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The 1950 Monaco Grand Prix was the second race of the inaugural Formula One World Championship in 1950. The 100-lap race took place on May 21 1950 and was won by Juan Manuel Fangio from lights to flag. Fangio also set the fastest lap, thus completing the first hat-trick in Formula One history.

Background

Alfa Romeo were back with their standard squad of Farina, Fagioli and Fangio while a new constructor entered the grid for Round 2 of the 1950 Formula One Season at the glamorous Monaco Grand Prix, the Ferrari team ran by Enzo Ferrari the former Alfa Romeo Principal in the 30s who lead the team to greatness. Now with his own team Ferrari was expected to be the biggest threat to the dominant Alfas. Italians Alberto Ascari and Luigi Villoresi and Frenchman Raymond Sommer were the men chosen to tackle the mighty Alfas. A private Ferrari for Peter Whitehead was also entered.

The Simca-Gordinis run by Amédée Gordini also made their début at Monaco with the two frenchman Robert Manzon and Maurice Trintignant at the wheel.

The Cooper team ran by Charles Cooper and John Cooper made a one off appearance in Monaco with American Harry Schell at the wheel in an unusual rear engined car which at the time was very rare and unpopular.

Yves Giraud-Cabantous was by himself at the works Talbot-Lago team as teammate Eugène Martin was participating at a bike race.

Charles Pozzi joined Louis Rosier at the Ecurie Rosier team.

The works Maserati team entered Franco Rol to partner Louis Chiron for the rest of the season.

Scuderia Achille Vazzi made their debut with Maserati cars with José Froilán González and Alfredo Piàn at the wheel.

Qualifying

Qualifying Report

Qualifying was wet at the first Monaco Grand Prix and Alfredo Piàn crashed his car heavily during the session and was unable to participate in the race. Juan Manuel Fangio to took pole ahead of Farina and an impressive José Froilán González in a Maserati racing for Scuderia Achille Vazzi who prevailed in the wet where teammate Piàn did not. The private Talbot-Lago of Étancelin was 4th with Fagioli 5th and the Ferraris of Villoresi and Ascari started 6th and 7th with Sommer down in 9th.

Qualifying Results

Grid

Pos Pos Pos
Driver Driver Driver
______________
______________ 1
______________ 2 Juan Manuel Fangio
3 Giuseppe Farina
José Froilán González
______________
______________ 4
5 Philippe Étancelin
Luigi Fagioli
______________
______________ 6
______________ 7 Luigi Villoresi
8 Alberto Ascari
Louis Chiron
______________
______________ 9
10 Raymond Sommer
Louis Rosier
______________
______________ 11
______________ 12 Robert Manzon
13 Emmanuel de Graffenried
Maurice Trintignant
______________
______________ 14
15 Cuth Harrison
Prince Bira
______________
______________ 16
______________ 17 Bob Gerard
18 Franco Rol
Johnny Claes
______________
______________ 19
20 Harry Schell




Race

In the morning before the race it rained heavily but luckily before the race started the clouds went away, however they still left a very wet track. Peter Whitehead's private Ferrari failed to start the race due to engine issues that had troubled him all weekend. At the start Fangio got made the best start as Farina spun his wheels up.

As the cars made there way around the first lap, little did they know their had been a tidal wave at the harbour base circuit and had flooded some of the corners.

1950 2 Farina Rosier Fangio

Carnage at Tabac

As the drivers entered Tabac, Nino Farina who was running second spun his Alfa on the wet track and was rammed by José Froilán González and in turn, he was rammed by Luigi Fagioli. This caused a multi-car pile up counting for Louis Rosier, Robert Manzon, Emmanuel de Graffenried, Maurice Trintignant, Cuth Harrison, Franco Rol and Harry Schell all retiring.

