Grand Prix Gold: Belgium 1968

Spa '68: the runners & riders

Race Report: Bruce's Belgian GP

McLarens win at Spa after Stewart's Matra runs out of fuel in the closing stages - Amon, Surtees, Hulme all lead but retire - Rodriguez (BRM) and Ickx (Ferrari) second and third

By Patrick McNally

No one was more surprised than Bruce McLaren when he suddenly found himself winner of the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa, having set a new record race speed in his McLaren-Ford M7A.

It was another race of disappointed leaders: first Chris Amon, then John Surtees, Denny Hulme, and finally Jackie Stewart with the cruellest luck of all - running out of fuel on the penultimate lap, Ken Tyrrell having calculated on 7 mpg and the consumption turning out to be 6.6.

One of the highlights of the race was the near race-long scrap between McLaren, Pedro Rodriguez, Piers Courage and, in the early stages, Jo Siffert. Surtees at one time looked sure of victory but instead had to content with the fastest lap and a new lap record. BRM, as at Monaco, were once again the bridesmaids, Rodriguez driving a very level-headed race.

The only nasty incident to occur concerned Brian Redman, whose Cooper-BRM left the road after a suspension breakage and caught fire. Redman was lucky to escape with a broken arm, but a marshal struck by the car was very badly hurt.

Entry

The Royal Automobile Club de Belgique assembled the most representative F1 entry yet seen in a 1968 Grande Epreuve for round four at Spa. In theory there were no absentees, but Dan Gurney's Eagle, although entered, failed to appear; the team was unable to rebuild an engine in time for last year's victor. Dan tried to borrow a McLaren and a Ferrari in vain.

Gold Leaf Team Lotus had entered two of their new Lotus 49Bs. Graham Hill had his victorious Monaco machine, R5, which was running in virtually identical trim, while Jackie Oliver, having his second F1 drive for Colin Chapman, had a brand-new car, 49B R6, which was still on its way to Spa when first practice started. Oliver's car differed in that its FG3000 gearbox did not have a ZF-cut differential like Hill's; the car being fitted with a standard Hewland box.

The only old type 49 present was the Rob Walker Lotus which was the same as at Monaco even down to its springs and dampers, although the gearbox had been completely rebuilt after the CWP failure.

Realising that Spa could perhaps give them their best chance of victory yet, SEFAC Ferrari brought along three cars for Amon and Jacky Ickx to choose from, including 0011, the latest F1 Ferrari built. The car is almost identical to the 0009, with its lowline engine and exhaust system, and although previously unraced the chassis had done nearly 200 laps at Brands Hatch the week previously.

The other two cars were Chris's old favourite 0007 - the "bond machine" - and 0003, last seen at the Race of Champions. Both the latter cars had the "tall" engine assemblies, as a low centre of gravity at Spa is hardly of prime importance. The suspension on the older cars had been brought into line with current trends, with the pattern of camber change altered to give optimum handling.

After the tests at Brands Hatch, Ing Foghieri elected to use 13-inch front wheels shod with Firestone's latest B10 tyres, as apparently the car turned more precisely into corners thus equipped All three cars had fitments to take Chaparral-type aerofoils mounted above the rear wheels.

Also busy with aerodynamic research was Surtees with the Honda RA 301. This car should have had a new tail section for the fast sweeps of Spa, but unfortunately the folk at Tokyo weren't able to supply the new neater exhaust system in time, a necessity before the tail will fit, so Big John had to make do with temporary aluminium aerofoil mounted behind the engine.

The Japanese machine was using its Jarama V12 engine, which is more temperamental than the Monaco unit, and Surtees was playing about with NGK and Champion plugs. The gearbox trouble at Monaco had been caused b the reverse idler gear coming loose and locking the box in second gear before being pushed through the casing. The gear is held in place by a screw which is countersunk into a shaft: the depression proved too shallow.

When the Brabham transporter arrived in the paddock most people expected to see Jochen Rindt still with the old BT24, but not so; out rolled a pair of four-cam BT26s. Both Jack Brabham and Jochen were a little late in arriving, having spent the morning at Zolder testing the cars. Jack's BT26 was the car he used at Jarama and Monaco, fitted with a brand new four-cam Repco, whilst Jochen's brand new chassis, BT26/2, using the original four-cam engine rebuilt for Monaco after blowing up at Jarama.

