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.
POS | NO | DRIVER | ENTRANT | LAPS | TIME/RETIREMENT | QUAL POS |
1 | 2 | Giuseppe Farina | Alfa Romeo 158 | 70 | 2h13m23.600s | 1 |
2 | 3 | Luigi Fagioli | Alfa Romeo 158 | 70 | 2h13m26.200s | 2 |
3 | 4 | Reg Parnell | Alfa Romeo 158 | 70 | 2h14m15.600s | 4 |
4 | 14 | Yves Giraud-Cabantous | Talbot Lago-Talbot T26C-DA | 68 | 6 | |
5 | 15 | Louis Rosier | Talbot Lago-Talbot T26C | 68 | 9 | |
6 | 12 | Bob Gerard | ERA B/C | 67 | 13 | |
7 | 11 | Cuth Harrison | ERA B | 67 | 15 | |
8 | 16 | Philippe Etancelin | Talbot Lago-Talbot T26C | 65 | 14 | |
9 | 6 | 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 | |
r | 1 | Juan-Manuel Fangio | Alfa Romeo 158 | 62 | Mechanical | 3 |
nc | 23 | Joe Kelly | Alta GP | 57 | 19 | |
r | 21 | Prince Bira | Maserati 4CLT/48 | 49 | Fuel Injection | 5 |
r | 5 | David Murray | Maserati 4CLT/48 | 44 | Engine | 18 |
r | 24 | Geoffrey Crossley | Alta GP | 43 | Transmission | 17 |
r | 20 | Emmanuel de Graffenried | Maserati 4CLT/48 | 36 | Engine | 8 |
r | 19 | Louis Chiron | Maserati 4CLT/48 | 24 | Clutch | 11 |
r | 17 | Eugene Martin | Talbot Lago-Talbot T26C-DA | 8 | Engine | 7 |
r= | 9 | Peter Walker | ERA E | 10 | ||
r= | 9 | Tony Rolt | ERA E | 5 | Gearbox | |
r | 8 | Leslie Johnson | ERA E | 2 | Supercharger | 12 |