1931 Monaco Grand Prix

The field just after the start at the port

Achille Varzi in the Bugatti in front of the Rascasse

Race winner Louis Chiron

The III. Monaco Grand Prix ( III Grand Prix de Monaco ) took place on April 19, 1931 on the Circuit de Monaco in Monte Carlo . The race was held over 100 laps of 3.180 km each without specifying a racing formula, which corresponded to a total distance of 318.0 km. It was not a Grande Épreuve this year and was therefore not counted for the European Championship of Drivers .

The winner of the race was Louis Chiron in a Bugatti Type 51 .

run

Although not yet advanced to the status of a Grande Épreuve , the race through the streets of Monte Carlo was already one of the Grand Prix classics in 1931. Accordingly, despite the renewed cancellation of the Alfa Romeo team  - due to tire problems that had become apparent at the previous Mille Miglia - the Monaco Automobile Club had no problems in reassembling a first-class field of participants with drivers from eight nations. The focus of interest was of course the two works teams from Bugatti and Maserati , and among them in particular their two top drivers, local hero Louis Chiron and René Dreyfus , who snatched the victory with his privately entered Bugatti after a thrilling battle at the end of his competitor last year would have.

After the Maserati Tipo 26M with a 2.5-liter in-line eight-cylinder had dominated the previous season at the end, Bugatti had launched a new Grand Prix model in 1931 with the Bugatti Type 51 . The main difference to the previous Bugatti Type 35 was the newly designed 2.3-liter engine with DOHC valve control , which made significantly higher speeds possible. In addition to the works team with its regular drivers Chiron, Achille Varzi  - who had previously won the debut of the Type 51 on the new race track in Carthago , North Africa with his privately registered copy - Albert Divo and Guy Bouriat now also had their first independent drivers, such as the British Earl Howe , about Bugatti's latest Grand Prix model. The remaining Bugatti privateers, including next to William Grover-Williams (aka "W. Williams"), the winner of the race of 1929 , and the two Frenchmen Philippe Étancelin and Marcel Lehoux the three cars of strong new Renngemeinschaft German Bugatti team with Heinrich-Joachim von Morgen , Prince Hermann zu Leiningen and Ernst Günther Burggaller , however, had to be content with their older types 35B and 35C .

Maserati sent their contract drivers Dreyfus, Luigi Fagioli  - the actual number 1 in the team - and Clemente Biondetti , all three in a Maserati 26M , into the field against the Bugatti phalanx . The independent Swiss Hans Stuber was only able to compete in his older Maserati 26B because, after a training accident, his British colleague Sir Henry "Tim" Birkin provided him with a new front axle from his defective car.

The 23-strong field was completed by a somewhat older Peugeot 174 S from André Boillot (alias "Dribus", brother of the famous pre-war driver Georges Boillot ) and the top German driver Rudolf Caracciola , whose Mercedes SSKL with its mighty 7th , 1-liter in-line six-cylinder, however, looked very out of place on the narrow street circuit due to its length and weight. However, after a few misunderstandings in the previous year, Caracciola did not want to scare off the organizers again and therefore accepted his invitation to the race as the newly crowned first foreign winner of the Mille Miglia .

In 1931 the starting grid was drawn and Dreyfus made use of his luck on the drawing board and took the lead directly in front of "Williams", while his rivals behind it needed several laps to sort the field. On the fourth lap, "Williams" even passed the Maserati factory driver, but had to retire one lap later with a broken valve spring.

In the meantime, Varzi had finally worked his way up to third with the factory Bugatti and was able to overtake Lehoux, who was now second, and Dreyfus shortly afterwards, thus securing the first of the newly introduced bonus awards, which this year for the first time ten rounds were awarded to the leader. His team-mate Chiron was now fifth behind Maserati driver Fagioli and ahead of Caracciola in the Mercedes and was on the way forward, while Dreyfus was now continuously losing places. After Lehoux, the last promisingly placed private driver, was withdrawn from the race due to a defective differential, the two factory Bugattis from Varzi and Chiron were in front after 20 of the 100 laps, ahead of the two Maseratis from Fagioli and Dreyfus - the one soon afterwards had to make a longer repair stop - followed by Caracciola, Bouriat, Divo and Biondetti. With the exception of Stanisław Czaykowski from Poland , all other participants had already been lapped by this point.

Shortly before the third intermediate classification, however, Varzi had to pit after contact with a curb with a broken wheel, which meant that, to the delight of the local crowd, Chiron took the lead, which he did not give up until the end of the race. After 60 laps, only Fagioli - who had been completely ignored by his competitors for a long time due to a mistake by the timekeeper - and Bouriat together with Chiron were in one lap, who switched places after ten more laps because the Maserati had problems with the fuel supply were. When Bouriat had to pit to change the spark plugs, the Italian came back to his usual place, but now one lap behind the leader, who was able to celebrate victory in his hometown for the only time in his career. Varzi also came close to Fagioli in the end, but although both had to do another lap after Chiron had crossed the finish line, he was unable to overtake the Maserati driver - also because the timekeepers made another mistake and the race therefore a lap early was waved off.