The Lucus injection had been changed after the throttle control problems previously experienced, and brand new slide assemblies were fitted to both engines. The BT26 chassis itself was unchanged, but aerofoils were fitted to both engines. The BT26 chassis itself was unchanged, but aerofoils had been fitted to the noses of both cars.

Jochen did only eight laps at Zolder that morning before equalling his own F2 lap record in the new car, which boded well.

The orange-yellow McLaren-Fords arrived in plenty of time for McLaren and Denny Hulme. Bruce had decided to use his new chassis, M7A/3, feeling no doubt that the very fast sections of Spa deserved a previously unshunted chassis. Bruce's car had new drive shafts, heavy BRD units in place of the Detroit joints.

The team had also decided to use Armstrong dampers in place of Konis, for reasons it was difficult to justify technically. The Bendix pump for periodically emptying the catch tank seems to be a success, and both cars were equipped with it again. Denny had his usual car, unchanged except in the shock absorber department, though both cars had rear engine cowling/tail sections ducted for their rear-mounted oil coolers.

Denny had also reverted to the original wide track rear by using different wishbones.

The Owen organisation arrived with two BRM V12s for Rodriguez and his now permanent teammate Richard Attwood. Pedro had P133/01 - the car he wrote off at Jarama, now rebuilt and like new - while Dickie had his Monaco car, unchanged save for a routine engine replacement.

The only difference between the two cars was that Pedro's was on Goodyears because of his contract, whilst Attwood was on the very latest Dunlop equipment. A third BRM V12 was entered under the Reg Parnell banner for Piers Courage. Although the older type P126 the Parnell car and the works ones was still the type of wheel used, Piers still having to be content with the slightly heavier older pattern.

Once again both Matra International and Matra Sports arrived with a brace of cars. Ken Tyrrell brought along both his Ford V8-engined MS10s, the partly titanium lightweight car and the early car for Stewart's return to the fray. Matra Sports also had the same pair of V12 MS11s that Jean-Pierre Beltoise used in Monaco. The lightweight car now has the FG300 gearbox, the DG300 being swapped to the older car.

Jackie's right wrist was supported by an uncomfortable looking plastic support which left only his fingers free to operate. The Tyrrell Matras were immaculate and showed none of the battle scars inflicted by wee Jackie's French stand-ins. There was a full-scale development programme planned for the V12 Matras after Monaco, but the French strikes put paid to that and both V12s arrived unchanged except for new noses and radiators for improving cooling. Matra's new wider, lighter wheels, long overdue, will now not appear until the Dutch Grand Prix.

Despite rumours of the new four-cam Alfa Romeo V8 engine appearing for Spa, the Cooper Car Co arrived with their usual pair of trusty Cooper BRMs. These cars have the best reliability record of the season and were virtually unchanged, though both now had rear-mounted oil coolers, as well as oil radiators in their new noses.

With Ludovico Scarfiotti committed to his fateful Rossfeld date with Porsche, Lucien Bianchi and Brian Redman found themselves team-mates. Both Cars had rebuilt engines since Monaco - BRM's rebuild department turned round 12 engines within 10 days!

The other BRM crossbreed was Jo Bonnier's McLaren BRM, fresh from Monaco where it just failed to qualify; the car was immaculately turned out as ever in Bonnier's colours.

Practice

There were only two training sessions, two hours late on Friday afternoon, and a further couple of hours on Saturday. Despite a depressing weather forecast Friday's session was run completely in the dry, a strong breeze keeping the threatening clouds moving.

Ferrari were quick to dominate the session, Chris Amon eventually getting down to 3:02.6 - an average of over 150 mph, nearly four seconds faster than anybody else, and 3.3s inside Dan Gurney's existing lap record.

The two Ferraris had gone out to do an exploratory lap right at the start of practice and then came straight in for a routine check, Ickx complaining that fourth gear was too short; Foghieri commented that it was 500 revs faster than last year's ratio, while the modest Amon terminated the discussion with "I don't know, I am not that advanced yet." In fact the gearing was found to be perfect.

As practice progressed, Ickx quickly got down to 3:34.3 but was unable to improve on this time. Amon's times came down progressively to the 3:31 mark; Foghieri then called him in and simultaneously put more camber on the rear wheels and fixed an aerofoil in position. It was therefore difficult to determine how much of the improvement to his fastest lap was directly attributable to the wing, for the tyre temperatures increased fractionally.

