Varzi wins the Coppa Ciano, Malaguti wins 1100 class

The 1934 Coppa Ciano over 12 laps was a minor event. Of the 19 starters 14 were Alfa Romeos, three were Maseratis and two Bugattis. Nuvolari (Maserati) led the first three laps before Moll (Alfa Romeo) took the lead. Nuvolari led again on the 5th lap but then Moll passed him again and held first place until lap 10, when he stopped to replace a damaged wheel. Varzi (Alfa Romeo) then led the last two laps and won the race ahead of Moll and Nuvolari, followed by the Alfa Romeos of Trossi, Barbieri, Farina, Magistri, Cornaggia and Pages in ninth place. There were ten retirements amongst them the Alfa Romeos of Minozzi and Balestrero. The 13 cars of the 1100 class raced concurrently, but only over 8 laps. Malaguti (Maserati) dominated the class and won ahead of Matrullo (Maserati), Mallucci (Fiat), Toti (Maserati), Nenzioni (Rocca-Fiat) and Corrado (Fiat). Seven cars retired including the Frenchman Chambost (Salmson).

The Montenero circuit races outside Livorno ('Leghorn' in English) had been held since 1921. From 1922 onwards a 22.5 km circuit was used, which in 1931 was shortened to 20 km and routed from Ardenza Mare - Montenero - Savolano - Castellaccio - and back to Ardenza Mare. The 1934 event was the 14th time that the race was held on the Circuito del Montenero. The organizers named it incorrectly as the 14th Coppa Ciano, but in reality, 1934 was the 8th Coppa Ciano. The Coppa or trophy was donated by the Italian Navy hero Costanzo Ciano for a 1927 Montenero sports car race, which was named after the trophy. The Coppa Ciano name was applied for the second time to the 1928 Montenero sports car race. As of 1929, when the sports car race was dropped from the program, the Coppa Ciano name was assigned to the racecar event for the first time.       Earl Howe described the circuit in his memoirs which were published in The Motor in October of 1933: "This circuit is a long triangle over a very narrow road, with an immense number of hairpin bends, rising to a height of about 3,000 to 4,000 ft. and dropping back from that height to about sea level. The road is very narrow all round and extremely bumpy. There are many very severe corners with a drop of several thousand feet on one side; in fact, there are plenty of parts of the circuit where any mistake would be the last."       The R. A. C. I. (Reale Automobile Club Italia) together with the Moto Club Livorno organized the Coppa Ciano race, which counted towards the Italian championship. The participating cars were divided into classes of up to 1100 cc and over 1100 cc, whereby the small cars had to complete eight laps of the 20 km circuit, a total of 160 km, while the large cars finish 12 laps or 240 km.       The total prize money amounted to 150,000 lire. The winner received 40,000 and the Coppa Ciano, second 20,000 and the Coppa Mussolini, third 10,000, fourth 8,000, fifth 7,000, sixth 6,000, seventh 5,000, eighth 4,000, ninth 3,000 and tenth 2,000 lire. For the 1100 class three prizes were available: 3,500 lire for first, 2,500 for second and 2,000 for third.       There were three prizes for the independent drivers: 5,000 lire for first, 4,000 for second and 3,000 for third. They could be combined with the previous prizes. In addition, 25,000 lire would be divided among the unclassified drivers.