Most got away unscathed but González had had oil spilt over him in the accident which badly burned him and would keep him out for the next couple of races. Franco Rol also was injured and suffered a broken wrist which would put him out of contention for awhile as well. Only 9 cars survived the incident and Ferrari was the only team to not lose at least one car in the first lap incident, Villoresi and Ascari quickly overtook Philippe Étancelin for third and the two began a hard battle for second. Étançelin retired later with an oil leak, this paved the way for the third Ferrari of Sommer to take fourth place behind his two teammates but was under pressure from local driver and racing veteran Louis Chiron.

Luigi Villoresi who had stalled early in the race negotiating the mele at Tabac had a strong day fighting back to second but it came to a sad end when his axle broke leaving second place open to Ascari, after a long hard battle Louis Chiron finally managed to get his Maserati past Raymond Sommer and move into third place where he stayed for the remainder of the Grand Prix and took a podium finish in front of his home crowd. The race however was dominated by Fangio who saw absolutely no challenge from any of his rivals with his teammates being taken out on the first lap and showed Ferrari had work to do if they were going to catch the Alfas.

Results

Pos No. Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Avg Speed Grid Pts
1 34 Juan Manuel Fangio Alfa Romeo 100 3:13:18.7 98.701 1 9
2 40 Alberto Ascari Ferrari 99 + 1 lap 97.251 7 6
3 48 Louis Chiron Maserati 98 + 2 laps 96.191 8 4
4 42 Raymond Sommer Ferrari 97 + 3 laps 95.451 9 3
5 50 Prince Bira Maserati 95 + 5 laps 93.363 15 2
6 26 Bob Gerard ERA 94 + 6 laps 92.317 16
7 6 Johnny Claes Talbot-Lago 94 + 6 laps 92.254 18
Ret 38 Luigi Villoresi Ferrari 63 Axle 6
Ret 14 Philippe Étancelin Talbot-Lago 38 Oil leak 4
Ret 2 José Froilán González Maserati 1 Accident 3
Ret 32 Giuseppe Farina Alfa Romeo 0 Accident 2
Ret 36 Luigi Fagioli Alfa Romeo 0 Accident 5
Ret 16 Louis Rosier Talbot-Lago 0 Accident 10
Ret 10 Robert Manzon Simca-Gordini 0 Accident 11
Ret 52 Emmanuel de Graffenried Maserati 0 Accident 12
Ret 12 Maurice Trintignant Simca-Gordini 0 Accident 13
Ret 24 Cuth Harrison ERA 0 Accident 14
Ret 44 Franco Rol Maserati 0 Accident 17
Ret 8 Harry Schell Cooper-JAP 0 Collision 19
DNS 4 Alfredo Pián Maserati Accident
DNS 28 Peter Whitehead Ferrari Engine
DNP 18 Charles Pozzi Talbot-Lago Not present
DNP 20 Yves Giraud-Cabantous Talbot-Lago Not present
DNP 22 Pierre Levegh Talbot-Lago Not Present
DNP 46 Clemente Biondetti Maserati Car unavailable

Fastest Laps

Pos No. Driver Constructor Lap Time Gap Avg Speed Race
1 34 Juan Manuel Fangio Alfa Romeo ? 1:51.0 103.135 1
2 14 Philippe Étancelin Talbot-Lago-Talbot ? 1:57.9 6.9s 97.099 Ret
3 6 Johnny Claes Talbot-Lago-Talbot ? 2:00.2 9.2s 95.241 7

Lap Leaders

Lap-by-lap

Stint Driver Laps Total Distance
1 Juan Manuel Fangio 1–100 100 318.000 km

Total

Pos. Driver Laps Distance
1 Juan Manuel Fangio 100 318.000 km

Standings

Drivers Championship only

Pos Driver Pts
1 Giuseppe Farina 9
2 Juan Manuel Fangio 9
3 Luigi Fagioli 6
4 Alberto Ascari 6
5 Reg Parnell 4
6 Louis Chiron 4
7 Yves Giraud-Cabantous 3
8 Raymond Sommer 3
9 Louis Rosier 2
10 Prince Bira 2

Milestones

  • First Formula One grand chelem.
  • Début for engine manufacturers Ferrari, Simca Gordini and JAP.
  • Alfredo Piàn's only entry.
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