1972 GERMAN GRAND PRIX

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HERE WAS LIME ABOUT HIS DRIVE that didn’t invite hyperbole yet Jacky Ickx’s 1972 German GP win was just one of many extraordinary, performances at the ‘Ring by the brilliant Belgian. While barely out of his teens, he’d contested the ’65 Marathon de la Route with rally man Gilbert Staepelaere. After 84 hours, they had finished overall in their Ford Mustang. Yet it was his drive in the ’67 German GP that sent his star soaring. Armed with a Matra M55 for the concurrent F2 race, the 22-year-old’s practice time was only eclipsed by FY’

runners Jim Clark and Denny Hulme. His race ended in retirement, but Ickx’s explosive talent was obvious’. Fast-forward to 1972 and Ickx was on crushing,’ form aboard his Ferrari 312B2, taking nine seconds off Francois Cevert’s existing lap record during Friday practice before claiming pole. Jenks wrote of his efforts: ‘A lap at nearly 120mph around the Nurburgring is the sort of performance that makes the most blasé follower of the sport reel back and exclaim “Kee-rist” or “Mon Dieu”: With the race restored to 14 laps rather than the previous year’s 12, Ickx was on imperious form over the 200-mile distance. At the halfway point he led Emerson Fiffipaldi by 17 seconds, eventually taking the flag some 45sec ahead of team-mate Clay Regazzoni and this despite having to back off at two-thirds distance after a split manifold cost him valuable revs. Yet the World Championship crown that once seemed preordained somehow never happened. A year later the Scuderia underwent one of its periodical downturns, Ickx departing mid-season for a have-licence-will-travel campaign with McLaren and !so. This, his eighth Grand Prix victory, would improbably also be his last. ED