1950 Monaco A1 Grand Prix

The 1950 Monaco A1 Grand Prix was the third round of the inaugural A1 Grand Prix season. It was held alongside the Formula One Grand Prix which meant that the race was held on the Saturday rather than the usual Sunday. Piero Taruffi took pole position for Italy.

Classification

Pre-Qualifying

Since the Monte Carlo circuit can only fit up to 26 cars in its paddock, a one hour pre-qualifying session was held for all teams that were currently outside the top 20 in points. Only the fastest six would be allowed through to the rest of the weekend.

Pos	No.	Driver	Time	Gap
1	2	Tony Gaze	1:29.845	Leader
2	14	Paul Pietsch	1:30.238	+0.393
3	29	Johnnie Parsons	1:31.727	+1.882
4	31	Mikhail Metelev	1:32.042	+2.197
5	9	Porfirio Rubirosa	1:32.490	+2.645
6	20	Jack Tutton	1:32.735	+2.890
Failed to Qualify
7	23	Alex McGlashan	1:33.603	+3.758
8	6	Gabriel Herrera	1:34.600	+4.755
9	30	Eitel Cantoni	1:35.515	+5.670
10	22	Luis Asteñgo Albizuri	1:37.124	+7.279
11	17	Luis Leal Solares	1:37.520	+7.675
12	32	Attilio Cagnasso	1:37.540	+7.695
13	5	Al Pease	1:39.323	+9.478

Qualifying

Pos	No.	Driver	Time	Gap
1	16	Piero Taruffi	1:28.995	Leader
2	18	Louis Chiron	1:29.311	+0.316
3	27	Toulo de Graffenried	1:29.541	+0.546
4	1	José Froilán González	1:29.653	+0.658
5	11	Peter Whitehead	1:29.899	+0.904
6	25	Paco Godia	1:30.021	+1.026
7	9	Porfirio Rubirosa	1:30.257	+1.262
8	14	Paul Pietsch	1:30.360	+1.365
9	29	Johnnie Parsons	1:30.643	+1.648
10	15	Joe Kelly	1:30.671	+1.676
11	19	Dries van der Lof	1:30.691	+1.696
12	3	Johnny Claes	1:30.887	+1.892
13	28	B. Bira	1:30.925	+1.930
14	8	Robert Nelleman	1:30.990	+1.995
15	13	Robert Manzon	1:31.087	+2.092
16	24	Ernest Geering	1:31.831	+2.836
17	26	Erik Lundgren	1:31.860	+2.865
18	4	Chico Landi	1:32.257	+3.262
19	10	Willy Lehmann	1:32.596	+3.601
20	2	Tony Gaze	1:32.778	+3.783
21	31	Mikhail Metelev	1:32.879	+3.884
22	21	Desmond Titterington	1:33.158	+4.163
23	7	Eliška Junková	1:33.284	+4.289
24	20	Jack Tutton	1:33.512	+4.517
25	33	Charles Headland	1:33.826	+4.827
26	12	Asser Wallenius	1:47.114	+18.119

Race

For the third race in succession, the pole sitter was immediately overtaken by the driver staring in second as Monaco's Louis Chiron enjoyed a better start than Italy's Piero Taruffi. However Chiron's joy was short lived as he only ended up crashing out at Mirabeau on the first lap, handing the lead back to Taruffi. This was only the start of the disaster that was this race as several collisions occurred during the opening few laps. France's Robert Manzon who had won the last race at Zanvoort would be taken out at the Nouville Chicane by Australia's Tony Gaze, while at the same time East Germany's Willy Lehmann would cause a multi car pile up at the same corner by running into the back of New Zealand's Jack Tutton which caused USSR's Mikhail Metelev, Finland's Asser Wallenius and Czechoslovakia's Eliška Junková to collide in avoidance. Luckily the only driver out on the spot then was Lehmann.

Argentina's Jose Luis Gonzalez managed to pass Taruffi for the lead on lap 4, the latter making a very early pitstop just a few laps later. Unfortunately Gonzalez was held up by an earlier delayed Northern Ireland's Desmond Titterington and lost the lead to Switzerland's Toulo de Graffenried at Anthony Noghes. His fate turned from bad to worse when trying to re pass de Graffenried on the next lap. He lost control through Beau Rivage and collided with a hay bail which speared him back onto the track into the path of Wallenius who had no where to go but to collect Gonzalez in a fairly sizeable head on collision. Both were out on the spot but lucky to get away with minor leg injuries.