The real surprise of practice was supplied by Jackie Stewart, who was second fastest in the Tyrrell Matra despite his disability. It can't have been easy, for Jackie had to come in half way through the session to bind up his thumb which was being cut by the plastic support. Like most people's, his gearing was a little out, the car only pulling 180mph when it was geared for 195 mph.

Graham Hill set of at the start of practice but only got a few yards down the road before reversing back to complain of excessive gearbox noise. Lotus mechanics Bob Sparshott and Trevor Seasman soon had the back off the box and the gears laid out, only to find nothing wrong, the only sign of trouble being a discoloured gear which had got rather hot at Monaco.

The gearbox was quickly rebuilt and Hill went out, only to find the engine wouldn't pull over 8000rpm, and he only got in four laps before the 49 was wheeled away. Graham's team-mate Jack Oliver had watched the proceedings with interest as his own Lotus 49 was still on its way from England with Dale Porteous and Bob Dance, who had only finished building it that morning.

Fourth fastest, 0.7 seconds slower than Ickx's Ferrari was Surtees in the Honda. As always Big John was really trying and was the only man to come past the pits at full chat on his very first lap. The Honda was a little skittish down the Masta Straight without its rear spoiler fitted, but it didn't seem to worry John too much.

Halfway through practice he came in to try out some new Champion plugs, and instantly one Jap per cylinder descended on the car: the men from NGK were not amused!

The McLarens were still having handling troubles and Denny Hulme appeared close to the ragged edge as he circulated in 3m35.4, fifth fastest overall and 1.7 seconds quicker than team-mate Bruce McLaren.

Earlier Denny had locked a brake coming into La Source behind Chris Amon, and had to take to the escape road. Bruce was far from happy, complaining about doubtful high-speed stability, ad he never did get a clear lap.

Fastest BRM time came not from the works cars but from young Courage in the Parnell car, who greatly to his credit was seventh fastest overall, only 0.1 slower than McLaren. Piers' practice terminated when his engine started to oil up plugs probably due to a broken ring or valve seal. Stan Collier wheeled the car away for further investigation. Then came Rodriguez, whose BRM V12 was only pulling 9400rpm - 600rpm down - due to low fuel pressure. Despite ministrations in the pits, no immediate remedy could be found.

But if Pedro thought he had problems he should have walked down to the Brabham pit, where Rindt was sitting dejectedly in the cockpit of his new Brabham unable to set a good time, as the four-cam Repco wasn't getting enough fuel on the flat-out sections, making the engine sound as flat as a pancake.

Mind you Jochen's problems didn't compare with teammate Jack's, for the latter's new Repco engine had once again dropped a valve insert, damaging the head and piston but fortunately not causing a rod to come through the side. Jack left immediately after practice to fly back to England to try and get his spare four-cam out of customs at London airport and back to Belgium in time for the race. He said he was a little fed up - or that was the just of it, anyway.

Another in trouble was Siffert, whose practice in Rob Walker's Lotus was cut short by a slipping clutch; nevertheless he managed 3:39 thus handicapped. Attwood had an unconstructive time with the BRM, slowed by a woolly engine, and his time was not representative.

On the other hand Redman was motoring to good purpose in the Cooper-BRM, and got below 3:40s although he was credited officially only with 3m41.4. Bianchi in the second Cooper-BRM was 4.5 secs slower. Lucien had a very lucky escape when he hit a bird and arrived at the pits with blood and feathers all over his helmet and face.

Jean-Pierre Beltoise was having a very unhappy time with the Matra V12, which was frantically over-geared; he never used fifth gear, and he was another whose time meant little.

Bonnier, too, was in trouble with gear ratios, and he was going slower than he did in the Cooper-Maserati last year. The PA announced that the McLaren-BRM had stopped on the straight; when I asked Jo about this later he replied. "No, I never stopped; it must have been because I was going so slowly!"

Saturday

It started to drizzle late on Saturday morning, and by 5pm the rain was coming down in a steady stream, making the circuit unbelievably treacherous. Although all the teams lined up their cars in front of the pits, only a handful had a real try, and neither the Matras of Stewart and Beltoise nor Hulme's McLaren or Courage's BRM ever turned a wheel. Brabham was busy returning from England with his new engine and, although he hadn't officially qualified, having failed to do even a single flying lap, the organisers agreed to let him start at the back of the grid.

