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.

[1] All of the other entries had little chance of winning, as they had significantly less power than the Ferraris and Maseratis, as well as generally worse road holding.

They consisted of two privately entered OSCAs (one to be driven by Louis Chiron in his last French Grand Prix start), four works Gordinis and three of each of Connaught, HWM and Cooper.

The works Gordinis were poorly prepared, the team instead focusing on the 12 hour race which ran from midnight to midday on the same day as the Grand Prix.

Two of the Connaughts were works entries, and were notable as the first fuel injected cars to start the French Grand Prix.

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.

[5] As a result, Ferrari threatened to withdraw their cars from the Grand Prix, which would have surely handed Maserati an easy win.

They were followed by the Maseratis of Fangio and Marimón, with Bonetto dropping to ninth after a spin, behind Trintignant, Bira and de Graffenried.

Apart from the three Ferraris contesting second place, the order near the front remained the same for the next 20 laps or so, at which point González ceased increasing his lead, making it unlikely he would be able to hold it when he made his stop.

Some shuffling of the pack took place by the time González made his pitstop on lap 29, with Fangio now leading it ahead of Hawthorn, with Villoresi dropping back to Marimón.