The original 1914 configuration was a 37.6 km clockwise public road circuit. The northernmost point — a hairpin known as Les Sept Chemins — lay to the south of Brignais-Les Ronzieres in the commune of Vourles. The start and finish line was located approximately 800 m south of that hairpin on Route nationale 86, the road leading to the town of Givors. From there, the circuit turned southwest along Route nationale 88 (the Route de Rive-de-Gier), winding beside the river Gier through Chateauneuf before swinging northeast again onto a 12 km long straight — the Chemin de Grande Communication — back toward the hairpin. The descent from the straight to the hairpin included a steep downhill right-left switchback nicknamed le piege de la mort, or the Death Trap.
The 1924 race used a shortened 14-mile (approximately 22.5 km) variant of the same road system.
The 1914 French Grand Prix was held on 4 July 1914 under increasingly tense European political conditions — the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo had occurred just days before the event. The race was run to the first engine limitation regulation in Grand Prix history, mandating a maximum capacity of 4.5 litres.
A field of 37 starters from 13 manufacturers and 6 countries assembled, with the French Peugeot team as strong favourites. Their rival was Mercedes, returning to Grand Prix competition for the first time since 1908. Approximately 300,000 spectators lined the roads for race day.
The contest developed into a gruelling tyre-management battle. Peugeot driver Georges Boillot led for much of the race but was hampered by rapid Dunlop tyre wear, requiring multiple stops while the Mercedes runners on Continental tyres needed far fewer. Christian Lautenschlager in a Mercedes gradually closed the deficit as Boillot's car deteriorated, overtaking the Peugeot in the closing laps. On the final lap, Boillot's engine expired while climbing out of the Gier valley. Mercedes finished first, second, and third — Lautenschlager from Louis Wagner and Otto Salzer — in a result that silenced the French crowd. Within a month, Europe had entered the First World War, ending European Grand Prix racing for four years.
The French Grand Prix returned to a shortened variant of the Lyon circuit in 1924. The race is notable as the debut event for two of the most celebrated Grand Prix cars of the interwar period: the Bugatti Type 35, with its distinctive alloy wheels, and the Alfa Romeo P2. The Bugattis suffered tyre failures related to their advanced wheel design, while Italian driver Giuseppe Campari won in his Alfa Romeo P2 — the car's first victory.
The Circuit de Lyon's 1914 French Grand Prix occupies a singular place in motorsport history. It was the last great pre-war Grand Prix before four years of racing silence, and it marked the arrival of German engineering — in the form of the disciplined, scientifically prepared Mercedes team — as the dominant force in European road racing. Lautenschlager's victory, and Boillot's heartbreaking last-lap retirement, became one of the defining stories of pre-war motor racing.
The 1924 race gave the circuit a second chapter in history as the proving ground for the Bugatti Type 35 and Alfa Romeo P2, two cars that would define the following decade of Grand Prix competition.