page_title: 1926 Grand Prix season
section_title: Season review
hierarchical_section_title: 1926 Grand Prix season / Season review
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Départ du Grand Prix d'Europe 1926 à Saint-Sébastien (J. Goux à droite).
context_page_description: The 1926 Grand Prix season was the second AIACR World Manufacturers' Championship season and the first running to new 1.5-litre regulations. The championship was won by Bugatti and its Type 35 was the dominant car of the year.
  The schedule was increased from four to five championship races. The Belgian round was dropped but the British Grand Prix and San Sebastián Grand Prix were added. Many races had promising entry lists, but when a number of cars did not arrive, it led to farcical races with just a handful of starters and only a couple of finishers.
  The leading French teams of Bugatti, Delage and Peugeot arrived for the Targa Florio as, once again, the major Italian teams did not enter. The race was marred by the death of two-time winner Giulio Masetti, crashing his privateer Delage on the first lap. Once again it was the small, nimble Bugatti of Bartolomeo Costantini that held off the rest of the pack. When the works Delage team was withdrawn following Masetti's death, it left Costantini led his team to a 1-2-3 victory.
  The opening race of the championship was the Indianapolis 500. Frank Lockhart was a young rookie who substituted in to race for an ill Peter Kreis.
context_section_description: The French works teams returned to Italy for the Targa Florio. The Coppa Florio was run in conjunction with it – open to works teams only, unlike the Targa. Both were run over five laps while the smallest, 1100cc cars only ran three laps. Peugeot ran two of its successful 174 S 4-litre sports cars for André Boillot and Louis Wagner. Delage had three of its 1925 grand-prix cars with René Thomas, Albert Divo and Robert Benoist. Bugatti had yet another iteration of its Type 35, the Type 35T with a 2.3-litre engine. The drivers were the team-leader Bartolomeo Costantini, veteran Jules Goux and Ferdinando Minoia.
  The French were competing against a solid field of privateers, led by the local hero, and two-time winner, Conte Giulio Masetti racing another Delage, Emilio Materassi in his 5.8-litre Itala special and Renato Balestrero in a works-supported OM. Alfieri Maserati also arrived with his brand new Tipo 26.
  The race started at 7am, with the cars flagged off at 3-minute intervals. At the end of the first lap, Costantini (the 1925 winner) led from Minoia, with Materassi, Wagner, Dubonnet, Divo, Goux and Maserati all about 3 minutes behind on elapsed time. Boillot hit a dog and had to retire his Peugeot. But the biggest tragedy was when Masetti crashed only 27 km into the race. He went wide at a corner (possibly from a steering or brake fault), rode up the stone banking and rolled, fatally crushing Masetti against the steering wheel. The three works Delages were withdrawn as they got the news. The Bugattis continued to build their lead over the next laps while Goux moved up the field to third. Costantini kept up his pace and led home a 1-2-3 finish for Bugatti, becoming a two-time winner. Maserati was 8th, winning the 1500cc class.
  The opening race of the championship was the Indianapolis 500. Defending champions, Duesenberg had five cars entered. Last year's winner Peter DePaolo ran its new supercharged 1.5-litre model along with Ralph Mulford and Bob McDonogh while rookie Ben Jones had a 2-stroke special. Their biggest rivals, once again, was from Harry Miller and his own new supercharged 91 cubic inch car. After a strong run in 1925, Miller persisted with his front-wheel drive model for Dave Lewis and Earl Cooper. Bennett Hill raced a regular 122 as a third works car. The regular customer team run by Harry Hartz had three cars for Hartz, Fred Comer and Tony Gulotta while another dozen drivers also ran their own Millers. This year, Cliff Durant's Junior-8 team ran three Fengler cars with Locomobile engines for himself, Leon Duray and Harlan Fengler. Englishman Ernest Eldridge also arrived with two of his home-made specials raced by himself and Douglas Hawkes.
  Forty cars were entered to qualify but it was marred by the death of Herbert Jones. The 22-year old was the youngest driver in the field. He had Ralph DePalma’s Miller from 1925 (renamed an Elcar Special) but crashed on his second qualifying lap when he clipped the inside wall at speed. The car rolled trapping Jones underneath and he died of his injuries the next day. After qualifying, Cooper had the fastest time, sharing the front row with Hartz and Duray's Fengler with a field of 28 cars. Three Duesenbergs failed to qualify, including the 10-race veteran Mulford. Fengler was another who failed to qualify. Peter Kreis was too ill with flu and handed his drive over to young rookie Frank Lockhart who had shown great speed qualifying as a relief driver.
  In front of a record crowd of 145000, Hartz led the first lap, but Phil Shafer from the second row then overtook him. Meanwhile, Lockhart had quickly moved from 20th to 5th in the first five laps. He, Shafer and Lewis then duelled for the lead over the next 150 miles. When Lewis pitted on lap 60, Lockhart took the lead. He was still leading on lap 71 when heavy rain forced a red flag, stopping the race for an hour. When it resumed, the Millers of Lockhart and Hartz vied back and forth for the lead. Lewis retired on lap 91 with engine issues. But the rain hung around and returned after 200 miles, when the race was stopped
caption: Just after the start of the San Sebastián GP, as the field overtakes the pace-car
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