FRENCH GRAND PRIX

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28010, 3 July 1956, Page 9

FRENCH GRAND PRIX

BRITISH DRIVERS SUCCESSFUL (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) RHEIMS (France), July 1. British motor racing gained a double success today when Peter Collins won the French Grand Prix and Jaguars took the first four places in the 12-hour international endurance race. Collins’s speed of 122.28 miles an hour was the fastest average speed recorded for a race in any European motoring event. His win in a Ferrari gave him a clear lead in the 1956 motor racing championship. Eugenior Castelloti, of Italy, in a Ferrari, was second, and Jean Behra,

of France, in a Maserati, was third. Juan Fangio, the Argentine world champion, another Ferrari driver, lost the lead after a pit stop and finished fourth. On his final lap he set a new lap record for the 8.3 kilometres (about five miles) triangular circuit of 127.36 miles an hour. In the 12-hour sports car race, the winning Jaguar,, driven by Duncan Hamilton and Ivor Bueb, covered the 1332 miles at an average speed of 111 miles an hour. The Jaguars broke the lap record four times in darkness during the first hour o- the race. Just before the finish, Bueb established a final lap record of 118.13 miles an hour.