The 1912 French Grand Prix was a Grand Prix motor race held at Dieppe on 25–26 June 1912.
The Race The race was run over two days with the drivers completing ten laps on each day and their times being aggregated to produce the winner (similar to a modern stage rally). Coupe de l'Auto cars competed alongside Grand Prix cars. The coupe cars were limited to 3-litre engines (183 cubic inches). The only restriction on the Grand Prix cars was that cars must be no wider than 1.75 metres (1.91 yards). Riding mechanic Jean Bassignano was killed in a crash on the third lap when his driver Léon Collinet put a wheel off and flipped. 47 cars started the race at 30 second intervals, with Victor Rigal's Sunbeam the first to start.
Victor Hémery, driving a Lorraine-Dietrich, was the first to complete a lap, but David Bruce-Brown's Fiat led on time after the first lap and retained the lead overnight, more than two minutes ahead of Georges Boillot's Peugeot. Louis Wagner was third at the halfway stage. During the second day, Bruce-Brown was disqualified for refuelling away from the pits on lap 15, giving Boillot a comfortable victory by over thirteen minutes from Wagner.
The Sunbeams performed well in the Coupe de l'Auto race, with Rigal finishing in first place, Resta second, and Medinger third. Due to their speed they were also placed in third, fourth, and fifth places in the Grand Prix itself, beating many more powerful machines. Rigal averaged 65.35 m.p.h. (105.2 km/h) over the 956 miles (1540 kilometres), only 3 m.p.h. (5 km/h) less than Boillot in his 7.6-litre Peugeot (464 cubic inches).
Classification PosNoDriverCarLapsTime/Retired 1 22 Georges Boillot Peugeot 20 13:58:02.6 2 23 Louis Wagner Fiat S74 +13:05.8 3 3 Victor Rigal Sunbeam +40:33.4 4 17 Dario Resta Sunbeam +41:49.2 5 52 Emile Medinger Sunbeam +2:01:38.8 6 50 Josef Christiaens Excelsior +2:25:36.2 7 20 René Croquet Th. Schneider +3:33:36.6 8 30 "Anford"/ Pilain Rolland-Pilain +3:51:29.4 9 36 Richard Wyse Arrol-Johnston +4:09:16.6 10 40 Arthur Duray Alcyon +4:30:53.0 11 32 Paul Vonlatum Vinot-Deguignand +5:07:57.4 12 12 Dragutin Esser Mathis +5:20:02.4 13 29 Cyril de Vere Cote +6:59:03.4 14 28 James Reid Arrol-Johnston 19 +1 Lap Ret 33 Percy Lambert Vauxhall 18 Radiator Ret 55 A. Crossman Arrol-Johnston 17 Radiator Ret 7 Georges Sizaire Sizaire-Naudin 17 Lost a wheel Ret 14 Pierre Garcet Calthorpe 16 Engine Ret 27 Page Alcyon 16 Crash Ret 51 John Hancock Vauxhall 15 Engine Ret 38 Thomas Schweitzer Sizaire-Naudin 10 Engine Ret 21 Eugène Renaux Gregoire 10 Withdrawn Ret 24 Mario Romano Gregoire 10 Withdrawn Ret 34 René Hanriot Lorraine-Dietrich 10 Fire Ret 18 Philippe de Marne Gregoire 8 Steering Ret 4 Barriaux Alcyon 8 Engine Ret 56 Lucien Molon Vinot-Deguignand 7 No oil Ret 47 René Thomas Lion-Peugeot L3 7 Engine Ret 19 Louis Naudin Sizaire-Naudin 7 Ret 16 Gustave Caillois Sunbeam 7 Engine Ret 45 Paul Zuccarelli Peugeot L-76 7 Ignition Ret 31 Paul Bablot Lorraine-Dietrich 7 Engine Ret 25 Frank Rollason Singer 6 Engine Ret 39 Bramwell Heywood Singer 5 Crash Ret 26 L G Hornsted Calthorpe 5 Gearbox Ret 9 René Champoiseau Th. Schneider 4 Ret 8 Léon Molon Vinot-Deguignand 3 No oil Ret 54 William Watson Vauxhall 2 Engine Ret 10 Léon Collinet Gregoire 2 Crash Ret 41 Fernand Gabriel Cote 1 Universal joint Ret 57 Stefan Heim Lorraine-Dietrich 1 Engine Ret 11 Victor Hémery Lorraine-Dietrich 1 Engine Ret 49 Albert Guyot Rolland-Pilain 1 Engine DQ 37 David Bruce-Brown Fiat S74 15 Refuelling away from pits DQ 42 Ralph DePalma Fiat S74 7 Work away from pits DQ 13 Jules Goux Peugeot L-76 3 Refuelling away from pits DQ 43 Fred Burgess Calthorpe 1 Too slow
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