The 1968 Mexican Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at the Ciudad Deportiva Magdalena Mixhuca on November 3, 1968. It was race 12 of 12 in both the 1968 World Championship of Drivers and the 1968 International Cup for Formula One Manufacturers.
This race was to determine the World Drivers' Championship, contested between Britons Graham Hill in the Lotus 49B-Ford and Jackie Stewart in the Matra MS10-Ford, and defending champion, New Zealander Denny Hulme in the McLaren M7A-Ford. The race was moved back a week so as not to clash with the Mexico City Summer Olympics, which ended on October 26.
Hulme started with a mathematical chance of becoming world champion, but his McLaren broke a rear suspension member early, crashed, and caught fire.Kettlewell, Mike. "Grand Prix Racing South of the Border", in Ward, Ian, executive editor. World of Automobiles (London: Orbis, 1974) Volume 12, p.1332. Jo Siffert took the lead, but had to pit with a broken throttle cable. Stewart fell back when his engine started to misfire, his car's handling began going off, and had a fuel-feed problem. Hill won this race and his second Drivers' Championship, after Stewart fell back to seventh after an engine problem with his Matra.Kettlewell, p.1332.
The Mexican government's effort to curb civil unrest led to a switch from military police to unarmed policemen and track marshals for crowd control; by race end, spectators were encroaching on the track itself. This was one reason for the ultimate cancellation of future Mexican Grands Prix.
Championship permutations
Coming into this race, Graham Hill led the Drivers' Championship by 39 points ahead of his title rivals Stewart and Hulme, with both trailing their respective frontrunners in the championship by three points each. It was the first time in four years that at least three drivers were still in contention of winning the drivers' title heading into the season finale. If Hill won the title, he would have won his second championship title after clinching his first one six years prior, whilst Stewart had the chance to claim his maiden drivers' title. If Hulme won, he would have become the first driver since Jack Brabham in 1960 to successfully defend his championship title.
The championship would have been won by either of the top three drivers in the following manner:
Hill would have won if: Graham Hill Jackie Stewart Denny Hulme3rd or better2nd or lowerAny position4th 3rd or lower 2nd or lower5th6th4th or lowerlower than 6th5th or lower
Stewart would have won if: Jackie Stewart Graham Hill Denny Hulme1stAny positionAny position2nd4th or lower3rd or lower3rd6th or lower2nd or lower4th7th or lower3rd or lower
Hulme would have won if: Denny Hulme Graham Hill Jackie Stewart 1st4th or lowerAny position
Classification
Qualifying Pos No Driver Constructor Time Gap 1 16 Jo Siffert Lotus-Ford 1:45.22 — 2 6 Chris Amon Ferrari 1:45.62 +0.40 3 10 Graham Hill Lotus-Ford 1:46.01 +0.97 4 1 Denny Hulme McLaren-Ford 1:46.04 +0.82 5 14 Dan Gurney McLaren-Ford 1:46.29 +1.07 6 5 John Surtees Honda 1:46.49 +1.27 7 15 Jackie Stewart Matra-Ford 1:46.69 +1.47 8 3 Jack Brabham Brabham-Repco 1:46.80 +1.58 9 2 Bruce McLaren McLaren-Ford 1:47.00 +1.78 10 4 Jochen Rindt Brabham-Repco 1:47.07 +1.85 11 12 Moisés Solana Lotus-Ford 1:47.67 +2.45 12 8 Pedro Rodríguez BRM 1:47.80 +2.58 13 21 Jean-Pierre Beltoise Matra 1:48.38 +3.16 14 11 Jackie Oliver Lotus-Ford 1:48.44 +3.22 15 7 Jacky Ickx Ferrari 1:49.24 +4.02 16 23 Johnny Servoz-Gavin Matra-Ford 1:49.27 +4.05 17 18 Vic Elford Cooper-BRM 1:49.48 +4.26 18 17 Jo Bonnier Honda 1:49.96 +4.74 19 22 Piers Courage BRM 1:50.28 +5.06 20 9 Henri Pescarolo Matra 1:50.43 +5.21 21 19 Lucien Bianchi Cooper-BRM 1:50.57 +5.35
Race Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 10 Graham Hill Lotus-Ford 65 1:56:43.95 3 9 2 2 Bruce McLaren McLaren-Ford 65 + 1:19.32 9 6 3 11 Jackie Oliver Lotus-Ford 65 + 1:40.65 14 4 4 8 Pedro Rodríguez BRM 65 + 1:41.09 12 3 5 17 Jo Bonnier Honda 64 + 1 Lap 18 2 6 16 Jo Siffert Lotus-Ford 64 + 1 Lap 1 1 7 15 Jackie Stewart Matra-Ford 64 + 1 Lap 7 8 18 Vic Elford Cooper-BRM 63 + 2 Laps 17 9 9 Henri Pescarolo Matra 62 + 3 Laps 20 10 3 Jack Brabham Brabham-Repco 59 Oil pressure 8 23 Johnny Servoz-Gavin Matra-Ford 57 Ignition 16 14 Dan Gurney McLaren-Ford 28 Suspension 5 22 Piers Courage BRM 25 Engine 19 19 Lucien Bianchi Cooper-BRM 21 Engine 21 5 John Surtees Honda 17 Overheating 6 6 Chris Amon Ferrari 16 Transmission 2 12 Moisés Solana Lotus-Ford 14 Broken wing 11 1 Denny Hulme McLaren-Ford 10 Suspension 4 21 Jean-Pierre Beltoise Matra 10 Suspension 13 7 Jacky Ickx Ferrari 3 Ignition 15 4 Jochen Rindt Brabham-Repco 2 Ignition 10 17 Jo Bonnier McLaren-BRM 0 Engine
Notes
This was the first pole position for Jo Siffert and for a Swiss driver. This was the eleventh Grand Prix win of the season for a Ford-powered car. It set the record of the most Grand Prix wins in a season (11) and the highest percentage of Grand Prix wins in a season (92%)
Final Championship standings Bold text indicates the World Champions.
Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Graham Hill 48 2 Jackie Stewart 36 3 Denny Hulme 33 4 Jacky Ickx 27 5 Bruce McLaren 22Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Lotus-Ford 62 1 2 McLaren-Ford 49 1 3 Matra-Ford 45 4 Ferrari 32 5 BRM 28Source:
Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
References
Further reading