Results

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Bugatti Team Germany	02	Ernst Günther Burggaller	Bugatti T35B	Bugatti 2.3L I8 compressor
	06th	Heinrich-Joachim of tomorrow
	04th	Hermann zu Leiningen	Bugatti T35C	Bugatti 2.0L I8 compressor
Rudolf Caracciola	08th	Rudolf Caracciola	Mercedes-Benz SSKL	Mercedes-Benz M06 RS 7.1L I6 compressor	C.
Earl Howe	10	Earl Howe	Bugatti T51	Bugatti 2.3L I8 compressor	D.
Clifton Penn-Hughes	12	Clifton Penn-Hughes	Bugatti T35	Bugatti 2.0L I8	D.
Sir Henry Birkin	14th	Henry Birkin	Maserati 26M	Maserati 2.5L I8 compressor	D.
Bernhard Ackerl	16	Bernhard Ackerl	Bugatti T35A	Bugatti 1.5L I4
Juan Zanelli	18th	Juan Zanelli	Bugatti T35B	Bugatti 2.3L I8 compressor
Automobiles Ettore Bugatti	20th	Guy Bouriat	Bugatti T51	Bugatti 2.3L I8 compressor	M.
	22nd	Louis Chiron
	24	Albert Divo
	26th	Achille Varzi
Philippe Étancelin	28	Philippe Étancelin	Bugatti T35C	Bugatti 2.0L I8 compressor	M.
Count Stanisław Czaykowski	30th	Stanislaw Czaykowski	Bugatti T35C	Bugatti 2.0L I8 compressor
Marcel Lehoux	32	Marcel Lehoux	Bugatti T35B	Bugatti 2.3L I8 compressor
William Grover-Williams	34	William Grover-Williams	Bugatti T35C	Bugatti 2.0L I8 compressor
Boris Ivanovsky	36	Boris Ivanovsky	Mercedes-Benz SSK	Mercedes-Benz M06 7.1L I6 compressor
André Boillot	38	André Boillot	Peugeot 174S	Peugeot 4.0L I4	M.
SA Alfa Romeo	40	Luigi Arcangeli	Alfa Romeo 6C 1750	Alfa Romeo 1.8L I6 compressor	P
	42	Baconin Borzacchini
	44	Tazio Nuvolari	Alfa Romeo Monza	Alfa Romeo 2.3L I8 compressor
Scuderia Ferrari	46	Goffredo Zehender	Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 GS	Alfa Romeo 1.8L I6 compressor	E.
Officine Alfieri Maserati	48	Clemente Biondetti	Maserati 26M	Maserati 2.5L I8 compressor	P
	50	René Dreyfus
	52	Luigi Fagioli
Carlo Pedrazzini	54	Carlo Pedrazzini	Maserati 26B	Maserati 2.0L I8
Hans Stuber	56	Hans Stuber	Bugatti T35C	Bugatti 2.0L I8 compressor

Race result

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	Louis Chiron	Bugatti	100		3: 39: 09,200	11	2: 07,000
02	Luigi Fagioli	Maserati	100		+ 3: 55,400	14th	2: 07,000
03	Achille Varzi	Bugatti	100		+ 4: 04,000	10	2: 07,000
04th	Guy Bouriat	Bugatti	98		+ 2 rounds	20th
05	Goffredo Zehender	Alfa Romeo	97		+ 3 rounds	13
06th	André Boillot	Peugeot	96		+ 4 rounds	8th
07th	Clemente Biondetti	Maserati	91		+ 9 rounds	9
08th	Clifton Penn-Hughes	Bugatti	89		+ 11 rounds	15th
09	Stanislaw Czaykowski	Bugatti	86		+ 15 rounds	21st
-	René Dreyfus	Maserati	91		DNF	1		Magneto
-	Albert Divo	Bugatti	66		DNF	6th		Engine failure
-	Earl Howe	Bugatti	66		DNF	17th		defective oil pump
-	Hans Stuber	Bugatti	59		DNF	2		defective drive shaft
-	Bernhard Ackerl	Bugatti	55		DNF	3		Power transmission
-	Rudolf Caracciola	Mercedes	53		DNF	5		Clutch and engine damage
-	Juan Zanelli	Bugatti	47		DNF	19th		Piston damage
-	Hermann zu Leiningen	Bugatti	31		DNF	22nd		Gearbox damage
-	Heinrich-Joachim of tomorrow	Bugatti	28		DNF	12		Power transmission
-	Ernst Günther Burggaller	Bugatti	26th		DNF	18th		Engine failure
-	Marcel Lehoux	Bugatti	15th		DNF	7th		Power transmission
-	Carlo Pedrazzini	Maserati	13		DNF	23		Ignition damage
-	Philippe Étancelin	Bugatti	6th		DNF	16		Piston damage
-	William Grover-Williams	Bugatti	5		DNF	4th		Valve damage
-	Henry Birkin	Maserati			DNS
-	Boris Ivanowski	Mercedes			DNS

Web links

Commons : Monaco Grand Prix 1931  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• III Grand Prix de Monaco. www.teamdan.com, accessed September 7, 2014 . 
• III GRAND PRIX DE MONACO. www.kolumbus.fi, September 4, 2014, accessed September 7, 2014 (English).