There was no question of anybody improving their previous day's times, for the circuit was almost impossibly slippery. Amon, whose Friday time assured him of pole position, contended himself with a few laps in the Ferrari training car, whilst team-mate Ickx, who goes so well in the wet at Spa, failed to impress on this occasion.

Stewart was togged up ready to go in the pits, but when the rain didn't lift he decided that Spa was no place to take unnecessary risks, especially as he had already done plentiful wet-weather testing with the new Dunlops.

Beltoise, whose Matra V12 was now suitably geared, waited and waited for conditions to improve, and when they didn't suddenly found practice finished. In fact, with at least - at Spa - a 50 per cent chance of rain the following day, the decision not to take out either of the Matras was questionable.

Surtees was one of the few to have a real go in the wet. In an enormous cloud of spray, fighting the Honda every inch of the way, he set a fastest time of 4:23.6 on Firestone tyres which had cuts as deep as irrigation ditches. Nobody could approach John's time, although Rodriguez tried hard, but he was still 6.5 seconds slower in his BRM V12, shod with some ultra narrow Goodyears.

One could not help feeling sorry for Oliver who, having missed the dry practice, was now forced to drive a brand-new and untried car round Spa in the wet. Jackie's only previous experience of the circuit was in last year's 1000kms race in a GT40. As he was about to set off, Innes Ireland was heard to comment that it was days and circuits like this that made him glad he had given up Grand Prix racing.

But Oliver, driving neatly, soon acclimatised himself to the conditions and, to the astonishment of many, set third fastest time, 0.7 seconds slower than Rodriguez - a performance which must have pleased team boss Chapman enormously. The other two drivers who impressed were Bonnier in the McLaren-BRM and Siffert in the Rob Walker Lotus, who fourth and fifth fastest overall.

Rindt had an aerofoil on the back of his Brabham similar to those on the Ferraris, but the conditions were such that any improvement went unnoticed. The earlier fuel problems appeared to be cured, and Jochen's laps were reminiscent of his fantastic drive two years ago in the Cooper-Maserati. However, his wide tyres forbade any useful times and, because of his previous day's problems, he was at the back of the grid with Brabham.

Hill was another whose interrupted practice the previous day was to place him at the tail of the field, and the current leader of the world championship was happy to settle in a new engine fitted overnight. Graham did his first lap with a leather cover over the intake trumpets, but this got partially blown off and didn't seem to affect the wet weather performance too much.

The McLaren pair, whose previous day's times had them well up on the gird scanned the sky in the hope of some relief, but to no avail. Denny remained within the confines of his dry pit, whilst Bruce did a few laps, but found time to explain that the handling of his McLaren was different to Denny's, as he had a ZF limited-slip as opposed to the Wiseman diff in Hulme's box. This meant that Denny would start the race with a brand new, untried engine.

Race

After a deputation of the entrants, the organisers sensibly decided on a special starting procedure should it rain. If conditions were bad at 3.30pm, the start could be delayed. It would then be at the discretion of Monsuier Herion, director of the course, to start the race at any time in the subsequent hour, either in grid formation or individually at ten second intervals.

Throughout the day dark clouds sculled through the sky, but somehow the rain kept off. The drivers, after being paraded around the circuit in open cars, then did one warming up lap before taking their places on the grid. Amon plumped for 0007, with aerofoil.

Exactly at 3.30 Herion dropped the flag and Amon out-accelerated the rest into Eau Rouge. Team-mate Ickx in the second Ferrari was close behind, with Surtees in the Honda and Hulme in the McLaren leading the rest of the pack.

With both the Brabham and the Lotuses at the rear of the grid, the first lap was not without excitement. Rindt had made a terrific start and was already moving up the field.

Bonnier was looking very unhappy: the mechanics had changed his wheels at the last minute and had failed to insert a necessary spacer, causing a wheel stud to shear on the line. Jo limped round in the McLaren-BRM to stop at his pits after one lap and retire.

After their magnificent start, the two Ferraris led the field until Stavelot, when Surtees moved past Ickx into second place. As the cars screamed past the pits to complete their first lap Amon, Surtees and Ickx were virtually nose to tail; behind them Hulme led Stewart in the Matra, closely followed by Rodriguez in the leading BRM.

Courage in the Parnell BRM was just ahead of Siffert in the Rob Walker Lotus, which was being closely pressed by Rindt - who had just moved up eight places in the opening lap. Hill's Lotus was not going too well, but nevertheless was leading McLaren and Redman in the first of the Cooper BRMs.

