1927 Spanish Grand Prix

Race winner Robert Benoist

The IV Grand Prix of Spain took place on July 31, 1927 on the Circuito Lasarte near San Sebastián and was a race for the third automobile world championship .

The race was carried out using the applicable International Grand Prix racing formula (racing cars up to 1.5 liters capacity; minimum weight 700 kg, body width at least 80 cm; racing distance at least 600 km) over 40 laps of 17.315 km, which corresponds to a total distance of 692, 6 km corresponded.

The winner was Robert Benoist on a Delage Type 15 S 8 .

run

In contrast to the previous year, the Grand Prix of Spain in 1927 was again the actual Grande Épreuve of the traditional racing week in San Sebastián and was held as a run to the automobile world championship according to the provisions of the international racing formula . In contrast, the Formula Libre race took place at the same location this time a week earlier under the title of the San Sebastian Grand Prix .

After missing the French Grand Prix for lack of prospects of success, Bugatti  - after Talbot's retirement from Grand Prix racing, the only remaining serious opponent for Delage  - counted on the handy Bugatti Type 39A on the twisty and poorly developed classic Lasarte street course has better chances to survive against the otherwise overpowering Delage Type 15 S 8. In addition, the Formula Libre race was used to not only get the drivers in the mood for the track, but also the public presentation of the new Bugatti Royale with a triple victory for Emilio Materassi , André Dubonnet and Caberto Conelli  - against lower-class competition - to support advertising effectively.

In fact, the Delage team then got into one of the most exciting races in Grand Prix history for the only time this season. Only top driver Robert Benoist managed to sit in front of the Bugatti trio after the flying start, while his teammates Edmond Bourlier and André Morel behind them struggled to keep up at all. There were more participants overall, apart from the Maserati of the local driver Joaquin Palacio , which was actually a purely private assignment and which had to end the race early after a few laps after a large deficit.

After Materassi went briefly off the track on lap seven, Benoist was able to increase his lead a little at first, but about halfway through the race he had to make an unscheduled pit stop to change the spark plugs. Materassi was able to overtake this, but after he had to stop again to change tires, he came back on the track just before Benoist. An exciting wheel-to-wheel battle raged for four laps, in which first Benoist and then, to everyone's surprise, Materassi again came out on top. In order to keep up the pace, the Italian had to drive with the last effort, which was his undoing on the 31st lap. In the same place as before, he took a curve too fast and lost control of the car, which luckily did not overturn, but ran aground after hitting a wall with its wheels torn off. Benoist was just able to leave the track behind to avoid a collision, but then spent a few minutes in the pits to recover from the shock. His lead over Conelli and Louis Chiron  - who had taken over the Dubonnet car in the meantime - was big enough, however, to still drive the race home safely. Chiron, on the other hand, had another accident shortly before the end of the race, but Conelli was at least able to pass Delage von Bourlier in second place, who had to finish the final lap on his own in third and last.

Results

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Automobiles Talbot	01	Albert Divo	Talbot GPLB	Talbot 1.5L I8 compressor	M.
	07th	William Grover-Williams
	11	Louis Wagner
Marqués de Sota	02	Marqués de Sota	Maserati 26	Maserati 26 1.5L I8 compressor	EX
Major Frank Halford	03	George Eyston	Halford special	Halford 1.5L I6
Automobiles Ettore Bugatti	04th	Emilio Materassi	Bugatti T39A	Bugatti 1.5L I8 compressor	M.
	09	Caberto Conelli
	12	André Dubonnet
		Louis Chiron
		Louis Charavel
SA of the automobile Jean-Graf	05	Jean Graf	Jean Count La Perle	CIME 1.5L I6
Automobiles Delage	06th	Robert Benoist	Delage Type 15 S 8 1927	Delage 1.5L I8	M.
	10	Edmond Bourlier
	14th	André Morel
		Guy Bouriat
		Robert Sénéchal
Joaquín Palacio	08th	Joaquín Palacio	Maserati 26	Maserati 26 1.5L I8 compressor	A.
		Alfieri Maserati

Race result

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	Robert Benoist	Delage	40	3	5: 20: 45.0 h	2	7: 33.2 min
02	Caberto Conelli	Bugatti	40		+ 2: 17.0 min	4th
03	Edmond Bourlier	Delage	40		+ 7: 27.0 min	5
-	André Dubonnet Louis Chiron	Bugatti	36		DNF	6th		accident
-	Emilio Materassi	Bugatti	30th		DNF	1		accident
-	André Morel	Delage	16		DNF	7th		Engine failure
-	Joaquín Palacio	Maserati	2		DNF	3		Engine failure

Web links

Commons : Spanish Grand Prix 1927  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• IV Gran Premio de España. www.teamdan.com, accessed September 4, 2014 .