Magny-Cours

The Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours lies in central France, close to the towns of Magny-Cours and Nevers and about 250 kilometres from Paris. It was built by Jean Bernigaud in 1960 and opened on 7 August of that year. It was home to the Winfield racing school, whose pupils included François Cevert, Jacques Laffite and Didier Pironi. The site fell into disrepair during the 1980s until the Nièvre departmental council bought it in 1986. In the 1990s the Ligier team, and later Prost, were based here and did much of their testing on the track.

Magny-Cours staged the Formula One French Grand Prix from 1991 to 2008, succeeding the Circuit Paul Ricard, and hosted 18 world championship races. The circuit runs clockwise, is very flat and has 17 corners. Many of them are modelled on well-known sections of other tracks and carry their names, such as the fast Estoril corner, the Adelaide hairpin and the Nürburgring and Imola chicanes. The long straight into the Adelaide hairpin offered the best chance to overtake. Passing was rare overall, and most changes of position came around the pit stops. Racing was more varied in the rain, as in 1999.

For the 2003 race the final corner and the chicane were altered to encourage overtaking, though with little effect. The lap measured 4.271 kilometres in 1991, 4.250 kilometres from 1992 to 2002, and 4.411 kilometres after the rebuild.

Michael Schumacher has won more races at Magny-Cours than any other driver, eight in all, for Benetton and Ferrari. His victory here in 2002 made him world champion. The 2008 race was the final world championship event at the circuit, won by Felipe Massa for Ferrari. A French Grand Prix planned for 2009 was cancelled in October 2008.