Coming into Stavelot, the leading cars found Bonnier's crippled McLaren limping round and Amon in the leading Ferrari had to brake, giving Surtees the advantage on the exit of the corner, so when they came past on the second lap the Honda was in front, with the two Ferraris in furious pursuit. Hulme still led Stewart, but Courage had swooped past Rodriguez for sixth place. Behind them Siffert was maintaining his advantage over McLaren, who had passed Hill's Lotus.

Rindt had fallen right back: a plug had come out of the cooling system, causing him to lose all his water. The Austrian pulled into his pit and the hole was plugged, but not before he had lost two laps. Beltoise was another in trouble, the V12 engine lacking the necessary urge, and he was right at the tail of the field behind Attwood's BRM, Oliver's Lotus 49B and Bianchi's Cooper BRM.

Surtees set a new lap record on the third lap with a time of 3:31 as he strove to stay ahead of the Ferrari twins. Stewart was having a real go in the Tyrrell Matra, filling Denny's rear view mirror the whole time. Behind this battling duo came a fighting foursome consisting of Rodriguez, Siffert, Courage and McLaren, Siffert having moved up a place. Then came Hill, now being pressed by Brabham who was slowly moving up the charts, having displaced Redman and Attwood.

Amon was far from content with second place, and as they came past the pits on their fourth lap he had chipped 0.2 seconds off Surtees' record and was trying to pass big John as they went into Eau Rouge. But Ickx was in trouble in the second Italian car; the v12 was only running on ten cylinders, but he was still well ahead of Hulme and Stewart, who in turn were separated by a long gap from the next group which was now led by Siffert's Lotus. The rest of the field held stations for the moment.

Ten cylinders were not enough to keep Ickx in third place and the following lap he was passed by Stewart, who slipped ahead of Hulme at the same time. But on lap six Hulme, after slipstreaming down the Masta Straight, passed the Matra into Stavelot to regain third place.

Further back Courage was once again ahead of Rodriguez and his similar BRM V12, while behind them McLaren now led Redman's Cooper-BRM. Championship leader Hill's race came to an end when he stopped at post nine with the left hand onboard UJ broken, leaving him with a long walk back to the pits.

Hill wasn't the only retirement. Brabham came into the pits with a jamming throttle slide which proved irreplaceable, putting him out. On the very same lap Attwood too pulled into the pits; the water hose which runs under the belly of the BRM had been torn adrift when Attwood was forced onto the rough of La Source. The lack of coolant reduced the V12 BRM to a smoking wreck.

Despite constant pressure from Amon's Ferrari, the Honda continued to lead, with Hulme barely holding Stewart off in third place. Ickx's sick-sounding Ferrari was valiantly holding fifth place not far ahead of Courage, who now led the group consisting of Siffert, Rodriguez and McLaren, all having the most fantastic scrap.

Oliver was now tenth, for poor Redman had left the circuit at Les Combes when a front bottom wishbone broke and the Cooper went straight on out of control. The car smashed into a concrete safety barrier and slid along for several yards, tearing off its wheels as it plunged through the safety barrier, into some parked cars.

The cars caught fire but were extinguished by prompt marshals (who were smoking cigarettes); one brave marshal suffered a burned arm and Redman had minor hand burns as well as a broken right arm. Unfortunately a marshal standing behind the barrier was much more seriously hurt and both the injured were quickly removed by helicopter to Liege hospital.

Then, on lap 8, Amon was nowhere to be seen as the Honda tore past the pits in the lead. Poor Chris, who is jinxed when he starts in pole position on a GP, had his usual bad luck when a stone thrown by one of Surtees rear tyres smashed through his oil radiator. The first Amon knew about it was when he found himself all sideways because of oil drenching his rear tyres.

The New Zealander slowly came up to the pits where Foghieri took one look and the car was pushed away, while a dejected Amon watched the rest of the race from the pits. The ever-alert Stewart, who had closed up on Amon in close company with Hulme, was quick to grab the advantage and gun past the McLaren to grab second place.

With a third of the race completed, Surtees in the Honda was a full 18 seconds ahead of Stewart and Hulme. Somehow Ickx still held fourth place, but McLaren had passed Siffert, Rodriguez and Courage to claim fifth place overall. Siffert was being slowed by a slipping clutch and an engine which would not rev much over 8000 rpm.

