 The British Sunbeam team entered three cars very closely based on the Fiat 804s which won in 1922.Fiat themselves (from Italy), who were the last to arrive at the circuit, entered a team of three completely new cars featuring, for the first time in Grand Prix racing, supercharged straight eight engines.The race began with a rolling start with René Thomas in the Delage, and Kenelm Lee Guinness in a Sunbeam on the front row (the order being determined by ballot).