For the Italian-born Chinetti, who had emigrated to America after the war, this was his third Le Mans victory (the second man to do so after Woolf Barnato’s trio of victories for Bentley). He had driven for nearly 23 hours – no mean feat for the 47-year old – which was the reverse of his first win in 1932, when he had been ill and Raymond Sommer had to do most of the driving. Mitchell-Thompson, after finishing 4th in the 1939 race and victory here, won the Biennial Cup.