his pitstop. At the start, from the front row Bonetto and Ascari both made good starts, while Villoresi was slow away, leaving a gap for González to quickly move into the lead with his much lighter car. At the end of the first lap González had built a 2.8 second gap over the other Italian cars, the order being Ascari, Villoresi, Bonetto, Fangio, Hawthorn, Farina and Marimón, with the gap from second to eighth just 2.2 seconds. Further back was the first of the non-Italian cars, with Bira just ahead of the Gordini of Maurice Trintignant, who had started from the back having not set a lap in practice. On the second lap, González continued to pull away from the main pack, now led by the Ferraris of Ascari, Villoresi and Hawthorn, all disputing second place, with Farina close behind. They were followed by the Maseratis of Fangio and Marimón, with Bonetto dropping to ninth after a spin, behind Trintignant, Bira and de Graffenried. Apart from the three Ferraris contesting second place, the order near the front remained the same for the next 20 laps or so, at which point González ceased increasing his lead, making it unlikely he would be able to hold it when he made his stop. On lap 23, Fangio overtook Farina, who responded by setting the then fastest lap of the race and retaking the position. On the following lap Fangio overtook Farina again, setting the fastest lap of the race in the process. This increase in pace of Fangio and Farina had now placed them in the middle of the three Ferraris, Fangio now in third place. Some shuffling of the pack took place by the time González made his pitstop on lap 29, with Fangio now leading it ahead of Hawthorn, with Villoresi dropping back to Marimón. González's pitstop took just 27 seconds, but this allowed Fangio into the lead, with González dropping all the way down to sixth, ahead of Villoresi but behind Marimón who had just passed him. At half distance, Fangio lead Hawthorn and Ascari, the top three separated by less than a second, followed at small intervals by Farina, Marimón, then González and Villoresi just a second apart, around 20 seconds behind Fangio. Bonetto was over a minute and 20 seconds behind Fangio, and no other drivers were still on the lead lap. Over the next few laps, Fangio