Different Times
The 1968 German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring was a
memorable event in many aspects.
In fact, it was not only the German GP but also the
European GP, and surprise surprise, not even one F1
practice session was run under dry conditions. So the pole
position time of Jacky Ickx was only a 9.04.0, which was
about 50 sec. slower than Dan Gurneys lap record of
8.15.1 min.
Race day was of course also cold and wet and foggy and
the start of the race was delayed several times because of
bad visibility. Our man of the day, Jackie Stewart in a
Matra – Ford, could only manage a time of 9.54.2 and he
started the race from the third row on P6. Though he made
a splendid start on the slippery surface and was already up
to second heading into the South curve. He overtook
current leader Graham Hill at the end of lap one and
crossed the line with a lead of 4 seconds. On lap two he did
a 9.24.4 and increased his lead on Hill to 34 seconds! His
progress continued:
he led by 47 seconds after lap three and by 58 seconds after lap four.
By the end of the race, he was over four minutes ahead of Hill, 4 min and 3 seconds to be precise!
Graham though had his own drama in the final lap. He spun and stalled the car facing in the the wrong direction. As there was
no marshal in sight, he jumped out of his Lotus, turned it around and jumped in again. On the sloping track he managed to
revive the Cosworth engine and keep his second place! Different times indeed…
In F1 history, there have always been drivers far better than all the others. With this day in the Eifel mountains,
there was another one, and his name was Jackie Y. Stewart!
Gap to P2: more than 3 minutes!