Entries: Scuderia Ferrari entered three Alfa Romeo 2.9-L Tipo B/P3 for Achille Varzi, the Algerian Guy Moll and Carlo Felice Trossi and a 2.6-L of the same type for Ferdinando Barbieri. Giordano "Nando"Aldrighetti, a Scuderia Ferrari Motorcyclist since 1932, made his race car debut and was assigned a 2.6-L 8C Monza. Nuvolari was the Scuderia's only serious opponent with his Maserati 8 CM. The Mantuan was still suffering from the after effects of his Alessandria crash three months earlier where he suffered a double fracture of the left leg and other injuries. The Maserati Works entered an 8C-3000 for Giuseppe Tuffanelli which was a special works car usually raced by Zehender during 1934. Secondo Corsi did not race here but entered his 8C-2800 Maserati for his mechanic Giovanni Barsotti. The 8C-2800 and 8C-3000 Maseratis were based on the 26M chassis, which originally had an 8C-2500 engine. Giacomo Palmieri entered a T35C Bugatti but no details are known of the other two Bugatti entries.       The remaining cars comprised various Alfa Romeos, amongst them Renato Balestrero with a 2600 Monza entered by Gruppo Genovese San Giorgio who also entered a 2300 Monza for Amaldo Sciutti. Scuderia Siena had a 2300 Monza for Giovanni Minozzi. The independent Giovanni Cornaggia Medici entered an 8C-2300 spider, the Mille Miglia version, and Luigi Pages had a 2300 Monza. Costantino Magistri had a 6C-1750 GS. Luigi della Chiesa entered his 2300 Monza while the Alfa for Giuseppe Farina was entered by Gino Rovere. Renato Danese had a 2300 Monza.       The 1100 class included the new Rocca car with a Fiat 508 engine for Cleto Nenzioni while Landi's #60 Rocca had an 1100 cc Maserati engine. These cars looked similar to the Maseratis, but they were constructed in Bologna by a modest craftsman. The French driver Raymond Albert Chambost with a Salmson was the only foreigner in the 1100 car field. A complete list of entries is shown at the beginning of this report.

Practice: On Friday many drivers were practicing on the circuit. All the Scuderia Ferrari drivers arrived on Thursday night. On Friday morning their most formidable opponent, Nuvolari arrived with his Maserati. The Mantuan, who practiced at dawn, took to the circuit when there were no timekeepers or spectators and he drove for a long time. As a result it was not possible to report his times. Later at 1:00 PM, Nuvolari presented himself at the Ardenza finish line, but not to practice again, rather to observe the performance of his opponents. In the hours set for the practice sessions, the five Scuderia Ferrari drivers took to the track and practiced several times. Varzi first managed a lap in 14m30s, then one in 14m13s. Trossi, who had started with a 15m18s lap, improved easily to 14m07s; Barbieri, after a 14m57s lap, managed 14m31s; Aldrighetti, starting from from 16m29s dropped to 15m35s and ended with 15m18s. Moll's practice times were followed with particular interest. The Algerian improved from one lap to the next: 15m10s; 15m; 14m50s; 14m26s and finally 14m11. The best time made by Corsi was 16m25s, who drove his Maserati in practice but for the race he gave the car to his mechanic, Giovanni Barsotti. Malaguti did 16m30s, Palmieri 16m07s, Danese 16m02s and Pages 15m58s. Finally Farina, one of the Scuderia Subalpina drivers, awaited the arrival of his car and drove with a Fiat Balilla instead. His best time was in 18 minutes. After practice, Varzi was convinced that the existing records would not be broken because he realized that it was not possible to go any faster than the times achieved.

Race: Premoli Rocco and Minucci did not start which left 19 cars to line up on the grid as follows:

14 Pages Alfa Romeo 12 Trossi Alfa Romeo 10 Cornaggia Alfa Romeo 4 Tuffanelli Maserati 2 Minozzi Alfa Romeo 22 Magistri Alfa Romeo 20 Barbieri Alfa Romeo 18 Sciutti Alfa Romeo 16 Nuvolari Maserati 34 Balestrero Alfa Romeo 32 Danese Alfa Romeo 28 Lami Bugatti 26 Palmieri Bugatti 24 Barsotti Maserati 42 Varzi Alfa Romeo 40 Aldrighetti Alfa Romeo 38 della Chiesa Alfa Romeo 36 Farina Alfa Romeo 44 Moll Alfa Romeo

At 3:40 PM Miss Letta, the young daughter of the Prefect of Livorno, gave the signal to start. Tuffanelli and Minozzi led the way, then Cornaggia and Trossi, all from the first row. Due to a misleading starting signal the first two may have jumped the start. Nuvolari made a slow start and two cars passed him. Varzi in the fourth row stalled the engine and was delayed for about ten seconds. He was now 18 seconds behind the leading car, so his race began with an unexpected handicap. It had been said that other drivers had left before the signal to start but some said this was not true. This small chronometric episode raised some discussion amongst the race officials and in the press, but then, the sensible proposal prevailed not to penalize anyone.       In the meantime the cars of the 1100 class had lined up on the grid. Since Bagnoli, Bonetto and Morini did not appear the field was down to 13 cars in the following order:

