1925 French Grand Prix

Start of the race.

Winner Robert Benoist in his Delage during the race.

The race was marred by the fatal crash of famous Italian driver Antonio Ascari, driving for Alfa Romeo. His son Alberto would go on to be Formula One world champion in the 1950s.

The race began with a rolling start, with the field lead by two pilot cars. However, the start was a mess due to the slow speed of the pilot cars.[2] From the start, Ascari took the lead from the second row, followed by Divo and Segrave. By the end of the first lap, Ascari had pulled a sizable lead from Divo, with Masetti, Wagner and Campari passed Segrave, who was followed by Brilli-Peri, Benoist and Conelli. The five Bugattis already some way behind.[3][4]

On the second lap, Campari moved up to second and the two Alfa Romeos started to pull away from the rest of the field. Divo dropped back, stopping for plugs. Brilli-Peri overtook Wagner putting him into third, but was retaken on lap 3 dropping him to fourth ahead of Masetti in the best placed Sunbeam. At the end of the fifth lap, however, Brilli-Peri pitted, also for plugs. Both Divo and Brilli-Peri pitted again several times, Divo retiring after 7 laps, and Brilli-Peri continuing on but several laps down.[3][4]

Around the eleventh lap, the two leading Alfa Romeos continued to pull away, aided by third placed Wagner experiencing a misfiring engine, dropping him back several places, and Ascari setting the then record fastest lap on lap 11 in 5 minutes 49 seconds. Benoist, who had been sitting in fifth place prior to Wagner's issues then began moving up the field, moving past the Sunbeam of Masetti into third place on the 18th lap. Shortly after the leading Alfa Romeos made their first pit stops, with Ascari getting away without losing his lead, but a slower stop by Campari dropped him to third behind Benoist, who he would retake shortly after.[3][4]

Shortly after this, came tragedy: light rain had started to fall and Ascari misjudged the fast left hand corner on the return leg of the lap, brushing the fence on the inside causing the car to turn over, throwing him out then crushing him. He would later die in the ambulance on his way to hospital.[3][4]

Benoist, now lying second, made his first pitstop at the end of lap 29, losing second place in the process to Masetti and handing over his car to Divo who had long since retired his car. Divo pushed hard in an effort to catch up to Campari, retaking second place from Masetti (soon to be the last remaining Sunbeam with Conelli having retired around the same time as Ascari's accident, and Segrave soon to retire with engine trouble). In his efforts to catch Campari, Divo set the fastest lap of 5 minutes 48 seconds, but this was ultimately not necessary; with the news of Ascari's death it was decided to withdraw the remaining Alfa Romeos, with Campari coming in from the lead and Brilli-Peri still some laps behind. This left Divo well in the lead from Masetti and Constantini in the fastest of the Bugattis, followed closely by Torchy, now driving Wagner's Delage.[3][4]

Torchy continued to push in spite of the increasingly wet weather, passing Constantini just a lap after Campari was withdrawn, and finally passing Masetti's Sunbeam with 10 laps to go. Divo handed the lead Delage back to Benoist at the last stop, allowing him to take the win from Wagner and Torchy, and Masetti in third, followed at some distance by all five Bugattis, the last of which, Foresti, over an hour behind.[3][4]

After the race and presentation ceremony, Benoist took the flowers he had been presented as the winner and drove his car to the corner where Ascari had lost his life, placing them there as a gesture to the fallen driver.[4]