1950 Monaco Grand Prix

1950 Formula One Season
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1950 Monaco Grand Prix
Date	May 21, 1950
Round	2
Track	Monte Carlo
Laps	100
Weather	Mild & Sunny
Pole Position
Driver
Time
Fastest Lap
Driver
Time

The Monaco Grand Prix was Round Two of the 1950 World Championship.

After the result at Silverstone, this race was supposed to be a battle between the dominant Alfa Romeo and the absentees from Round One, Ferrari.

Giuseppe Farina was favourite to repeat his win in 1948, and that, coupled with his win at Silverstone, made him perhaps the favourite for the race. Louis Chiron, a Monaco native, would be the crowd favourite, and it was hoped that he could repeat his win 19 years previously, when he drove for Bugatti.

Qualifying was held on Thursday and Saturday, and with 25 entries, it was deemed that the Top 5 in Thursday Qualifying would earn spots 1-5 for the race. The rest of the grid would be determind by the Qualifying on Saturday. Notable absentees from Qualifying were Pierre Levegh and Yves Giraud Cabantous, who finished fourth at Silverstone.

But Ferrari could do nothing about Alfa Romeo in Qualifying. Reg Parnell didn't participate, so there were only three Alfa Romeo's. Juan Manuel Fangio and Giuseppe Farina were 1-2 for Alfa Romeo. Fangio was dominant though, beating Farina by 2.6 seconds. Jose Froilan Gonzalez was third for Maserati, a further second behind. Philippe Etancelin managed fourth for Talbot-Lago-Talbot. Luigi Fagioli was disappointing in fifth - four seconds behind Fangio.

Standards had improved by Saturday Qualifying, in which Luigi Villoresi claimed sixth for Ferrari, a second ahead of Alberto Ascari in seventh. There was then a huge gap to local man, Louis Chiron, who was over six seconds off Fangio's pace, and four seconds behind Villoresi.

There was a catastrophe on the opening lap, when a wave from the harbour at Tabac, launched onto the track. Fangio survived the chaos, but the cars behind him weren't so lucky.

Second on the scene was Giuseppe Farina, who spun on the wet surface, and crashed. The drivers behind could not get out of the way quickly enough, and most of the backmarkers ended up ploughing into Farina. There was no way that anybody could inform the cars approaching the corner, so when they got there, they were surprised and were caught out. Eight cars were caught up in the melee.

On the following lap, Gonzalez, who had damaged his car on Lap 1, joined the carnage by sliding off the track there on Lap 2. His car cought fire, but Gonzalez managed to escape, only suffering minor burns.

Liugi Villoresi had avoided the pile up, but had to slow so much he was stuck at the back for a long time. However, he went on the attack, and soon had stormed through the field, to put himself into contention for a podium. However, a rear axle failure forced him to retire.

Tabac was still causing problems, but the seven cars still in the race by two-thirds distance were coping sufficiently.

Fangio claimed the win in three and a quarter hours, and still over a lap ahead of Alberto Ascari in his Ferrari. The winner in 1931, Louis Chiron finished third in front of his home crowd for Maserati, two laps behind Fangio.

The race saw Alfa Romeo continue to dominate, and threw the championship wide open, with no-one from Silverstone winning a point at Monte Carlo.

Results

Bold type denotes bonus point for setting the fastest lap.

Pos/Lap		Driver	Team	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1		Juan Manuel Fangio	Alfa Romeo	3:13:18.7	1	9
2		Alberto Ascari	Ferrari	+ 1 lap	7	6
3		Louis Chiron	Maserati	+ 2 laps	8	4
4		Raymond Sommer	Ferrari	+ 3 laps	9	3
5		Prince Bira	Maserati	+ 5 laps	15	2
6		Bob Gerard	English Racing Automobiles	+ 6 laps	16
7		Johnny Claes	Talbot-Logo-Talbot	+ 6 laps	19
63		Luigi Villoresi	Ferrari	Rear Axle	6
38		Philippe Etancelin	Talbot-Lago-Talbot	Oil Leak	4
1		Jose Froilan Gonzalez	Maserati	Accident	3
0		Giuseppe Farina	Alfa Romeo	Accident	2
0		Luigi Fagioli	Alfa Romeo	Accident	5
0		Louis Rosier	Talbot-Lago-Talbot	Accident	10
0		Robert Manzon	Simca-Gordini	Accident	11
0		Toulo de Graffenried	Maserati	Accident	12
0		Maurice Trintignant	Simca-Gordini	Accident	13
0		Cuth Harrison	English Automobile Racing	Accident	14
0		Franco Rol	Maserati	Accident	17
0		Harry Schell	Cooper-JAP	Collision	20
DNS		Peter Whitehead	Ferrari	Engine	21
DNS		Alfredo Pian	Maserati	Practice Accident	18

Monaco Grand Prix
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Tracks: Monte Carlo