1931 Monaco Grand Prix
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The 1931 Monaco Grand Prix was a Grand Prix motor race. It was held at the Circuit de Monaco.
With 16 Bugattis in a field of 23 cars, the Monaco Grand Prix in 1931 was pretty close to being a single-make race! Among the 16 were four factory-team 51-types driven by the Monegasque Louis Chiron, the Italian Achille Varzi and the French Albert Divo and Guy Bouriat. The real challenge came from the Maserati 8C 2500's driven by Rene Dreyfus, the Italian Luigi Fagioli and Clemente Bondietti. Rudolf Caracciola with his huge Mercedes SSKL (Super Sport Short Light-Weight) didn't stand a chance. The acronym is misleading, because the car is neither short nor light. It was far too large to be competitive around the tight Monaco track.
The race was between the blue cars from Molsheim and the red ones from Modena. When the start flag dropped it was Rene Dreyfus in his red Maserati who led into St. Devote, only to be passed by 'Williams' on the hill to the Casino, but his lead was short lived as the Brit was sidelined by a broken valve spring, and his race was over. Achille Varzi and Caracciola started closing on Dreyfus and Varzi managed to overtake the Frenchman on the 7th lap. Caracciola struggled with a slipping clutch that gave up completely on lap 53.
Starting slowly, Louis Chiron finally displayed his talents; little by little he won back lost ground and in doing so beat the lap record of 1930, like Luigi Fagioli a bit later. He caught up with all his opponents and left them behind. The native driver finished the race some 5 minutes ahead of Luigi Fagioli.
Jean Bugatti couldn't control his joy and jumped over the parapet of the bleachers and fell into Louis Chiron's arms. For the Monegasque, this Monaco Grand Prix victory really confirmed his reputation.
[edit] Classification
[edit] Race
| Pos | No | Driver | Car | Laps | Time/Retired |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 22 | Louis Chiron | Bugatti T51 | 100 | 3h39m09.2 |
| 2 | 52 | Luigi Fagioli | Maserati 26M | 100 | 3h43m04.6 |
| 3 | 26 | Achille Varzi | Bugatti T51 | 100 | 3h43m13.2 |
| 4 | 20 | Guy Bouriat | Bugatti T51 | 98 | -2 laps |
| 5 | 46 | Goffredo Zehender | Alfa Romeo 6C | 97 | -3 laps |
| 6 | 38 | Andre Boillot | Peugeot 174S | 96 | -4 laps |
| 7 | 48 | Clemente Biondetti | Maserati 26M | 91 | -9 laps |
| 8 | 12 | Clifton Penn-Hughes | Bugatti T35 | 89 | -11 laps |
| 9 | 30 | Stanislav Czaykowski | Bugatti T35 | 85 | -15 laps |
| DNC | 50 | Rene Dreyfus | Maserati 26M | 91 | Fuel feed |
