| 1952 French Grand Prix | |||||
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| Race details | |||||
| Date | 6 July 1952 (1952-07-06) | ||||
| Official name | XXXIX Grand Prix de l'ACF | ||||
| Location | Rouen-Les-Essarts,Grand-Couronne,France | ||||
| Course | Permanent racing facility | ||||
| Course length | 5.100 km (3.169 miles) | ||||
| Distance | 77 laps, 392.700 km (244.012 miles) | ||||
| Weather | Rain | ||||
| Pole position | |||||
| Driver | Ferrari | ||||
| Time | 2:14.8 | ||||
| Fastest lap | |||||
| Driver |  Alberto Ascari | Ferrari | |||
| Time | 2:17.3 on lap 28 | ||||
| Podium | |||||
| First | Ferrari | ||||
| Second | Ferrari | ||||
| Third | Ferrari | ||||
Lap leaders | |||||
The1952 French Grand Prix was aFormula Two race held on 6 July 1952 atRouen-Les-Essarts. It was race 4 of 8 in the1952 World Championship of Drivers, in which each Grand Prix was run to Formula Two rules rather than the Formula One regulations normally used. Unusually this race was run over a duration of 3 hours, rather than a fixed distance, and featured the largest age gap between starters of any World Championship round.[1]
Having won the previous weekend'sGrand Prix de la Marne,Jean Behra, racing forEquipe Gordini, was among the favourites for the first French Grand Prix to be held at Rouen-Les-Essarts. Also driving for Gordini were regularsRobert Manzon andPrince Bira, alongsideMaurice Trintignant, who replacedJohnny Claes from the lineup for the previous round. Claes entered the race in aSimca-Gordini under his own 'Ecurie Belge' label, which he had used in the1950 and1951 seasons.Ferrari retained their lineup ofAscari,Farina andTaruffi, who had locked out the front row of the grid inBelgium. There were also several privateer Ferrari entries: the Swiss duo ofRudi Fischer andPeter Hirt, representing Ecurie Espadon, the Italian pairing ofFranco Comotti andPiero Carini, for Scuderia Marzotto, andLouis Rosier.HWM again ran regular driversLance Macklin andPeter Collins, this time alongside FrenchmanYves Giraud-Cabantous. While the factoryMaserati team remained absent, their new car, theA6GCM, made its World Championship debut, driven byPhilippe Étancelin of Escuderia Bandeirantes.Enrico Platé entered a pair of older Maseratis, the4CLT/48 model, forToulo de Graffenried andHarry Schell. Completing the grid werePeter Whitehead, in a privately runAlta, andMike Hawthorn, who again took part in aCooper-Bristol.
Ascari took his second consecutive pole position, with his Ferrari teammates Farina and Taruffi again joining him on the front row of the grid. The Gordini team locked out the second row, with Behra and Manzon qualifying in fourth and fifth, respectively. Their teammates Trintignant and Bira started from the third row, alongside Peter Collins in the fastest of the HWMs. The new Maserati A6GCM proved a disappointment, with Philippe Étancelin only managing to qualify on the seventh row of the grid (out of eight).
The Ferraris once again dominated the race, with Alberto Ascari leading Farina from start to finish, thus taking his second consecutive victory in the World Championship. Despite a good start from the Gordinis of Manzon and Behra, that saw them take third and fourth place, respectively, by the end of the first lap, Piero Taruffi managed to regain third place on lap 4 and subsequently held it for the remainder of the race, ensuring that it was an all-Ferrari podium. Manzon finished fourth, a lap behind Taruffi, while his teammate Maurice Trintignant took the final points-scoring position of fifth. HWM driver Peter Collins took sixth, two laps behind Trintignant, ahead of Jean Behra, for whom seventh represented something of a recovery, having been in last place at the end of lap 3. His race had been compromised when he crashed and consequently needed to pit.[2]
Ascari's win, and fastest lap, ensured that he took a five-point lead in the Drivers' Championship, ahead of fellow Ferrari driver Piero Taruffi. Farina's second consecutive second-place finish took him to third in the standings, one point adrift of Taruffi.Indianapolis 500 winnerTroy Ruttman was a further four points behind in fourth, one point ahead of Gordini driver Robert Manzon.
| Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 8 | Alberto Ascari | Ferrari | 2:14.8 | – |
| 2 | 10 | Nino Farina | Ferrari | 2:16.2 | + 1.4 |
| 3 | 12 | Piero Taruffi | Ferrari | 2:17.1 | + 2.3 |
| 4 | 4 |  Jean Behra | Gordini | 2:19.3 | + 4.5 |
| 5 | 2 | Robert Manzon | Gordini | 2:20.4 | + 5.6 |
| 6 | 44 | Maurice Trintignant | Simca-Gordini-Gordini | 2:21.6 | + 6.8 |
| 7 | 22 |  Peter Collins | HWM-Alta | 2:21.9 | + 7.1 |
| 8 | 6 |  Prince Bira | Gordini | 2:23.0 | + 8.2 |
| 9 | 14 | Louis Rosier | Ferrari | 2:27.0 | + 12.2 |
| 10 | 24 | Yves Giraud-Cabantous | HWM-Alta | 2:27.5 | + 12.7 |
| 11 | 16 |  Toulo de Graffenried | Maserati | 2:28.6 | + 13.8 |
| 12 | 18 |  Harry Schell | Maserati | 2:29.0 | + 14.2 |
| 13 | 26 | Peter Whitehead | Alta | 2:29.5 | + 14.7 |
| 14 | 20 | Lance Macklin | HWM-Alta | 2:30.9 | + 16.1 |
| 15 | 42 | Mike Hawthorn | Cooper-Bristol | 2:32.0 | + 17.2 |
| 16 | 28 | Philippe Étancelin | Maserati | 2:33.7 | + 18.9 |
| 17 | 36 | Rudi Fischer | Ferrari | 2:34.6 | + 19.8 |
| 18 | 38 | Franco Comotti | Ferrari | 2:36.0 | + 21.2 |
| 19 | 40 | Piero Carini | Ferrari | 2:37.7 | + 22.9 |
| 20 | 32 |  Johnny Claes | Simca-Gordini-Gordini | 2:39.6 | + 24.8 |
| Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Laps | Time/Retired | Grid | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 8 | Alberto Ascari | Ferrari | 77 | 3:02:42.6 | 1 | 91 |
| 2 | 10 | Nino Farina | Ferrari | 76 | + 1 lap | 2 | 6 |
| 3 | 12 | Piero Taruffi | Ferrari | 75 | + 2 laps | 3 | 4 |
| 4 | 2 | Robert Manzon | Gordini | 74 | + 3 laps | 5 | 3 |
| 5 | 44 | Maurice Trintignant | Simca-Gordini-Gordini | 72 | + 5 laps | 6 | 2 |
| 6 | 22 | Peter Collins | HWM-Alta | 70 | + 7 laps | 8 | |
| 7 | 4 | Jean Behra | Gordini | 70 | + 7 laps | 4 | |
| 8 | 28 | Philippe Étancelin | Maserati | 70 | + 7 laps | 18 | |
| 9 | 20 | Lance Macklin | HWM-Alta | 70 | + 7 laps | 14 | |
| 10 | 24 | Yves Giraud Cabantous | HWM-Alta | 68 | + 9 laps | 10 | |
| 11 | 36 | Rudi FischerPeter Hirt | Ferrari | 66 | + 11 laps | 17 | |
| 12 | 38 | Franco Comotti | Ferrari | 63 | + 14 laps | 16 | |
| Ret | 6 | Prince Bira | Gordini | 56 | Axle | 7 | |
| Ret | 42 | Mike Hawthorn | Cooper-Bristol | 51 | Ignition | 15 | |
| Ret | 16 | Toulo de GraffenriedHarry Schell | Maserati | 34 | Brakes | 12 | |
| Ret | 26 | Peter Whitehead | Alta | 17 | Clutch | 13 | |
| Ret | 14 | Louis Rosier | Ferrari | 17 | Engine | 9 | |
| Ret | 32 | Johnny Claes | Simca-Gordini-Gordini | 15 | Engine | 20 | |
| Ret | 18 | Harry Schell | Maserati | 7 | Gearbox | 11 | |
| Ret | 40 | Piero Carini | Ferrari | 2 | Engine | 19 | |
| DNS | 34 | Rudi Fischer | Ferrari | 0 | Engine | ||
| Source:[8] | |||||||
| Pos | Driver | Points | |
|---|---|---|---|
 1 | 1 | Alberto Ascari | 18 |
 1 | 2 | Piero Taruffi | 13 |
| 1 | 3 | Nino Farina | 12 |
| 1 | 4 | Troy Ruttman | 8 |
| 3 | 5 | Robert Manzon | 7 |
| Source:[9] | |||
| Previous race: 1952 Belgian Grand Prix | FIA Formula One World Championship 1952 season | Next race: 1952 British Grand Prix |
| Previous race: 1951 French Grand Prix | French Grand Prix | Next race: 1953 French Grand Prix |
