1950 Monaco Grand Prix

The 1950 Monaco Grand Prix more commonly known as the Prix de Monte-Carlo et XI Grand Prix Automobile was a Formula One race that was held in Monaco on the 21 May 1950. It was the second round of the 1950 Formula One season with it being the eleventh edition of the Monaco Grand Prix.

Background
Heading into the second round of the season, Italian driver, Giuseppe Farina lead the overall championship by three points over Louis Rosier from France. Prince Bira was two points further back in the standings. This race was the eleventh edition of the Monaco Grand Prix with the last one that was held being in 1948 where Giuseppe Farina won in a Maserati. This time they were in the Alfa Romeo with Fangio and Fagioli. Louis Chiron was a real possibility for the fourth seat in the Alfa Romeo, especially after the third place finish in the previous race at Silverstone. In the end it was decided that for this race that Chiron would race in the Alfa Romeo.

Two new teams competed in the Monaco Grand Prix with Ferrari (who didn't enter Britain due to fees) and Simca. For Ferrari, they had entered three drivers in the main team with Peter Whitehead also competing in a private Ferrari. Maserati also had to change their slight lineup with Joe Fry being brought in for this race. In total seven drivers was competing in their first ever Formula One race.

Qualifying
Qualifying took place on the sunny Monaco track and compared to the opening round where the Alfa's struggled, this time they completely dominated the session as the first four drivers was locked in by Alfa Romeo cars with Argentine driver, Juan Manuel Fangio taking out the pole position for the race by seven tenths over fellow team-mate Farina. In fact it was an Italian dominance with the top ten cars all being Italian based. The only hiccup of the session being Yves Girud-Cabantous struggling the banks and ending the session early due to stopping on the track.

Race
The weather for the race was sunny and cool as 23 drivers went up to race for the Monaco crown. The opening lap saw three retirements with Louis Chiron, Joe Fry and Robert Manzon all retiring with issues with the car, with Manzon hitting the outside wall at Gazometre. Another driver who struggled to get off the line was Philippe Étancelin who struggled to get off the line before having to retire only two laps in with the electronics failing. After that initial start, the battle begin to start across the board with the main battle being between Luigi Villoresi and Raymond Sommer for fifth place.

This battle between the two drivers would push all the way until lap 10 of the race where Sommer made a error at Tabac and had to go into pits to repair some of the damage from hitting the wall. He was one of a few drivers that had touched the wall during the race. With the battle for fifth now gone, the next battle that was being watched was for sixth place between Prince Bira and José Froilán González. Both being in Maserati cars. This battle would go on for a while until lap 36 where Bira eventually passed Gonzalez for what was fifth place. Before then, Peter Whitehead got pass Pierre Levegh for 17th on the track in lap 14 while Yves Giraud-Cabantous steering cause them to crash into the Sainte Devote, ruling them out of the race.

Race notes: Leaders: Fangio (1-98) Farina (99-100)

Retirements Lap 32: Villoresi (into wall) Lap 34: Sommer (brakes) Lap 60: Gerard (fuel) Lap 66: Rol (fuel) Lap 73: Bira (suspension) Lap 89: Harrison (tyres) Lap 95: Ascari (engine) Lap 98: Fangio (exhaust)

Passes Lap 28: Sommer pass Levegh for 17th Lap 36: Bira pass Gonzalez for 5th Lap 73: De Graffenried pass Rosier for 7th Lap 83: Whitehead pass Claes for 11th at Portier

Critical News Lap 16: Levegh struck Tabac and had damage. Lap 20: Tringtignant had trouble trying to get pass Bira for 7th Lap 32: Gerard hit the wall and had to pit. Lap 36: De Graffenried struggle to pass Rosier Lap 48: Farina blocked by Whitehead Ferrari Lap 65: Trintignant still battling with Gonzalez for 6th Lap 85: Levegh made an error at Mirabeau Lap 96: Claes and Whitehead battle in 9th

Championship standings after the race

 * Drivers' Championship standings
 * Note: Only the top five positions are listed. Only the best 4 results counted towards the Championship.