62 Chambost Salmson 60 Landi Rocca-Maserati 58 Ruggeri Fiat 54 Corrado Fiat 52 Nenzioni Rocca-Fiat 70 Cecchini MG 68 Mallucci Fiat 66 Magretti Fiat 64 Toti Maserati 80 Giovannelli PE 78 Furmanik Maserati 74 Malaguti Maserati 72 Matrullo Maserati

After an interval of four minutes the 1100 class was started, with Malaguti in front, followed by Mallucci and Magretti.       After the 1st lap, great applause welcomed Nuvolari who covered the 20 km in 14m23s at 85.410 km/h average speed. He was five seconds ahead of Trossi in 14m28s, followed by Moll in 14m54s, Minozzi 15m10s, Barbieri 15m26s and in sixth place Varzi in 15m37s having passed 12 cars. After his delayed start, Varzi was 1m24s behind the leader on the difficult and tortuous ups and downs of the narrow road of Romito. Danese retired his Alfa Romeo with a broken connecting rod, while Furmanik and Giovannelli retired in the 1100 class. Malaguti in the potent Maserati led the 1100 cc field, followed closely by the Salmson of Chambost.       Nuvolari completed his second lap in 13m54s increasing his lead, but Trossi was no longer second as he had slowed with a supercharger problem. He was passed by the determined Moll who was now second, 19 seconds behind the Mantuan, while Varzi held 4th place. Aldrighetti retired on the second lap due to mechanical failure. In the 1100 class Malaguti led ahead of Chambost, Matrullo and Mallucci.       On the 3rd lap, Moll made the fastest lap of the day in 13m47s at 87.060 km/h average speed. Only six seconds separated him from Nuvolari whose time was 42m29s, Moll 42m35s, Trossi 43m14s and Varzi 43m41s, who was now 1m12s behind Nuvolari. On this lap, Barsotti (Maserati) retired with spark plug trouble and Lami (Bugatti) ended his race with a gearbox problem.       Malaguti still led the 1100 field with his Maserati and Chambost had caught up with Malaguti and had an identical time of 49m03s but did not pass him. Matrullo followed in third ahead of Mallucci. Corrado and Nenzioni stopped at the pits and Magretti retired on the circuit.       On the 4th lap Moll passed Nuvolari and was 3 seconds ahead of the Mantuan at the end of the lap. But it was Varzi who amazed everyone; in one lap he took 13 seconds from Nuvolari. It was a fight between a formidable trio of champions, Nuvolari, Moll and Varzi, each of them making the maximum effort. Barbieri (Bugatti) fell behind due to escaping hot oil roasting his foot. Moll's average lap time for the first 4 laps was 14m08s. After 80 km, it was the midrace for the 1100 class, when the order was as follows after 4 laps: 1. Moll (Alfa Romeo) 56m32s 2. Nuvolari (Maserati) 56m35s 3. Trossi (Alfa Romeo) 57m28s 4. Varzi (Alfa Romeo) 57m34s 5. Barbieri (Alfa Romeo) 59m31s 6. Minozzi (Alfa Romeo) 1h00m21s 7. Balestrero (Alfa Romeo) 1h01m22s 8. Farina (Alfa Romeo) 1h01m40s 9. Tuffanelli (Maserati) 1h02m53s 10. Malaguti (Maserati) 1100 class 1h05m02s 11. Chambost (Salmson) 1100 class 1h05m19s 12. Pages (Alfa Romeo) 1h05m22s 13. Magistri (Alfa Romeo) 1h05m39s 14. Pages (Alfa Romeo) 1h05m22s 15. Matrullo (Maserati) 1100 class 1h06m02s 16. della Chiesa (Alfa Romeo) 1h06m53s 17. Cornaggia (Alfa Romeo) 1h06m55s 18. Malucci (Fiat) 1100 class 1h07m54s 19. Sciutti (Alfa Romeo) 1h11m01s 1 lap behind 20. Palmieri (Bugatti) 1h11m19s 1 lap behind 21. Nenzioni (Rocca-Fiat) 1100 class 1h16m14s 1 lap behind 22. Corrado (Fiat) 1100 class 1h21m30s 1 lap behind On the 5th lap, Nuvolari managed a lap in 13m57s and recaptured the lead. By the end of the lap he was 11 seconds ahead of Moll, who had a time of 14m11s. Varzi's gap was 1m14s to Nuvolari and 53s to Moll. Palmieri (Bugatti) retired on lap 5 but since he was one lap down he had completed only 3 laps. The Alfa Romeos of Balestrero and della Chiesa retired at their pits, the former with a mechanical problem. The field was now down to 12 cars.       Malaguti still led the 1100s with his Maserati, but Chambost retired his Salmson due to an unknown failure on the 5th lap when Matrullo took over second place.       