French 1956 GP race programme signed by Peter Collins, Juan Manual Fangio and Eugenio Castellotti

A very rare original race programme from the 1956 French GP held at the Reims circuit. The programme itself is a collectors item but this particular edition has also been signed by all three Ferrari race drivers next to their corresponding photos :- Peter Collins, Juan Manuel Fangio and Eugenio Castellotti. The programme is in good condition with all pages intact with no rips of tears (small damage to bottom edge of front cover) but does have water marks throughout and the expected aging discolouration with some hand written notes and corrections on the race detail pages. The race itself was dominated by the three Ferrari drivers with Fangio taking pole position from Castellotti and Collins. In the Grand Prix race, the three Ferrari’s swapped the lead early on but they were duly caught by Harry Schell in the Vanwall (originally started by Mike Hawthorn). A mechanical problem on the 38th lap ended the Vanwall team’s challenge and it finished down the field with a misfiring engine. Fangio who had struggled since his win in Argentina, also had to pit leaving Castellotti in the lead but he was soon overhauled by Collins and the pair crossed the finish line with 0.3 seconds separating them. Fangio came home fourth, narrowly failing to hunt down Jean Behra despite setting a lap record on the final circuit.

Reference: PROG-FRA56PCJMFEC-01