1968 Canadian Grand Prix

Championship standings

Graham Hill leads on 30 points, closely followed by Jacky Ickx on 27, Jackie Stewart on 26, and defending champion Denny Hulme on 24. The opening race of a three-round North American finale determines whether this remains a four-way fight or narrows further.

Previous race

Hulme won a slipstreaming battle at Monza, with Johnny Servoz-Gavin second for Matra and Ickx third for Ferrari. Hill retired when a wheel came off his Lotus. Stewart led late in the race but dropped out with engine failure, allowing Hulme to win; Siffert followed Stewart out with a rear suspension failure nine laps from the end.

Entrants

The race moves from Mosport Park to the Circuit Mont-Tremblant at St. Jovite in Quebec, one and a half hours northwest of Montreal. Canadian driver Bill Brack appears in a third Lotus, while Dan Gurney runs a third McLaren (entered by his Anglo American Racers team) having abandoned his Eagle-Weslake programme. A privately entered Eagle T1F appears in the hands of local Formula A/5000 driver Al Pease. BRM run a single car for Rodríguez. Matra Sports expand to two cars, with Henri Pescarolo joining Beltoise; alongside Stewart and Servoz-Gavin in the Matra International entries, that makes four Matras in the field.

Milestones

Bill Brack and Henri Pescarolo make their Formula One World Championship debuts.

Practice

Jochen Rindt took pole position for Brabham — the new Repco V8 engine finally delivering competitive pace — with Amon’s Ferrari and Siffert’s Lotus alongside on the front row. Gurney qualified on the second row alongside Hill.