1912 French Grand Prix

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

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
Georges Boillot celebrating his win at the 1912 French Grand Prix

The Race

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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 Hémery, 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

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Ret 21   Eugène Renaux Gregoire 10 Withdrawn
Ret 24   Mario Romano Gregoire 10 Withdrawn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


Grand Prix Race
Previous race:
None
1912 Grand Prix season
Grandes Épreuves
Next race:
None
Previous race:
1908 French Grand Prix
French Grand Prix Next race:
1913 French Grand Prix

References

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  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".