The 1931 Monaco Grand Prix was a Grand Prix motor race

Grand Prix motor racing

Grand Prix motor racing has its roots in organised automobile racing that began in France as far back as 1894. It quickly evolved from a simple road race from one town to the next, to endurance tests for car and driver...

 held at the Circuit de Monaco

Circuit de Monaco

Circuit de Monaco is a street circuit laid out on the city streets of Monte Carlo and La Condamine around the harbour of the principality of Monaco. It is commonly referred to as "Monte Carlo" because it is largely inside the Monte Carlo neighbourhood of Monaco.The circuit is used on one weekend in...

 on April 19, 1931.

With 16 Bugatti

Bugatti

Automobiles E. Bugatti was a French car manufacturer founded in 1909 in Molsheim, Alsace, as a manufacturer of high-performance automobiles by Italian-born Ettore Bugatti....

s in a field of 23 cars, the event was close to being a single-make race. Among the 16 were four factory-team Type 51s

Bugatti Type 51

The Type 51 series succeeded the famous Type 35 as Bugatti's premier racing car for the 1930s. Unlike the dominant Type 35s of the prior decade, the Type 51 were unable to compete with the government-supported German and Italian offerings.-Type 51:The original Type 51 bowed in 1931...

 driven by the Monegasque Louis Chiron

Louis Chiron

Louis Alexandre Chiron was a Grand Prix driver.-Career:As a teenager, Louis Chiron fell in love with cars and racing. He learned to drive at a young age and joined the Grand Prix circuit after World War I where he had been requisitioned from the artillery section to serve as a chauffeur...

, the Italian Achille Varzi

Achille Varzi

Achille Varzi , was an Italian Grand Prix driver.-Career:Born in Galliate, province of Novara , Achille Varzi was the son of a prosperous textile manufacturer...

 and the French Albert Divo

Albert Divo

Albert Divo was a Grand Prix motor racing driver. He was born in Paris, France. In 1922, Divo competed in the International Tourist Trophy endurance race on the Isle of Man...

 and Guy Bouriat. The real challenge came from the Maserati 8C

Maserati 8C

The Maserati 8C was a Grand Prix race car for Maserati between 1932 and 1933. The 8C was being designed by Alfieri Maserati in the early 1930s however he died before its completion. Development of the engine continued and the car was constructed for racing in 1932...

 2500's driven by Rene Dreyfus

René Dreyfus

René Dreyfus was a French driver who raced automobiles for 14 years in the 1920s and 1930s, the Golden Era of Grand Prix motor racing.-Early life:...

, the Italian Luigi Fagioli

Luigi Fagioli

Luigi Fagioli , nicknamed "the Abruzzi robber", was an Italian motor racing driver.-Career:Born in the small city of Osimo, Ancona Province in the Marche region of central Italy, as a boy Luigi Fagioli was fascinated by the relatively new invention of the automobile and the ensuing racing...

 and Clemente Bondietti. Rudolf Caracciola

Rudolf Caracciola

Otto Wilhelm Rudolf Caracciola , more commonly Rudolf Caracciola , was a racing driver from Remagen, Germany. He won the European Drivers' Championship, the pre-1950 equivalent of the modern Formula One World Championship, an unsurpassed three times...

 with his huge Mercedes SSKL (Super Sport Short Light-Weight) was uncompetative as his car larger car performed poorly around the tight Monaco track.

The race was between the blue cars from Molsheim and the red ones from Modena. When the start flag dropped it was Rene Dreyfus in his red Maserati who led into St. Devote, only to be passed by 'Williams' on the hill to the Casino, but his lead was short lived as the Brit was sidelined by a broken valve spring, and his race was over. Achille Varzi and Caracciola started closing on Dreyfus and Varzi managed to overtake the Frenchman on the 7th lap. Caracciola struggled with a slipping clutch that gave in on lap 53.

Starting slowly, Louis Chiron eventually displayed his talents; gaining back ground with a new lap record time. He caught up with all his opponents and left them behind. Chiron, a native of Monaco, finished the race some 5 minutes ahead of Luigi Fagioli.

Jean Bugatti

Jean Bugatti

Jean Bugatti was an French/Italian automotive designer and test engineer.Born Gianoberto Maria Carlo Bugatti in Cologne, Germany, he was the eldest son of Ettore Bugatti. Soon after his birth the family moved to the village of Dorlisheim near Molsheim in Alsace where his father built the new...

 couldn't control his joy and jumped over the parapet of the bleachers and fell into Louis Chiron's arms. For the Monegasque, this Monaco Grand Prix victory really confirmed his reputation.

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Car	Laps	Time/Retired
1	22	Louis Chiron	Bugatti T51 Bugatti Type 51 The Type 51 series succeeded the famous Type 35 as Bugatti's premier racing car for the 1930s. Unlike the dominant Type 35s of the prior decade, the Type 51 were unable to compete with the government-supported German and Italian offerings.-Type 51:The original Type 51 bowed in 1931...	100	3h39m09.2
2	52	Luigi Fagioli	Maserati 26M Maserati 26M The Maserati 26M were thirteen Grand Prix race cars made by Maserati in Bologna between 1930 and 1932.Before the 26M, the original 8-cylinder Tipo 26/8C 1500 from 1926 had evolved intoversion such as 26B, 26C/8C 2100 and 26R...	100	3h43m04.6
3	26	Achille Varzi	Bugatti T51	100	3h43m13.2
4	20	Guy Bouriat	Bugatti T51	98
5	46	Goffredo Zehender	Alfa Romeo 6C Alfa Romeo 6C The Alfa Romeo 6C name was used on road, race and sports cars made between 1925–1954 by Alfa Romeo. 6C refers to a straight 6 engine. Bodies for these cars were made by coachbuilders such as James Young, Zagato, Touring, Castagna, and Pininfarina...	97
6	38	Andre Boillot	Peugeot 174S	96
7	48	Clemente Biondetti	Maserati 26M	91
8	12	Clifton Penn-Hughes	Bugatti T35 Bugatti Type 35 The Type 35 was the most successful of the Bugatti racing models. Its version of the Bugatti arch-shaped radiator that had evolved from the more architectural one of the Bugatti Type 13 Brescia, was to become the one that the marque is most known for though even in the ranks of the various Type 35s...	89
9	30	Stanislav Czaykowski	Bugatti T35	85
DNC	50	Rene Dreyfus	Maserati 26M	91	Fuel feed