The 1953 French Grand Prix was a Formula Two race held on 5 July 1953 at Reims. It was race 5 of 9 in the 1953 World Championship of Drivers, which was run to Formula Two rules in 1952 and 1953, rather than the Formula One regulations normally used.

It is popularly known as The Race of the Century because of the sixty lap battle between Briton Mike Hawthorn and Argentine Juan Manuel Fangio. Hawthorn won the duel after they reportedly swapped the lead at virtually every corner on the Reims circuit. In addition, after 500 km of racing, the four lead cars were less than 5 seconds apart.

Background

For 1953, the Reims-Gueux circuit's layout changed. The new, faster and slightly longer circuit bypassed the town of Gueux and as a result, the circuit was now called just Reims.

Coming into the French Grand Prix, Ferrari driver, and 1952 World Champion Alberto Ascari had a large lead in the championship, having won the first three races of the season (not including the Indianapolis 500 in which none of the Grand Prix contenders took part). Meanwhile, early favourite, 1951 World Champion Juan Manuel Fangio, driving for Maserati, had yet to even finish a World Championship qualifying event in 1953.

Unlike in 1952, in 1953 Maserati and Ferrari were quite evenly matched. The Maseratis had slightly more power, and hence straight-line speed, but the Ferraris had slightly better brakes, road holding, and low-end acceleration. Both works teams sent four drivers. For Ferrari there was Ascari, Luigi Villoresi, Nino Farina and Mike Hawthorn. Maserati had Fangio, José Froilán González, Onofre Marimón and Felice Bonetto. Both Ferrari and Maserati were also represented by a single private entry each, Louis Rosier driving a Ferrari and Toulo de Graffenried a Maserati.

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Practice and qualifying

There was very little activity in the earlier practice sessions, with the Ferrari team only arriving just in time for the final session. González was the early pacesetter for Maserati, but was eventually outdone by both Villoresi and Ascari for Ferrari. González would again set the fastest time of 2:41.5, but in Bonetto's car, but Ascari would finally take pole position with a time of 2:41.2 late in the session. The front row of the 3-2-3 grid was therefore Ascari, Bonetto and Villoresi, with Fangio and González sharing row two.

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;Notes

  • – González set the second placed time of 2:41.5, however he was driving Bonetto's car. Thus Bonetto started from second place, while González started in fifth with his fastest time in his own car of 2:42.4

Pre-race controversy

The Grand Prix was preceded by the 12 hour sportscar race which ran from midnight to midday. During that race, the leading Ferrari, driven by Umberto Maglioli and Piero Carini, was disqualified, ostensibly for receiving a push start, and for switching off sidelights before the appointed time. Many, including Ferrari team manager Ugolini, felt this quite unfair, since the push-start had been to get clear of spilt petrol in the pitlane, and nearly every other car in the race had already switched off their sidelights by the time Maglioli did the same. Many in the crowd also disagreed with the disqualification, with the crowd booing and throwing rubbish at head officials Charles Faroux and Toto Roche.

Over the next few laps, Fangio and Hawthorn would swap the lead several times, sometimes more than once a lap, pulling slowly away from Ascari who was locked in a close battle with Farina, González and Marimón. Villoresi, meanwhile, fell back, but not enough to be challenged for seventh place. González continued to push, catching and overtaking Farina then Ascari on lap 37. This spurred Ascari on, and he and González duelled for third place over the following 20 laps. Both the duels, for first place and for third place, would last until very near the end of the race, with the drivers separated by not more than a carlength at any stage.

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;Notes

  • – Includes 1 point for fastest lap

Championship standings after the race

;Drivers' Championship standings

{| class="wikitable" style="font-size: 95%;"

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!

! Pos

! Driver

! Points

|-

|align="left"| 10px

|align="center"| 1

| Alberto Ascari

|align="left"| 28

|-

|align="left"| 10px 5

|align="center"| 2

| Mike Hawthorn

|align="left"| 14

|-

|align="left"| 10px 1

|align="center"| 3

| Luigi Villoresi

|align="left"| 13

|-

|align="left"| 10px

|align="center"| 4

| José Froilán González

|align="left"| 11

|-

|align="left"| 10px 2

|align="center"| 5

| Bill Vukovich

|align="left"| 9

|-

!colspan=4|Source:

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Notes

References

  • ddavid.com: The French Grand Prix of 1953
  • The Story of the Grand Prix – The Race of the Century
  • French GP 1953