F1/Seasons/1968/Round 1
1968 · Round 1 of 12

South African Grand Prix

January 1, 1968 · Kyalami · Midrand · South Africa
Clark
WINNER
Jim Clark · Lotus-Ford · from grid 1
FASTEST LAP
Lap timing starts in 2004. This race has none.
+12
MOST PLACES GAINED
Jean-Pierre Beltoise · grid 18 to P6
9 of 23
CLASSIFIED
14 retired

01/Classification

23 cars
Finishing order
PosDriverConstructorGrid+/-LapsTime / statusPtsFastest lap
1Jim ClarkLotus-Ford10801:53:56.6009
2Graham HillLotus-Ford2080+25.3006
3Jochen RindtBrabham-Repco4+180+30.4004
4Chris AmonFerrari8+478+2 Laps3
5Denny HulmeMcLaren-BRM9+478+2 Laps2
6Jean-Pierre BeltoiseMatra-Ford18+1277+3 Laps1
7Jo SiffertCooper-Maserati16+977+3 Laps0
8John SurteesHonda6-275+5 Laps0
9John LoveBrabham-Repco17+875+5 Laps0
RJackie PretoriusBrabham-Climax2371Not classified0
RDan GurneyEagle-Weslake1258Oil leak0
RJacky IckxFerrari1151Oil leak0
RJo BonnierCooper-Maserati1946Overheating0
RJackie StewartMatra-Ford343Engine0
RSam TingleLDS2235Overheating0
RBasil van RooyenCooper-Climax2022Engine0
RPedro RodríguezBRM1020Fuel system0
RJack BrabhamBrabham-Repco516Engine0
RAndrea de AdamichFerrari713Accident0
RMike SpenceBRM147Fuel system0
RBrian RedmanCooper-Maserati214Oil leak0
RDave CharltonBrabham-Repco143Differential0
RLudovico ScarfiottiCooper-BRM152Water pipe0

Ordered on the source’s position column and printed from position_text. Those two disagree on purpose: position is a sort key that is never null, and position_text is what happened to the car. 14 of 23 cars here were not classified (14 retired). Across the archive that is 9,612 of 26,048 result rows, so a page that printed the sort key would tell more than a third of every field it finished.


02/Grid to finish

9 of 23 cars
Grid minus finishing position
PLACES GAINED
DriverConstructorGridFin+/-
Jean-Pierre BeltoiseMatra-Ford186+12
Jo SiffertCooper-Maserati167+9
John LoveBrabham-Repco179+8
Chris AmonFerrari84+4
Denny HulmeMcLaren-BRM95+4
PLACES LOST
DriverConstructorGridFin+/-
John SurteesHonda68-2

Movement is grid minus finishing position, and it is computed for 9 of the 23 cars entered. It is left blank for the other 14: a car that was not classified has no finishing position to subtract from, and no car here carries grid 0, the value the source uses for a pit lane start or for no recorded grid slot. Scoring a grid of 0 as a gain of every place on the grid is the arithmetic this rule exists to stop; 266 of 26,048 rows across the archive are grid 0, and 40 of those were classified.


03/The 1968 season

12 rounds
JAN 1 to NOV 3
RdDateGrand PrixCircuitWinnerConstructorCars
1JAN 1South African Grand PrixKyalamiJim ClarkLotus-Ford23
2MAY 12Spanish Grand PrixJaramaGraham HillLotus-Ford14
3MAY 26Monaco Grand PrixCircuit de MonacoGraham HillLotus-Ford16
4JUN 9Belgian Grand PrixCircuit de Spa-FrancorchampsBruce McLarenMcLaren-Ford18
5JUN 23Dutch Grand PrixCircuit Park ZandvoortJackie StewartMatra-Ford19
6JUL 7French Grand PrixRouen-Les-EssartsJacky IckxFerrari17
7JUL 20British Grand PrixBrands HatchJo SiffertLotus-Ford20
8AUG 4German Grand PrixNürburgringJackie StewartMatra-Ford20
9SEP 8Italian Grand PrixAutodromo Nazionale di MonzaDenny HulmeMcLaren-Ford20
10SEP 22Canadian Grand PrixCircuit Mont-TremblantDenny HulmeMcLaren-Ford21
11OCT 6United States Grand PrixWatkins GlenJackie StewartMatra-Ford20
12NOV 3Mexican Grand PrixAutódromo Hermanos RodríguezGraham HillLotus-Ford21

Every figure here is one race, read from f1_results and f1_races. The finishing order is the source’s position column; the printed position is position_text, which is a letter on 9,612 of 26,048 rows across the archive (R retired 9,089, W withdrew 364, D disqualified 159). Grid 0 is a pit lane start and prints as PIT, not as a place ahead of pole; 266 of 26,048 rows are grid 0. Time is a total for the winner and a gap to the car ahead for everyone else, and it is present on 8,508 of 26,048 rows only, so most of the archive shows the status instead; where both exist and the status is not “Finished” the status is printed beside the time, because 8,335 of 16,436 classified rows finished lapped or otherwise not cleanly. The fastest lap column is empty before 2004: the source carries lap timing on 8,977 of 26,048 rows and a ranked fastest lap in 447 of 1,161 races, and speed on 8,238 of those, none after 2024. Points are printed as the source stores them and are never rounded to a whole number: 38 of 26,048 rows are fractional (0.5, 1.33, 3.14), which is half points for a shortened race and a split score for a shared car, and every one of them is real. Three races (1951 French, 1956 Argentine, 1957 British) print two cars as first, because two drivers shared one car and the record books credit both; in those three the source hangs the race points on other rows, which is why 5 of 1,164 winning rows across the archive print zero points. Constructors carry no logo in any f1_* table, so none is drawn and none is invented. The 1968 season is complete at 12 rounds.