Dutch GP 1967

Dutch GP, 1967

It was only three weeks since Lorenzo Bandini's death at Monaco but much had happened in the interim. Ferrari had named British engineer-driver Mike Parkes as Bandini's replacement. He shared victory a few days later with Lodovico Scarfiotti in the non-championship F1 race at Syracuse although most of the F1 big guns missed the Italian road race because they were in America for the Indianapolis 500 where Dan Gurney qualified on the front row but the other GP stars were all struggling. Jim Clark flew back for a Formula 2 race at Zolder and then returned to the US for the 500. The event was delayed by rain until the Wednesday and Jackie Stewart, Dan Gurney, Jochen Rindt, Graham Hill and Clark all went out with mechanical trouble, leaving Denny Hulme as the only F1 driver go the distance (he finished fourth). and then there was a scramble to get everyone back in time for the Dutch GP, with practice beginning on Friday.

The big news in the Zandvoort paddock was the arrival of the long-awaited Ford Cosworth DFV engine and the new Lotus 49, which had been designed specifically for the engine by Maurice Philippe. Brabham also had the new BT24 while the BRMs, the Eagle and one Scarfiotti's Ferrari were all significant developments on previous machines.

Lotus might have had a frustrating time in the United States but with the new DFV engines the cars were quick and Hill set the fastest time in qualifying, half a second faster than Gurney and a full second quicker than Jack Brabham. The two Cooper-Maseratis of Rindt and Pedro Rodriguez were on the second row with John Surtees's Honda, Hulme's Brabham and Clark's Lotus on the third row, the Scotsman having had mechanical troubles in practice.

At the start one of the officials was still standing in the middle of the second row when he race began and this resulted in Hulme being held up. Hill took the lead with Brabham and Gurney chasing. By the end of the lap the Lotus driver was two seconds ahead. Rindt had got through into third and was followed by Gurney, Amon and Clark. Gurney battled with Rindt but then Gurney had to pit with engine trouble and so dropped out of the battle. Clark moved past Amon but then found himself under attack from Hulme.

Hill's Lotus suddenly slowed on the eleventh lap and Brabham took the lead with Rindt second and Clark third. The Lotus driver overtook Rindt on lap 15 and took the lead on lap 16. Brabham could not keep up but was no longer under pressure because Rindt had fallen back and been overtaken by Hulme. For a while Denny was under attack from Amon's Ferrari but he gradually moved clear to secure third place.

Clark duly gave the Cosworth DFV a famous debut victory, beating Brabham's Brabham-Repco by nearly 25 seconds.

It was the start of a new era in F1 history.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
Jim Clark Lotus-Cosworth 49 90 2h14m45.100s  
Jack Brabham Brabham-Repco BT19 90 2h15m08.700s  
Denny Hulme Brabham-Repco BT20 90 2h15m10.800s  
Chris Amon Ferrari 312 90 2h15m12.400s  
Mike Parkes Ferrari 312 89  10 
22 Ludovico Scarfiotti Ferrari 312 89  15 
18 Chris Irwin Lotus-BRM 25 88  13 
10 Mike Spence BRM P83 87  12 
21 Bob Anderson Brabham-Climax BT11 86  17 
10 20 Jo Siffert Cooper-Maserati T81 83  16 
John Surtees Honda RA273 73 Throttle Slides 
Jackie Stewart BRM P83 51 Brakes 11 
12 Jochen Rindt Cooper-Maserati T81B 41 Suspension 
14 Pedro Rodriguez Cooper-Maserati T81 39 Gearbox 
Graham Hill Lotus-Cosworth 49 11 Mechanical 
15 Dan Gurney Eagle-Weslake T1G Fuel Injection 
17 Bruce McLaren McLaren-BRM M4B Accident 14