He pulled a gap of a few seconds and appeared set for victory, until Gillies put on a charge and closed up behind him on lap 7 of 10.

Topliss retired from the race;[1] Chanoine continued to finish sixth on the road, but a 10 second penalty for jumping the start demoted him to seventh.

Patrick Blakeney-Edwards, driving a Frazer Nash Monoplace, had a storming opening few laps and moved from twelfth on the grid to fourth by the middle of the race.

[1] The battle for fourth place was hotly contested between Max Smith-Hilliard, Guillermo Fierro-Eleta and Joaquín Folch-Rusiñol.

Michael Birch (Connaught B) spun at Virage Antony Noghès on lap 9 of 10 and was immediately collected by Marshall Bailey and Folch-Rusiñol, who had just re-passed Smith-Hilliard.

This triggered a full course yellow, tightening the field and leading to a three-car shootout for victory between Wakeman, Halusa and Guillermo Fierro-Eleta in another 300S.

He piloted the Hill GH1 chassis in which countryman Alan Jones scored his first points in the 1975 German Grand Prix.

[14] He spent the entire race pressuring Michael Lyons for third so that he could build enough of a gap to stay ahead of Nick Padmore at the finish.

The Shadows of Gregor Fisken and Jean-Denis Delétraz and the Tyrrell of Roald Goethe engaged in a close battle for eighth.

Shaw got a slow launch; fifth-placed qualifier Mark Hazell (Williams FW07B), tried to pass him but the two made contact.

Shaw suffered front wing damage and fell to the back of the field, while Hazell recovered to run seventh.

[1] Behind him, there was a three-way contest for third place between Philip Hall (Theodore TR1), Lee Mowle (Lotus 78) and Jamie Constable (Shadow DN8).

Hall's challenge later ended after hitting the wall on the exit of Virage Antony Noghès, leaving Constable to continue the close fight for third.

This resulted in a one-and-a-half-lap shootout to the flag, allowing last-row starter Lajoux, who had methodically worked his way through the field, to challenge Mowle for an unlikely podium.

On lap 12 of 18, Christophe d'Ansembourg (Williams FW07C) brushed the barriers in the tunnel and damaged his suspension, causing him to retire from the race.

At the restart after the ensuing full course yellow, Jamie Constable (Tyrrell 011) pressured Padmore for third place but endured heartbreak when his car came to a stop within sight of the finish line on the final lap.