German GP 1967

German GP, 1967

There had been some changes to the Nurburgring to slow the approach of the cars to the pit area but it was clear that this was going to have very little effect on lap times as the cars had developed considerably in the course of the previous 12 months. As had happened the previous year there were a field of Formula 2 cars which included a number of future stars including Jacky Ickx and Jo Schlesser in Matras, Jack Oliver in a Lotus, Alan Rees in a Brabham, David Hobbs in a Lola-BMW and the two wooden-chassised Protos entries for Kurt Ahrens and Brian Hart. The field was much as usual except that there was a second F1 Lola-BMW for Hubert Hahne, although this had a 2-liter engine and so qualified for the F1 class.

Jim Clark was fastest by nearly 10 seconds in his Lotus-DFV with Denny Hulme second in the Brabham-Repco. The third fastest time, amazingly, was set by Jacky Ickx in the F2 Matra although this started on the F2 grid which lined up behind the main grid. Alongside Clark and Hulme, therefore, were the BRM of Jackie Stewart and Dan Gurney's Eagle-Weslake. On the second row was Bruce McLaren in the second Eagle, John Surtees in the Honda and Jack Brabham in his Brabham-Repco.

Clark took the lead at the start while Graham Hill (who had crashed in practice and was down in 13th on the grid) was pushed onto some grass and spun, restarting at the back of the field. Clark stayed ahead of Hulme and Gurney for the first three laps but on the fourth he slowed dramatically, his suspension having buckled. He was out.

Almost immediately Gurney took the lead from Hulme while Brabham was third after McLaren went out with a split oil pipe. Ickx continued to impress by running fifth on the road behind Stewart. The Scotsman overtook Brabham but then retired with a transmission problem and so Ickx moved to fourth, although Amon soon closed up and overtook the cheeky F2 driver. On the 12th lap the Belgian retired when his front suspension collapsed. On the next lap Gurney suffered a driveshaft failure and Hulme took the lead to win from Brabham and Amon.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
1 2 Denny Hulme Brabham-Repco BT24 15 2h05m55.700s  2 
2 1 Jack Brabham Brabham-Repco BT24 15 2h06m34.200s  7 
3 8 Chris Amon Ferrari 312 15 2h06m34.700s  8 
4 7 John Surtees Honda RA273 15 2h08m21.400s  6 
5 24 Jackie Oliver *Lotus-Cosworth 48 15 2h12m04.900s (1st F2 Section) 19 
6 16 Jo Bonnier Cooper-Maserati T81 15 2h14m37.800s (5th F1 Section) 16 
7 22 Alan Rees *Brabham-Cosworth BT23 15 2h14m43.600s  20 
8 15 Guy Ligier Brabham-Repco BT20 14  17 
9 18 Chris Irwin BRM P83 13  15 
10 27 David Hobbs *Lola-BMW T100 13  22 
11 6 Pedro Rodriguez Cooper-Maserati T81 13  10 
r 9 Dan Gurney Eagle-Weslake T1G 12 Drive Shaft 4 
r 29 Jacky Ickx *Matra-Cosworth MS7 12 Suspension 18 
nc 25 Brian Hart *Protos-Cosworth  12  25 
r 14 Jo Siffert Cooper-Maserati T81 11 Fuel Pump 12 
r 4 Graham Hill Lotus-Cosworth 49 8 Suspension 13 
r 17 Hubert Hahne Lola-BMW T100 6 Suspension  14 
r 11 Jackie Stewart BRM P115 5 Transmission 3 
r 5 Jochen Rindt Cooper-Maserati T86 4 Steering 9 
r 3 Jim Clark Lotus-Cosworth 49 4 Suspension 1 
r 26 Kurt Ahrens Jr *Protos-Cosworth  4 Radiator 23 
r 10 Bruce McLaren Eagle-Weslake T1G 3 Mechanical 5 
r 12 Mike Spence BRM P83 3 Transmission 11 
r 23 Jo Schlesser *Matra-Cosworth MS5 2 Clutch 21 
r 20 Gerhard Mitter *Brabham-Cosworth BT23 0 Engine 24 
ns 28 Brian Redman *Lola-Cosworth T100   26