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“A great wall of spray”

19. Oct 2023 
by Ziv Knoll
6209 views

The 1968 German Grand Prix was held at the Nürburgring on 4 August 1968 in extremely wet and foggy conditions, and Scottish driver Jackie Stewart, racing with a broken wrist, won the race by a margin of four minutes in what is widely considered to be one of the greatest victories in the history of Formula One.

The race turned out to be a one-man show by Jackie Stewart in his blue ELF-livered Matra-Ford. He put his superior Dunlop wet tires to great effect and by lap 2, had extended his lead to 34 seconds. Stewart crossed the line after 14 laps, more than 4 minutes ahead of second placed Graham Hill (Lotus).

Stewart described the race as a “teeth gritting effort” in his biography. About the first lap of the race he wrote: “Visibility is so pathetically poor I can’t even see Chris’ (Amon) car in front of me… I am simply driving into this great wall of spray. I pull out to pass him but the spray is dense and I’m driving blind.”

Source: DR

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