Ferrari 1-2-3 at the 1952 Albi Grand Prix. Ferrari 1-2-3 at the Albi Grand Prix.

On 1st June 1952, the fourteenth edition of the Albi Grand Prix was run to 1951 rules over 34 laps of the almost nine kilometres long circuit. There were no works Ferraris entered, but all the same there were five Maranello-built cars on track. The Escuderia Bandeirantes team entered a 375 for the Brazilian Francesco “Chico” Sacco Landi and a similar car was run by Ecurie Rosier for the team’s French founder Louis. The entry list also feartured an Ecurie Espadon 500, for the Swiss driver Rudolf Fischer, and a private 125 for Englishman Peter Whitehead and the 166 for Italy’s Franco Comotti.

The Argentinians Juan Manuel Fangio and Jose Froilan Gonzalez had the upper hand in qualifying in the BRMs, with Rosier third fastest. In the race, Fangio almost immediately pulled away, while Gonzalez had to fight his way back up the order, having dropped to eighth. By lap 3, Fangio and Gonzalez were in control ahead of Rosier. However, shortly after, Gonzalez’s engine let go and on lap 14, Fangio came in to refuel.

He rejoined having lost a lap, as the mechanics found a hole in the tank and had tried to fix it. However, they didn’t solve the problem and Fangio was stranded out on the 8.9 kilometre track, having run dry. That left Rosier in the lead and he managed to ably keep ahead of Landi who had done well to fight his way up from the back of the grid. Third was the Ecurie Rosier Talbot, driven by France’s Yves Giraud-Cabantous.