1950 French A1 Grand Prix

The 1950 French A1 Grand Prix was the fourth round of the inaugural A1 Grand Prix Season hosted at the Circuit de la Sarthe at Le Mans. It ran as a support race to the 1950 Le Mans 24 Hours on Saturday morning before the 24 Hours began. France's Maurice Trintignant took pole in his A1 Grand Prix debut.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos	No.	Driver	Time	Gap
1	13	Maurice Trintignant	4:03.607	Leader
2	11	Peter Whitehead	4:04.209	+0.602
3	29	Harry Schell	4:04.621	+1.014
4	14	Paul Pietsch	4:04.798	+1.191
5	27	Toulo de Graffenried	4:05.112	+1.505
6	3	Johnny Claes	4:05.119	+1.512
7	16	Piero Taruffi	4:05.314	+1.707
8	18	Louis Chiron	4:05.536	+1.929
9	1	Marcos Ciani	4:06.141	+2.534
10	4	Chico Landi	4:06.170	+2.563
11	25	Paco Godia	4:06.287	+2.680
12	21	Desmond Titterington	4:06.563	+2.956
13	7	Zdeněk Pohl	4:07.029	+3.422
14	12	Asser Wallenius	4:07.298	+3.691
15	19	Dries van der Lof	4:07.764	+4.157
16	15	Joe Kelly	4:07.984	+4.277
17	31	Mikhail Metelev	4:08.664	+5.057
18	5	Al Pease	4:08.697	+5.090
19	10	Willy Lehmann	4:09.182	+5.575
20	33	Jack Niell	4:09.209	+5.602
21	28	B. Bira	4:09.238	+5.631
22	26	Erik Lundgren	4:09.274	+5.667
23	23	Alex McGlashan	4:11.240	+7.633
24	8	Robert Nelleman	4:11.312	+7.705
25	20	Jack Tutton	4:11.585	+7.978
26	30	Eitel Cantoni	4:12.394	+8.787
27	17	Luis Leal Solaraes	4:13.402	+9.795
28	6	Arcesio Paz	4:14.206	+10.599
29	32	Ramón López	4:14.351	+10.744
30	22	Luis Asteñgo Albizuri	4:20.222	+16.615
31	2	Tony Gaze	4:21.729	+18.122
32	9	Porfirio Rubirosa	4:27.790	+24.183
33	24	Arthur Mackenzie	4:39.650	+36.043

Race

Trintignant and Whitehead lead off the start.

For once the pole sitter didn't loose the lead at the start as France's Maurice Trintignant managed to hold off a challenge from England's Peter Whitehead at the Dunlop Chicane. Meanwhile Germany's Paul Pietsch had managed to get by the United States car of Harry Schell. Soon as many had predicted Schell's race pace wasn't as quick as his qualifying pace and he would spend the first stint leading a train of cars which went back as far as Desmond Titterington in 12th while the top three broke away.

Italy's Piero Taruffi managed to get by Schell for 4th on lap 5 but by this point the leaders were over 15 seconds up the road. As for the front runners, Trintignant spent the first stint with Whitehead always within a second of him while Pietsch was a little way back but still within sight.

The first round of pit stops took place on laps 7 and 8. Whitehead was the first of the leaders to pit while Trintignant and Pietsch stopped the lap after. The Englishman briefly managed to get the undercut on the French driver only for Trintignant to out drive him coming out of the Mulsanne corner. Further back Switzerland's Toulo de Graffenried managed to get by Schell during the pitstops for 5th.

The top five would remain the same for the rest of the race though Whitehead would remain within sight of Trintignant's mirrors the whole way. Meanwhile Schell dropped further down the order with Monaco's Louis Chiron getting past during the second and final round of stops then Brasil's Chico Landi passed him on the penultimate lap. Still it was easily the strongest performance for the United States so far.

This was the cleanest race held so far this season with only seven retirements, only two of which were due to an accident, thanks in no small part to the wide open nature of the Le Sarthe circuit compared with the narrower circuits at Zandvoort and Monaco. Jack Niell in his debut for Wales spun off through the Porsche Curves on lap 6, luckily missed by those behind. Colombia's Arcesio Paz binned his car into the tyres at Mulsanne on lap 9 just after his first pitstop. Cold tyres were believed to be the cause of the error.

Race Classification

Pos	Grid	No.	Driver	Laps	Behind	Points
1	1	13	Maurice Trintignant	24	1:52:23.476	25
2	2	11	Peter Whitehead	24	+6.335	20
3	4	14	Paul Pietsch	24	+15.175	16
4	7	16	Piero Taruffi	24	+21.472	13
5	5	27	Toulo de Graffenried	24	+33.379	11
6	8	18	Louis Chiron	24	+39.461	10
7	10	4	Chico Landi	24	+42.701	9
8	3	29	Harry Schell	24	+44.075	8
9	11	25	Paco Godia	24	+44.859	7
10	9	1	Marcos Cioci	24	+45.645	6
11	16	15	Joe Kelly	24	+46.555	5
12	6	3	Johnny Claes	24	+58.803	4
13	15	19	Dries van der Lof	24	+1:03.361	3
14	21	28	B. Bira	24	+1:06.556	2
15	31	2	Tony Gaze	24	+1:23.459	1
16	14	12	Asser Wallenius	24	+1:27.124
17	22	26	Erik Lundgren	24	+1:52.572
18	32	9	Porfirio Rubirosa	24	+2:04.563
19	25	20	Jack Tutton	24	+2:19.519
20	33	24	Arthur Mackenzie	24	+2:20.578
21	23	23	Alex McGlashan	24	+2:51.403
22	18	5	Al Pease	24	+3:06.456
23	26	30	Eitel Cantoni	24	+3:38.514
24	27	17	Luis Leal Solares	23	+1 lap
25	29	32	Ramón López	23	+1 lap
26	30	22	Luis Asteñgo Albizuri	22	+2 laps
Ret	19	10	Willy Lehmann	19	Suspension
Ret	12	21	Desmond Titterington	15	Engine
Ret	13	7	Zdenek Pohl	12	Overheating
Ret	24	8	Robert Nelleman	10	Engine
Ret	28	6	Arcesio Paz	7	Accident
Ret	20	33	Jack Niell	5	Accident
Ret	17	31	Mikhail Metelev	0	Clutch

Fastest Lap Piero Taruffi 4:09.561 Lap 10

Penalty Report

No penalties were given after this round.