On lap six, Moll drove a lap in 13m50s with a race time of 1h24m33s at 85.153 km/h average speed. He had a lead of 21 seconds over Nuvolari in 1h24m54s. The Mantuan had signaled to his pit that he had a front axle problem, and that he was concerned about too much play in the steering wheel. The circuit was among the most tiring in Europe and from this point forward Nuvolari had to accept coming third. Even Trossi in fourth place, after his brilliant start, could not maintain his early pace and gradually lost ground. Farina in 7th place had two contacts with crash barriers without serious consequences and was recovering lost ground. Tuffanelli was 8th. Moll led Varzi by 41 seconds after the 6th lap. At mid-race, after 120 km, Moll led with an average of 85.153 km/h with the front runners in the following order after six laps: 1. Moll (Alfa Romeo) 1h24m33s 2. Nuvolari (Maserati) 1h24m54s 3. Varzi (Alfa Romeo) 1h25m14s 4. Trossi (Alfa Romeo) 1h26m21s 5. Sciutti (Alfa Romeo) 1h28m15s 6. Barbieri (Alfa Romeo) 1h29m00s 7. Farina (Alfa Romeo) 8. Tuffanelli (Maserati) On the 7th lap Moll drove a lap in 13m58s while his race time was 1h38m31s, Varzi lapped in 13m52s with a race time of 1h39m06s. There were now 35 seconds between Moll and Varzi, the latter had passed Nuvolari for second place.       At the end of the 8th lap the cars in the 1100 class ended their race. Malaguti finished first after 2h09m39.2s at 74.043 km/h average speed and Matrullo (Maserati) was second over two minutes behind. Third was Mallucci's Fiat "Balilla" ahead of Toti's Maserati. Nenzioni finished in fifth place in the new Rocca - which had made its debut. Corrado's Fiat was the last finisher in sixth place. Furmanik, who was the favorite in this class, retired on the first lap due to a slight accident. The previous records were not beaten.       Tuffanelli retired on lap eight but since he had been lapped, he had completed only six laps. Moll drove his 8th lap in 14m06s but Varzi drove his in 13m59s, so now there was only 28 seconds between them. Varzi had a lead of more than one minute over Nuvolari who had slowed noticeably. Moll's average lap time for the first 8 laps was 15m20s. After 160 km, Moll led the field in following order after eight laps: 1. Moll (Alfa Romeo) 1h52m37s 2. Varzi (Alfa Romeo) 1h52m55s 3. Nuvolari (Maserati) 1h54m19s 4. Trossi (Alfa Romeo) 1h56m29s 5. Barbieri (Alfa Romeo) 1h58m40s 6. Minozzi (Alfa Romeo) 2h00m56s 7. Farina (Alfa Romeo) 2h01m39s 8. Pages (Alfa Romeo) 2h09m13s 1 lap behind 9. Magistri (Alfa Romeo) 2h09m35s 1 lap behind 10. Cornaggia (Alfa Romeo) 2h13m25s 1 lap behind 11. Sciutti (Alfa Romeo) 2h16m52s 1 lap behind On the 9th lap there were only 23 seconds between Moll and Varzi, who had made up five seconds. By means of hand signals Varzi reported to the pits the condition of his tires. Cautious and alert as ever, he preferred to slow down his race pace rather than stop at the pits to change wheels which could have compromised his race. He kept his attention on Moll and adjusted his speed to that of his opponent. Minozzi and Sciutti retired on lap nine but they had completed only seven laps, beause both had been lapped once.       On the 10th lap nine cars still remained in the race. At the end of the lap Moll arrived several seconds late, stopping at the pits with the left rear wheel clearly buckled. He had damaged the wheel after he emerged from the curve near Antignano. In an instant the car was lifted up, the defective wheel was replaced, and after 18 seconds the Algerian rejoined the race. The scene was full of excitement. To shouts of enthusiasm and thunderous applause, Varzi arrived and passed into the lead. When Moll restarted, his small lead had changed into 12 seconds deficit. This was to be the victory of the Italian driver; which was acclaimed by the crowd. Moll realized that in the two remaining laps, the short gap was unbridgeable and he restarted without excessive force.       At the end of the 12th lap Varzi crossed the finish line as the victor, and Moll followed nine seconds later. Nuvolari finished in third place, Trossi was fourth, Barbieri fifth, Farina sixth and Magistri seventh. Cornaggia and Pages were flagged off at the end of their 11th lap. The siren with its howl announced the end of the race and the opening of the circuit. The spectators rushed onto the track to see and applaud the drivers and their cars. Everyone was enthusiastic after watching this exciting race.       The excited crowd erupted in applause for the winner Varzi and for Moll. They were accompanied to the stand of Honor where Costanzo Ciano and all the authorities congratulated them while the tricolor rose on the the stand and on the control tower. The crowd called loudly for Nuvolari and enthusiastic fans carried him on their shoulders to the stand of honor where the Mantuan, still limping from his injured leg, climbed the steps to receive the congratulations. Varzi, Moll and Nuvolari united in the joy of triumph in a race superbly and relentlessly fought.

