British GP 1950

British GP, 1950

The first FIA Formula 1 World Championship began at Silverstone on a Saturday in the spring of 1950 with King George VI and Queen Elizabeth present for the event. The major events prior to the British race had been at Pau and San Remo in April and both had been won Juan-Manuel Fangio's Alfa Romeo 158 with Ferrari's Gigi Villoresi second on both occasions.

The Alfa Romeo factory team arrived at Silverstone with four 158s for drivers Fangio, Giuseppe Farina, Luigi Fagioli and Reg Parnell. Ferrari decided not to take part but there were a handful of Maseratis, including a factory car for Louis Chiron.

Talbot Lago sent over two factory cars to be driven by Yves Giraud-Cabantous and Eugene Martin. The rest of the field was made up of local machinery, which included ERAs and Altas.

Farina was fastest in qualifying and the other three Alfas were alongside him on the front row. The second row consisted of Prince Bira in a Maserati and the two factory Talbot Lagos.

At the start of the race Farina took the lead with Fagioli and Fangio in pursuit. In the early laps they switched around between themselves several times to keep everyone amused. Fangio went out with engine troubles and so Farina led Fagioli home by 2.5secs with Parnell a distant third. The nearest challenger was Giraud-Cabantous two laps down, Bira having gone out with a fuel problem.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
Giuseppe Farina Alfa Romeo 158 70 2h13m23.600s  
Luigi Fagioli Alfa Romeo 158 70 2h13m26.200s  
Reg Parnell Alfa Romeo 158 70 2h14m15.600s  
14 Yves Giraud-Cabantous Talbot Lago-Talbot T26C-DA 68  
15 Louis Rosier Talbot Lago-Talbot T26C 68  
12 Bob Gerard ERA B/C 67  13 
11 Cuth Harrison ERA B 67  15 
16 Philippe Etancelin Talbot Lago-Talbot T26C 65  14 
David Hampshire Maserati 4CLT/48 64  16 
10= 10 Joe Fry Maserati 4CL   20 
10= 10 Brian Shawe-Taylor Maserati 4CL 64   
11 18 Johnny Claes Talbot Lago-Talbot T26C 64  21 
Juan-Manuel Fangio Alfa Romeo 158 62 Mechanical 
nc 23 Joe Kelly Alta GP 57  19 
21 Prince Bira Maserati 4CLT/48 49 Fuel Injection 
David Murray Maserati 4CLT/48 44 Engine 18 
24 Geoffrey Crossley Alta GP 43 Transmission 17 
20 Emmanuel de Graffenried Maserati 4CLT/48 36 Engine 
19 Louis Chiron Maserati 4CLT/48 24 Clutch 11 
17 Eugene Martin Talbot Lago-Talbot T26C-DA Engine 
r= Peter Walker ERA E   10 
r= Tony Rolt ERA E Gearbox  
Leslie Johnson ERA E Supercharger 12