1947 French Grand Prix

The 1947 French Grand Prix was a Grand Prix motor race held at Lyon-Parilly on 21 September 1947 and was won by Louis Chiron driving a Talbot-Lago. The race was marred by an accident involving Pierre Levegh crashing into and killing 2 spectators.

1947 French Grand Prix
Race details
Date 21 September 1947
Official name XXXIV Grand Prix de l'ACF
Location Lyon-Parilly, France
Course length 7.289 km (4.529 mi)
Distance 70 laps, 510.262 km (317.063 mi)
Pole position
Driver
Maserati
Time 3:17.9
Fastest lap
Drivers Alberto Ascari Maserati
Fastest lap Luigi Villoresi Maserati
Fastest lap "Raph" Maserati
Time 3:17.5
Podium
First
Talbot-Lago
Second
Maserati
Third
Talbot-Lago

Entries

As the first French Grand Prix held after World War 2 the entry was quite mixed. Pre-race favourites, the two Alfa Romeo 158s entered by Jean-Pierre Wimille, did not arrive. The entrants which did arrive were two two-seater Delahayes, four sports car Talbot-Lagos with two single seaters for Louis Chiron and Luigi Chinetti, six Maseratis, two of which were the latest 4CLTs for Alberto Ascari and Luigi Villoresi, three ERAs, one of which was Peter Whitehead's aging B-Type, and finally the experimental French CTA-Arsenal.[1]

Report

The start of the race was quite eventful. Henri Louveau (in a Maserati 4CL) lead at first from the front row, but was overtaken by fellow Maserati driver Pierre Levegh. Both were overtaken by another Maserati driven by Raph who lead the first lap. Meanwhile, from the back of the grid Villoresi in the newer Maserati had moved up to third place, while Raymond Sommer retired the CTA-Arsenal in its only ever race appearance without completing a lap.[1]

On the second lap Villoresi moved into second place and by the end of the third lap had taken the lead. On the fourth lap he was forced to retire with smoke pouring out of his engine, handing the lead to Raph followed closely by Emmanuel de Graffenried, in another Maserati, who took the lead on the following lap.[1]

Chiron made a slow start but quickly moved up through the field, taking the lead from de Graffenried on the eighth lap. de Graffenried stayed with Chiron until engine overheating forced him to retire after 20 laps, handing second place to Henri Louveau. Thanks in part to just about every competitor suffering from various mechanical issues, the lead two would hold their positions until the end of the race.[1]

After making a fuel stop, on his 24th lap Pierre Levegh crashed his Maserati through a barrier, killing two spectators, after his engine seized.[1]

Not long after half distance, Chiron looked to be experiencing engine problems as an oiled plug caused stuttering. Although this quickly cleared, it was clear that Chiron's car was not running well, and if not for his fellow competitors experiencing trouble themselves he would not have been competitive. Chiron's fuel stop on lap 44 left him with a lead of 48 seconds over Louveau who would himself stop on the next lap, increasing the gap to 1 minute and 35 seconds. Louveau would reduce this lead by over a minute, if not for making a late-race stop, allowing Chiron to continue running at a low enough pace to preserve the car. It was a popular victory, with the slower French cars demonstrating their much stronger reliability over the faster Maseratis, of which just one of six finished.[1]

Classification
Pos. No. Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid
1 6 Louis Chiron Talbot-Lago MC 70 4:03:40.7 2
2 24 Henri Louveau Maserati 4CL 70 4:05:18.6 1
3 2 Eugène Chaboud Talbot-Lago Spéciale 69 + 1 lap 3
4 30 Louis Rosier Talbot-Lago Spéciale 69 + 1 lap 7
5 32 Charles Pozzi Delahaye 135S 67 + 3 laps 11
6 4 Franco Comotti Talbot-Lago Spéciale 62 + 8 laps 15
7 38 Peter Whitehead
Ian Connell		 ERA B-Type 61 + 9 laps 6
8 ? Maurice Varet
Pierre Meyrat		 Delahaye 135S 61 + 9 laps 12
Ret 44 Alberto Ascari Maserati 4CLT 63 Piston 17
Ret 28 Reg Parnell
Wilkie Wilkinson		 ERA E-Type 39 Steering 10
Ret 8 Yves Giraud-Cabantous
John Selsdon		 Talbot T26SS 39 Engine 9
Ret 16 "Raph" Maserati 4CL 36 Engine 5
Ret 18 Pierre Levegh Maserati 4CL 23 Accident 4
Ret 22 Emmanuel de Graffenried Maserati 4CL 21 Engine 14
Ret 42 Luigi Villoresi Maserati 4CLT 4 Engine 16
Ret 10 Luigi Chinetti Talbot MD 1 Engine 18
Ret 26 Leslie Brooke ERA E-Type 1 Engine 8
Ret 14 Raymond Sommer CTA-Arsenal 0 Rear axle 13
Source:[1][2][3]
gollark: You are spammier than <@509849474647064576>.
gollark: Please stop.
gollark: That is a cool-looking føx.
gollark: Hmm.
gollark: ++search !wen fox

References
  1. Hodges, David (1967). The French Grand Prix. pp. 132–134.
  2. "1947 French Grand Prix". Motor Sport Magazine Database. Retrieved 9 December 2019.
  3. Abeillon, Pierre (1992). Talbot-Lago de course. ISBN 2-9700021-0-8.
Grand Prix Race
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1947 Italian Grand Prix		 1947 Grand Prix season
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1948 Monaco Grand Prix
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1948 French Grand Prix
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