Antony Noghès had founded the Automobile Club de Monaco with a group of friends and proposed the idea of a street circuit Grand Prix to Prince Louis II. The principality's resident racing driver of the era, Louis Chiron, supported the project. Sixteen invited participants were assembled, with a prize fund of 100,000 French francs attracting some of the leading names in European racing.
Twenty drivers were originally invited but only sixteen took the start, as several failed to arrive due to incidents on the way to Monaco or during practice. Among the notable absentees was local favourite Louis Chiron, who chose to travel to the United States to compete in the 1929 Indianapolis 500 instead, leaving Rudolf Caracciola of Mercedes-Benz as the pre-race favourite.
The starting grid positions were not determined by practice times but by ballot, resulting in Philippe Étancelin starting from pole position and Caracciola lining up fifteenth. The unconventional grid-setting method reflected the experimental nature of this inaugural running.
William Grover-Williams, a British-born driver racing under the name W. Williams, took the lead immediately from the start of the 100-lap race. Caracciola, despite his lowly grid position, moved through the field quickly and took the lead on lap 36. Grover-Williams fought back and reclaimed the front position six laps later. Both leading drivers made pit stops during the race, but Caracciola's stop was significantly slower, allowing Grover-Williams to build a lead of an entire lap. Georges Bouriano and Philippe de Rothschild — listed in the results as Georges Philippe — briefly emerged between the two frontrunners, though Caracciola eventually passed the latter to secure third at the finish.
Grover-Williams won the race in a Bugatti T35B, taking victory in the first Monaco Grand Prix. Caracciola was classified third after being lapped by the winner.
The 1929 Monaco Grand Prix established the race's defining character immediately: the narrow streets of a compact city-state, the impossibility of overtaking, and the premium on car and driver precision over raw speed. The ballot grid underlined how novel and improvised this first edition was, while the prize fund of 100,000 French francs gave it credibility as a serious international event.
The race also introduced a format that would prove extraordinarily durable. Run continuously to the present day aside from the Second World War years and 1975, the Monaco Grand Prix became one of the three races that, together with the Indianapolis 500 and the 24 Hours of Le Mans, comprise motor sport's Triple Crown. The 1929 running was the founding moment of that legend.
William Grover-Williams, the inaugural winner, was a largely enigmatic figure who drove brilliantly for Bugatti in the late 1920s and early 1930s. He later served as a British intelligence agent in occupied France during the Second World War and was executed by the Gestapo in 1945, adding a tragic posthumous dimension to his achievement as the first man to win at Monaco.