For the 1968 Formula One season, after two years of driving the team's sole entry, Bruce McLaren was partnered by Denny Hulme. Hulme was world champion with the Brabham team in 1967 and had raced for McLaren that year in Can-Am, a North American sports car racing series. For the first round of the 1968 world championship – the South African Grand Prix, which was held in January, four months before the second round – only Hulme competed, using the M5A to finish fifth. The M7A's first race was the Race of Champions at Brands Hatch, run to Formula One rules but not part of the world championship. There, McLaren won from pole position while Hulme was third. Another victory came at the non-championship BRDC International Trophy at Silverstone, this time with Hulme finishing first and McLaren second. In the M7A's championship debut in Spain, Hulme was second and McLaren retired, then in Monaco McLaren crashed and Hulme was fifth and last. At the Belgian Grand Prix, they were fifth and sixth on the grid. Hulme took the lead and held it until a half shaft failed two thirds of the way in. McLaren was then second behind Jackie Stewart's Matra but Stewart had to make a pit stop for fuel on the final lap, giving McLaren the win, although he initially believed he had finished second. It was the McLaren team's first world championship victory and Bruce McLaren became the second driver, after Jack Brabham, to win in a car bearing their own name; it was also the last win of his career.