Bugatti's last grande épreuve victory

Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union withdrew and only seven cars took part in the race that started in rainy weather. The Scuderia Ferrari Alfa Romeos of Chiron and Varzi took control of the first half of the race while Bugatti drivers Benoist, Dreyfus and Brivio had bad spare plug problems demanding multiple pit stops that put them far behind the Alfa Romeos. Halfway through the race Chiron made a mistake and crashed. Varzi took over the lead until his car broke down. Dreyfus found to his surprise that he was leading with his team mate Brivio second and Sommer in a Maserati third and that is how they finished. With some good luck Benoist survived an incident late in the race that could have ended badly.

The Belgian Grand Prix, run by the Royal Automobile Club de Belgique (RACB) was run to the international 750 kg rules and considered a Grandes Épreuve. Spa-Francorchamps was competing with Reims about being the fastest race course in Europe. For 1934 the circuit was thus vastly improved and was much faster than hitherto. The Malmèdy corner was eased to a fast bend, the Stavelot turn was eased as well and slightly banked, and the hairpin at la Source got wider and more steeply banked than before. The new circuit length was 14.864 km. The race distance was 40 laps.       Prizes offered were 50,000, 30,000 and 20,000 francs for the top three finishers.

Entries: At 3 p.m. on Thursday Mr. Langlois, the president of the RACB, announced that Mercedes-Benz had officially withdrawn their entry and that Auto Union was expected to do the same. Officially Mercedes-Benz announced that due to the tight race schedule they did not have time to make their cars ready and Auto Union claimed their drivers needed a rest. It has been said that the real reason was that Belgian customs had asked the German teams to pay 180,000 francs duty for the 3000 litres of their alcohol based special fuel. L'Auto however claimed that that problem had been sorted out by Mr. Langlois.       Nuvolari with his Maserati had the bad luck to take the way from Italy through Austria and was hindered by the "July Putsch" and the murder of Austrian Chancellor Dollfuss that ended up with the Italian and Austrian armies deploying against each other on the border. Hamilton and "Delmo", who were listed as expected competitors, never turned up either. That left seven entries. Bugatti sent a full team with three T59s for their drivers Robert Benoist, René Dreyfus and Antonio Brivio with Jean-Pierre Wimille as reserve. The Bugatti cars had suffered badly during the French Grand Prix from carburetion trouble when coming out of slow corners and it was hoped that the fast Spa-Francorchamps circuit with only one really slow corner should fit the cars better. Possibly expecting to meet the German teams Scuderia Ferrari entered just two cars for Louis Chiron and Achille Varzi with the expected Guy Moll not taking part in the race. Raymond Sommer entered his Maserati 8CM two-seater (#3006). The last entry was Charles Montier with his "Montier Speciale" based on a Ford V8. He entered the car in the in a hope that amateur drivers would show their interest and buy one of his cars for the Spa 24 hour race.

