Spain and France remain neck and neck in a tight race for the lead, their wheels nearly touching as they press onward together, seemingly connected as if by a string. The drivers are so close that if they were to desire it, they could shake hands from car to car -- but not at these speeds. The French Salmson presses around the right of the Swiss car suddenly in an attempt to overtake, yet the Volcán holds the lead, if only barely, his black Bugatti’s engine roaring a shrill note. The two drivers race their cars into the curve at Jardin Albert 1er together. In an instant, they are obscured in the black smoke ahead and disappear.
Back at Place Masséna, the Swiss driver, Petrus de Salvion Bernardus, guns his engine and spins the car around to the left. Now, he positions himself to take the inside edge of the curve. With a final flick of his wrist, he lines up the car to proceed with the race by the inside lane of the curve -- the way ahead nearly blocked by the Norwegian and Italian wrecks. Despite his spinout moments ago, the Swiss Bugatti retains third place.
Behind, Vitez Rychly of Czechoslovakia slides gracefully into the curve at Avenue de la Victoire. Whatever advantage he may have thought to hold over the Swiss driver is now lost as he failed to make up the distance between the cars in time. Yet the race for third place is not decided -- a lot of action is yet to come in the sinuous and dangerous curves ahead before the finish line.
Meanwhile, despite his sprained ankle, Sebi Orsi leaps atop the Amilcar and peers down into the wrecked yellow Bugatti of Belgium. There he sees Victor Hugo Stéphane unconscious in the bottom of the cockpit. Orsi reaches in and tries to tug him out by the collar as more gasoline flows onto the track. Somehow, despite the hot exhaust pipes, sparks from passing cars and worse, the gasoline is yet to ignite. A silence falls over the crowd as they stare in shock over the scene. It is only Orsi who now is trying desperately to save the Belgian driver.
Amidst the mayhem, suddenly a gunshot rings out in the distance. The crowd turns to look toward the pit area where the fires continue to rage out of control, wondering what is happening.
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