1950 French Grand Prix

The 1950 French Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 2 July 1950 at Reims-Gueux. It was the fifth round of the 1950 Formula One season with it being the 37th edition of the French Grand Prix.

Background
Heading into the fifth round of the 1950 season, Giuseppe Farina led the overall championship but after retiring in the previous race, their margin towards the chasing pact had dropped to 11 points. This was led by previous winner and fellow team-mate Luigi Fagioli with Louis Rosier who finished third, a further four points back.

Qualifying
Much like the previous races, the Alfas lead from the front of the pack with Giuseppe Farina taking the pole position in front of team mate Juan Manuel Fangio and Luigi Fagioli. Outside of the Alfa's, Ferrari pair of Ascari and Villoresi rouned out the top five drivers. Qualifying through didn't went out without a hitch with five not being able to finish their laps with issues to car during the qualifying. The strangest being Yves Giraud-Cabantous accident on the back straight which meant they went were out of the session.

Race
24 drivers competed in the race which saw the weather once come out to be a beautiful sunny day in France. It wasn't long until the first retirements occurred with Prince Bira, Reg Parnell and Yves Giraud-Cabantous all having to retire due to issues with the car. On the track, the big movers was Franco Rol and José Froilán González both moving up three spots as they moved to 12th and 13th respectively. For González, they would only last two more laps with an accident at Geux ending his race on lap 3. At the front of the field, Luigi Villoresi moved into third as they passed Alberto Ascari and later Juan Manuel Fangio (who also retired on lap 3) to move into third place, behind him Luigi Fagioli in the Alfa Romeo.

On Lap 5, Johnny Claes went off line to go into rough at Thilois, but was able to continue on racing. For Toulo de Graffenried and Peter Whitehead, they would collide while in 6th and 7th which at first look like would slow both drivers down, but that wasn't the case. Four laps later, Philippe Étancelin got pass Peter Whitehead to move into seventh place on track. By lap 9 the order was Farina, Fagioli, Villoresi, Ascari, Comotti as the top five.

Lap 14 retirements Rol had troubles with the engine and had to go into pits Chiron (suspension)

Lap 16 retirements Rosier (brakes)

Lap 19 Martin passes Whitehead for 8th

Lap 20 Rol had made another error, had to go into pits

Lap 30 Bonetto passes Manzon for 13th

Lap 32 Battle for 6th between Etancellin/De Graffenried

Lap 37 Levegh went off the line a little bit but held on

Lap 42 retirements Manzon (front wing)

Lap 48 retirements Villoresi (engine failure) Whitehead (engine)

Lap 50 retirements Schell (caught in collison) Levegh and Bonetto collide, only Bonetto had to go into pits Comotti and De Graffenried bumped wheels with Comotti losing time

Lap 54 Chaboud is being held up by Pozzi for 8th

Lap 59 retirements Comotti (engine)

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.