Race: Sunday came with overcast, threatening, windy weather. At the last moment, as the cars lined up in the grid, a fine rain began to fall.

6 Brivio Bugatti 14 Chiron Alfa Romeo 2 Benoist Bugatti 16 Varzi Alfa Romeo 4 Dreyfus Bugatti 12 Sommer Maserati 24 Montier Montier (Note 2)

As one could expect Chiron made the best start to lead the cars towards Eau-Rouge followed by Dreyfus, Varzi, Brivio, Benoist, Sommer and Montier. Chiron made the first lap at 5m57s (149.9 km/h) already beating Nuvolari's old lap record (6m01s) despite the rain and a standing start (but remember that the improved circuit was shorter and faster). Dreyfus followed two seconds behind him with Varzi a further two seconds back in third position.       The troubles for the Bugatti team immediately started as Brivio stopped in the pit to change spark plugs. As at the French Grand Prix the plugs on the front cylinders were clogged.       On the second lap Chiron started to pull away, improving the lap record to 5m51s (152.5 km/h) and leaving Dreyfus 16 seconds behind. Brivio stopped again to change spark plugs as did his team mate Benoist.       On the third lap Chiron went still faster bringing the lap record down to 5m47s (154.2 km/h). Varzi was up to second position 40 seconds behind as it was Dreyfus' turn to stop for new spark plugs. The race order was Chiron, Varzi, Sommer, Benoist, Dreyfus, Brivio and Montier.       After four laps Chiron led by 56 seconds over his team mate. Brivio and Dreyfus continued to make pit stops. After six laps of the Bugatti drivers Brivio had made three stops with a combined time of 5m26s, Dreyfus three stops as well for a combined time of 5m22s and Benoist one 1m05s stop. Add to these 32 seconds to enter and exit the pit for each stop. Everything thus looked like that it would be an easy victory for the Scuderia Ferrari team.       Benoist took over third position from Sommer but on the 8th laps Benoist had to stop in the pit again, this time staying for a long time and losing three laps. (Note 3)       After 10 laps Chiron was leading Varzi by 1m06s. Sommer in third position was the only other driver on the same lap. The order after 10 laps: 1. Chiron (Alfa Romeo) 58m48s 2. Varzi (Alfa Romeo) 59m54s 3. Sommer (Maserati) 1h03m32s 4. Brivio (Bugatti) 1h06m44s 5. Dreyfus (Bugatti) 1h07m52s The rain increased and the drivers were slowing down, the Alfa Romeos increasing their lap times to some 6m15s. Sommer in third position was making laps around 6m45s - 6m50s and at the 13th lap Chiron caught him and put him a lap down. After 15 laps Chiron led by 1m02s over his team-mate. The race order after 15 laps was : 1. Chiron (Alfa Romeo) 1h30m12s 2. Varzi (Alfa Romeo) 1h31m14s 3. Sommer (Maserati) 1h37m43s 4. Brivio (Bugatti) 1h39m57s 5. Dreyfus (Bugatti) 1h40m38s Halfway through the race it was time for the fuel stops. Leading by 54 seconds Chiron made his stop on the 19th lap. He stayed in the pit for 81 seconds returning to the circuit behind Varzi. However, Chiron soon realized he had forgotten to adjust his shock absorbers, which were too tight now, because the water had inflated the wooden friction disks and made the car hard to handle with full tanks. At the end of the 20th lap race leader Varzi made his fuel stop. Chiron passed the line 41 seconds behind him: 1. Varzi (Alfa Romeo) 2h01m36s 2. Chiron (Alfa Romeo) 2h02m17s 3. Sommer (Maserati) 2h11m14s 4. Dreyfus (Bugatti) 2h11m32s 5. Brivio (Bugatti) 2h14m13s 6. Benoist (Bugatti) 2h24m59s Chiron, who had planned to stop again to adjust the shock absorbers, noticed that the pit crew was busy with Varzi and decided to continue one more lap. Exiting the chicane near Eau Rouge he made a mistake in the following left hander and entered the grass. A rear wheel hit a stone and the car overturned making a double roll fortunately ending up over a small gully that saved the driver from being crushed. Chiron could return to the pit on foot with only a slight contusion of the knee.       