1912 French Grand Prix

The 1912 French Grand Prix was a Grand Prix motor race held at Dieppe on 25–26 June 1912.

Georges Boillot celebrating his win at the 1912 French Grand Prix
1912 French Grand Prix
Race details
Date 25–26 June 1912
Official name Grand Prix de l'Automobile Club de France
Location Dieppe, France
Course Public roads
Course length 76.989 km (47.840 miles)
Distance 20 laps, 1539.778 km (956.800 miles)
Fastest lap
Driver United States David Bruce-Brown Fiat S74
Time 36:32.0
Podium
First Peugeot
Second Fiat
Third Sunbeam

The Race

The race was run over two days with the drivers completing ten laps on each day and their times being aggregated to produce the winner (similar to a modern rally race). Coupe de l'Auto cars competed alongside Grand Prix cars. The coupe cars were limited to 3 litre engines. The only restriction on the Grand Prix cars was that cars must be no wider than 1.75 metres.[1] Riding mechanic Jean Bassignano was killed in a lap 3 crash when his driver Léon Collinet put a wheel off and flipped. 47 cars started the race at 30 second intervals, with Victor Rigal's Sunbeam the first to start.

Victor Hemery, driving a Lorraine-Dietrich, was the first to complete a lap, but David Bruce-Brown's Fiat led on time after lap one and retained the lead overnight, more than two minutes ahead of Georges Boillot's Peugeot. Louis Wagner was third at the halfway stage. During the second day, Bruce-Brown was disqualified for refuelling away from the pits on lap 15, giving Boillot a comfortable victory by over thirteen minutes from Wagner.[2]

The Sunbeams performed extremely well in the Coupe de l'Auto race, with Rigal finishing in first place, Resta second, and Medinger third. Due to their astonishing speed they were also placed in third, fourth, and fifth places in the Grand Prix itself, beating many, much more powerful machines. Rigal averaged 65.35 m.p.h. over the 956 miles, only 3 m.p.h. less than Boillot in his 7.6 litre Peugeot.[3]

Classification

Pos No Driver Car Laps Time/Retired
1 22 France Georges Boillot Peugeot 20 13:58:02.6
2 23 France Louis Wagner Fiat S74 +13:05.8
3 3 France Victor Rigal Sunbeam +40:33.4
4 17 United Kingdom Dario Resta Sunbeam +41:49.2
5 52 France Emile Medinger Sunbeam +2:01:38.8
6 50 Belgium Joseph Christiaens Excelsior +2:25:36.2
7 20 France René Croquet Th. Schneider +3:33:36.6
8 30 France "Anford"/France Pilain Rolland-Pilain +3:51:29.4
9 36 United Kingdom Richard Wyse Arrol-Johnston +4:09:16.6
10 40 Belgium Arthur Duray Alcyon +4:30:53.0
11 32 France Paul Vonlatum Vinot-Deguignand +5:07:57.4
12 12 France Dragutin Esser Mathis +5:20:02.4
13 29 France Cyril de Vere Cote +6:59:03.4
14 28 United Kingdom James Reid Arrol-Johnston 19 +1 Lap
Ret 33 United Kingdom Percy Lambert Vauxhall 18 Radiator
Ret 55 United Kingdom A. Crossman Arrol-Johnston 17 Radiator
Ret 7 France Georges Sizaire Sizaire-Naudin 17 Lost a wheel
Ret 14 France Pierre Garcet Calthorpe 16 Engine
Ret 27 Page Alcyon 16 Crash
Ret 51 United Kingdom John Hancock Vauxhall 15 Engine
Ret 38 France Thomas Schweitzer Sizaire-Naudin 10 Engine
Ret 21 France Eugène Renaux Gregoire 10 Withdrawn
Ret 24 France Mario Romano Gregoire 10 Withdrawn
Ret 34 France René Hanriot Lorraine-Dietrich 10 Fire
Ret 18 France Philippe de Marne Gregoire 8 Steering
Ret 4 France Barriaux Alcyon 8 Engine
Ret 56 France Lucien Molon Vinot-Deguignand 7 No oil
Ret 47 France René Thomas Lion-Peugeot L3 7 Engine
Ret 19 France Louis Naudin Sizaire-Naudin 7
Ret 16 France Gustave Caillois Sunbeam 7 Engine
Ret 45 Italy Paul Zuccarelli Peugeot L-76 7 Ignition
Ret 31 France Paul Bablot Lorraine-Dietrich 7 Engine
Ret 25 United Kingdom Frank Rollason Singer 6 Engine
Ret 39 United Kingdom Bramwell Heywood Singer 5 Crash
Ret 26 United Kingdom L G Hornsted Calthorpe 5 Gearbox
Ret 9 France René Champoiseau Th. Schneider 4
Ret 8 France Léon Molon Vinot-Deguignand 3 No oil
Ret 54 United Kingdom W. Watson Vauxhall 2 Engine
Ret 10 France Léon Collinet Gregoire 2 Crash
Ret 41 France Fernand Gabriel Cote 1 Universal joint
Ret 57 Stefan Heim Lorraine-Dietrich 1 Engine
Ret 11 France Victor Hemery Lorraine-Dietrich 1 Engine
Ret 49 France Albert Guyot Rolland-Pilain 1 Engine
DQ 37 United States David Bruce-Brown Fiat S74 15 Refuelling away from pits
DQ 42 Italy Ralph De Palma Fiat S74 7 Work away from pits
DQ 13 France Jules Goux Peugeot L-76 3 Refuelling away from pits
DQ 43 United Kingdom Fred Burgess Calthorpe 1 Too slow

References

  1. Higham, Peter (1995). The Guinness Guide to International Motor Racing. Guinness Publishing. p. 194. ISBN 0-85112-642-1.
  2. Rendall, Ivan (1995). The Chequered Flag. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. pp. 66–69. ISBN 0-297-83550-5.
  3. "Sunbeam cars".


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