This left de Graffenried leading from Spain's Paco Godia and England's Peter Whitehead. Meanwhile another huge shunt at Nouville chicane occurred on lap 12 when Junková lost control, spinning into and having a huge impact with the hay bails. Brasil's Chico Landi and Sweden's Erik Lundgren both collided behind while trying to avoid the stricken Czechoslovakian car. Landi and Lundgren escaped injury but Junková suffered a fractured leg and concussion. It was later reported that she would be out of action for at least two months.

Godia and Whitehead managed to close up to de Graffenried who had been held up by Metelev but disaster struck again on lap 15 at the Nouville when Godia clipped the back of the Swiss car while Whitehead spun around in avoidance. Godia's car suffered too much damage to continue while de Graffenried had to pit for repairs, handing the lead to Whitehead. Once all of the first pitstops had cycled through, Taruffi was leading the race again from de Graffenried and Whitehead. The race would now be between these three for most of the race until Whitehead took himself out at Portier on lap 43.

This left de Graffenried and Taruffi as the only drivers left in realistic contention. Taruffi had been the quicker driver but he had to make one more stop in the race than the Swiss driver, thus he found himself behind playing catch up in the final laps. Toulo de Graffenried managed to hold on by less than a second to win his and Switzerland's first A1 Grand Prix.

However due to the extremely high attrition rate, the organisers of A1 Grand Prix are strongly considering not returning to the Monte Carlo circuit again in future seasons in favour of looking for an alternative street circuit as a replacement, giving the reason that "the track is far too narrow for proper car racing which created too many collisions and not enough overtaking opportunities".

Race Classification

Pos	Grid	No.	Driver	Laps	Behind	Points
1	3	27	Toulo de Graffenried	78	2:04:14.361	25
2	1	16	Piero Taruffi	78	+0.725	20
3	11	19	Dries van der Lof	77	+1 lap	16
4	14	8	Robert Nelleman	77	+1 lap	13
5	10	15	Joe Kelly	77	+1 lap	11
6	8	14	Paul Pietsch	72	Engine	10
Ret	9	29	Johnnie Parsons	59	Brakes
Ret	5	11	Peter Whitehead	43	Accident
Ret	7	9	Porfirio Rubirosa	42	Accident
Ret	21	31	Mikhail Metelev	40	Piston
Ret	24	20	Jack Tutton	20	Accident Damage
Ret	13	28	B. Bira	19	Accident
Ret	6	25	Paco Godia	15	Collision Whitehead, de Graffenried
Ret	17	26	Erik Lundgren	12	Collision Landi, Junková
Ret	18	4	Chico Landi	12	Collision Junková, Lundgren
Ret	22	21	Desmond Titterington	12	Accident
Ret	23	7	Eliška Junková	11	Collision Landi, Lundgren
Ret	25	33	Charles Headland	10	Accident
Ret	4	1	José Froilán González	9	Collision Wallenius
Ret	12	3	Johnny Claes	9	Handling
Ret	26	12	Asser Wallenius	8	Collision González
Ret	15	13	Robert Manzon	2	Collision Gaze
Ret	20	2	Tony Gaze	2	Collision Manzon
Ret	19	10	Willy Lehmann	2	Collision Junková, Wallenius, Tutton, Metelev
Ret	16	24	Ernest Geering	1	Collision Bira
Ret	2	18	Louis Chiron	0	Accident

Fastest Lap Toulo de Graffenried 1:30.389 Lap 23

Penalty Report

Drivers receive points on their race licence if they are deemed by the stewards to be driving in an 'unsporting manner'. Points are usually given for causing avoidable collisions, pitlane infractions or impeding fastest cars while being lapped. If a driver collects 12 points throughout the season then they are given a three month ban from racing in the series. Points are reset to zero after each season. Fines can also be given.

No.	Driver	Lap	Penalty	Reason
24	Ernest Geering	1	3 points	Causing an avoidable collision with car 28.
2	Tony Gaze	2	3 points	Causing an avoidable collision with car 13.
10	Willy Lehmann	2	3 points	Causing an avoidable collision with cars 7, 12, 20, 31
21	Desmond Titterington	7	2 points	Impeding a faster car.
31	Mikhail Metelev	14	2 points	Impeding a faster car.
25	Paco Godia	15	3 points	Causing an avoidable collision with cars 11 and 27.