There were now only 11 cars still in the race, the tail-enders consisting of Oliver ahead of Bianchi and Beltoise.

Understandably uncontrollable

Just when Surtees seemed to have the race well under control, instead of the Honda, Hulme's McLaren came past in the lead. The Honda's rear bottom wishbone has pulled out of the chassis and the car was understandably uncontrollable through the corners. When John eventually got to the pits he was still as affable as ever, despite having a grand prix victory slip through his fingers.

Ickx, try as he might, could not hold off McLaren, who moved up into third place on lap 11, leaving the young Belgian trying to fend off Courage and Rodriguez, who were snapping at his heels. Siffert was now detached from this group, falling back on every successive lap, yet still well ahead of Oliver in the sole surviving Lotus 49B.

With the Honda and Amon's Ferrari both out of the race the battle was now between Hulme's McLaren and Stewart's Matra-Ford - and what a dice it was. Hulme tried every way of passing Stewart, but the Matra held him off until half-distance, when a superb piece of driving saw the McLaren emerge as the leader as they completed their 15th lap; but Denny did not lead for long, because on the very next lap Stewart got past again.

The order at half-distance was Hulme, Stewart, Rodriguez, McLaren, Courage, Ickx, Siffert and Oliver, with Bianchi and Beltoise a lap behind. As can be seen, the battle for third place was on in earnest. Courage, McLaren and Rodriguez all taking it in turn to be in front.

A gasp came up from the crowd as Stewart and Hulme came up to lap Oliver at La Source, Hulme going wide, which gave Stewart the lead. Further back Bruce McLaren was far from content with fourth place and, after three laps behind Rodriguez, slipped by him again to reclaim third, 34.8 seconds behind the leaders.

Then, with only ten laps to go, Denny Hulme suddenly went missing, and Bruce found himself in second place behind the Matra. After all the field had gone by, the world champion came slowly into his pit with a broken pin in the Detroit joint, the same driveshaft failure that had put him out at Monaco. The McLaren pit must have been glad they changed to BRD shafts on Bruce's car.

Out in the lad Stewart had it all his own way, but Bruce McLaren, in second place, was having to fight with Rodriguez and Courage every inch of the way. Ickx's Ferrari had found another pot from somewhere and was now on 11 cylinders, and he too was very much in the running.

A couple of laps later Pedro passed McLaren to claim second place, but he only held it for two laps before Bruce re-took him. The unlucky Courage, after driving a magnificent race, was forced out only six laps from the end when a cracked liner mixed oil with water, seriously damaging the engine.

It looked as if at last Tyrrell had it in the bag, for Stewart, with only four more laps to do, had a 29.5 second lead, and although McLaren was narrowing the gap it looked as if Stewart was sure of victory.

Then, to the utter disbelief of the crowd, on the very last lap Stewart arrived at his pit out of fuel: a couple of gallons were hastily added, by which time McLaren, Rodriguez and Ickx had shot by. When wee Jackie tried to restart the car the battery was found to be flat, although it had adequate current to operate the fuel pump: eventually the Matra was started and Stewart completed his final lap, only to have it disallowed for exceeding the double time of the fastest lap.

For such a brilliant drive to come to such an end was cruel luck indeed. Apparently Ken Tyrrell had expected the Matra to consume fuel at 7mpg, and it had averaged near 6.6.

Siffert was another to fall out close to the finish, his Lotus stopping at Stavelot with virtually no oil pressure and very high water temperature.

In the end, Bruce took the flag 12.1 seconds ahead of Rodriguez, whose BRM has suffered from fuel starvation on the last lap, causing the Mexican to drop back. Ickx's application was rewarded with third place, while Stewart's performance still earned him fourth place plus valuable championship points.

Oliver, after a very consistent drive, was holding a secure fifth place after Siffert's retirement when he too ran out of fuel with one lap to go. The Lotus boys soon topped him up but, as the car left the pits, they noticed his driveshaft was smoking. Sure enough Oliver did not make the final lap, abandoning out on the circuit with a broken UJ.

When McLaren was congratulated on his fine victory he said: "No, I just finished second." His pit had not dared to tell him on his last lap that he was in the lead! With Rodriguez in second place Goodyear found themselves with an unexpected 1-2.

View results, stats, quotes and images from the 1968 Belgian GP at FORIX

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