Victory For Brabham

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31412, 4 July 1967, Page 17

Victory For Brabham

fN.Z, Press Association)

LE MANS (France). J. Brabham, driving his own Repco-Brab-ham, won the French Grand Prix on Sunday at an average speed of 105.11 m.p.h.

A resounding victory for the all-Australian RepcoBrabhatn cars was completed by the second placing of the New Zealander, D. Hulme. J. Stewart (Britain) was third in a B.R.M. Brabham and Hulme drove on to victory after their main rivals, the Lotus-Fords of G. Hill (England) and J. Clark (Scotland) and the Eagles of D. Gurney (United States) and B. McLaren (New Zealand) were out of the race by the midway mark. It was the fifth round of

the world championship and Brabham was the fifth different driver to win. He also won last year's French Grand Prix.

The early lead was held successively by Hill, Brabham and Clark, but Hill and Clark quickly showed their cars had the edge in speed and acceleration.

They went into the lead, but on the fourteenth lap Hill retired with a broken gearbox and on the twentythird lap he was followed into the pits by Clark, who also had gearbox trouble. Brabham took the lead, and was never again headed. Gurney, the winner of the Belgian Grand Prix a fortnight ago, was lying second to Brabham, only a few seconds behind, when the fuel pipe on his Anglo-American Eagle broke on the forty-first lap. McLaren, in the other

Eagle, had retired on the twenty-sixth lap. Brabham was about 50 seconds ahead of Hulme, who was well ahead of thirdplaced Stewart. The only Ferrari, driven by C. Amon (New Zealand), retired with a broken throttle cable on the forty-eighth lap while in third place to leave the Italian firm still without a world championship win this season.

Placings: J. Brabham (Australia) Repco-Brabham, 2hr 13min 21.3 sec, average speed 105.11 m.p.h. 1; D. Hulme (New Zealand) RepcoBrabham, 2:14:10.8, 2; J. Stewart (Britain), 8.R.M., one lap behind. World drivers’ championship table after five races: Hulme 22 points, Brabham 16, P, Rodriguez (Mexico), 12, Amon 11, Clark, Stewart 10, Gurney 9, Graham Hill, J. Love (Rhodesia) 6. The photograph shows Amon (front), followed by Hulme. Amon dropped out in the forty-eighth lap.