise Matra 56 + 4 Laps 8  
10 24 New Zealand Chris Amon Ferrari 55 + 5 Laps 5  
11 34 Switzerland Jo Siffert Lotus-Ford 54 + 6 Laps 11  
NC 20 Mexico Pedro Rodríguez BRM 53 Not Classified 10  
Ret 2 Austria Jochen Rindt Brabham-Repco 45 Fuel Leak 1  
Ret 4 Australia Jack Brabham Brabham-Repco 15 Fuel Pump 13  
Ret 12 United Kingdom Graham Hill Lotus-Ford 14 Halfshaft 9  
Ret 32 France Johnny Servoz-Gavin Cooper-BRM 14 Accident 15  
Ret 18 France Jo Schlesser Honda 2 Fatal Accident 16  
DNS 14 United Kingdom Jackie Oliver Lotus-Ford Accident in practice
Sources:[3][4]
Jo Schlesser's Honda RA302 crashes at Virage des Six Frères, igniting the magnesium body and killing Schlesser.

Notes

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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. ^ "France 1968 • lap by lap". Retrieved 4 May 2024.
  2. ^ "French GP, 1968". Retrieved 4 May 2024.
  3. ^ "1968 French Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 18 January 2015. Retrieved 26 September 2015.
  4. ^ "Grand Prix Results: French GP, 1968". Grandprix.com. Retrieved 5 February 2016.
  5. ^ a b "France 1968 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 15 March 2019.

Further reading

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  • Lang, Mike (1982). Grand Prix! Vol 2. Haynes Publishing Group. pp. 70–71. ISBN 0-85429-321-3.


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