The other cars made their pit stops as well. Sommer's stop on lap 22 was particularly long and he dropped behind the Bugattis of Dreyfus and Brivio.       The rain had stopped and with the sun appearing the circuit was drying up. Even when Varzi now had a comfortable 11 minutes lead he went on to make a new lap record on the 25th lap with a time of 5m46s (154.7 km/h).       The situation after 25 laps looked like this: 1. Varzi (Alfa Romeo) 2h33m06s 2. Dreyfus (Bugatti) 2h42m26s 3. Brivio (Bugatti) 2h44m57s 4. Sommer (Maserati) 2h47m03s 5. Benoist (Bugatti) 2h59m04s On lap 28 Varzi made a pit stop with thick smoke coming from the exhaust. After a plug change he left the pit, but stopped again at the next lap with the cockpit full of oily fumes. After a long delay the car was retired, officially with a broken oil pipe but most suspected it to have been a blown engine.       Suddenly the race order had changed dramatically with Dreyfus leading Brivio. After 30 laps the gap between them was 14 seconds. Sommer had a secure third position even when he was losing some 45 seconds a lap to the three Bugattis, which were making laps around 6 minutes. The order after 30 laps: 1. Dreyfus (Bugatti) 3h13m57s 2. Brivio (Bugatti) 3h15m11s 3. Sommer (Maserati) 3h19m35s 4. Benoist (Bugatti) 3h28m47s Dreyfus held on to his lead but Brivio did not admit defeat and started to close in on his team-mate. On the 34th lap he made a new lap record of 5m45s (155.1 km/h). Bugatti team manager Bartolomeo "Meo" Constantini got alarmed as this endangered a certain 1-2 finish and immediately ordered Brivio to slow down.       The race order at 35 laps looked like this with Dreyfus back in a 16s lead. 1. Dreyfus (Bugatti) 3h44m59s 2. Brivio (Bugatti) 3h45m15s 3. Sommer (Maserati) 3h51m59s 4. Benoist (Bugatti) 3h58m24s Back in the field Benoist was going at least as fast as his team-mates, putting in laps around 6 minutes flat. On the 36th lap he passed Sommer's Maserati on the track. However Benoist knew that Sommer still was one lap in front of him and he had hardly any hope of bettering his 4th position. The two cars followed each other past Burnenville, where the Dutch motorcyclist Arie van der Pluym had crashed fatally two weeks earlier, and started downhill at full speed entering a part of the circuit that in classical Spa-Francorchamps way just had been hit by a local rain shower. Benoist's Bugatti spun around and started to slide backwards at 180 km/h. On one side of the road there was a high bank, on the other a mound that was separated from the circuit by a deep ditch. By luck the car left the road at a 10 meter section where the ditch and the mound were smoothed out and the car came to rest on a field with only a damaged wheel. Following 200 meters behind Benoist Sommer had seen the Bugatti driver losing control and he had immediately raised his foot from the accelerator. The rear wheels of the Maserati had started to slide but somehow Sommer kept the car on the road.       After some work with the crank Benoist managed to restart the Bugatti, made a pit stop for a wheel change and continued on his 37th lap.       After 40 laps Dreyfus took the chequered flag as the winner. For some reason Brivio lost a lot of time during the last laps and finished 1m51s behind in second position. Sommer in third position, who had run some 9 minutes behind the leader, was flagged off after 39 laps. Due to the accident Benoist's two last laps had taken almost 22 minutes. He had lost another 1 ½ lap on the others and took the flag after 37 laps. Finally Montier, who had not made much impression by his speed but had gained respect by looking at the mirrors and giving a lot of room for the other cars to pass, finished fifth 10 laps behind the winner.       At the end of the race a part of the chronometer gallery over the pits collapsed. Luckily no one was hurt.