This year the GP of the ACF, better known as the French Grand Prix, was given the title of GP d’Europe, for what it was worth, and attracted a very strong entry of works teams and small private teams, as well as a few independents. As in previous years, a F2 race was held as well, but this year it was run after the Grand Prix, and the annual 12-hour sports or GT race was scrubbed altogether. After the many accidents over the past few years it was felt that the Grand Prix drivers had an unfair handicap in having to race last of all in a weekend of motor racing on the Geux circuit.
In furtherance of this aim to provide a track as free of rubber and oil as possible for the GP of Europe, practice was held on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and Saturday was kept clear of racing, giving time for conditions to return to the best possible, and the F2 race was kept until the end of Sunday.
On Wednesday afternoon, at 4pm, practice began for F2 cars and conditions were warm and dry, with a wind blowing downhill to Thillois hairpin, so that everything was set for some fast times, and it was not long before Moss improved on his last year’s record lap of 2min 36.7sec and got down to 2min 32.3sec, driving Rob Walker’s Cooper-Borgward.
