Rouen-Les-Essarts was a fast and challenging street circuit, set in a picturesque area of woodland. It featured a mix of straights, bends, and gradients, with an elevation difference of 93 meters (305 feet) between its lowest and highest points. A defining feature was the cobbled hairpin turn called Nouveau Monde, located at the lowest point of the circuit. The most feared part was the downhill section after Start/Finish, known as Six Freres, which contained a series of fast kinks. This section was nicknamed "Chickens Lift" by some drivers.
Initially, the triangular street circuit measured 5.100 km (3.169 miles) in 1950. It featured permanent grandstands and a pit complex. In 1955, a major reconstruction extended the track to 6.542 km (4.065 miles), its longest version. This configuration remained until 1971. In 1972, a new highway crossed the circuit, leading to the construction of a permanent section between the new Virage Gresil and Virage Paradis corners, reducing the length to 5.542 km (3.444 miles). Smaller changes included the addition of chicanes; a temporary chicane was built in front of the Six Freres section in 1973, replaced by a permanent one in 1974.
Rouen-Les-Essarts hosted the Formula One French Grand Prix five times, from 1952 to 1968. Alberto Ascari won the first Grand Prix at Rouen in 1952 in his Ferrari 500. Juan Manuel Fangio won in 1957 with a Maserati 250F. Dan Gurney secured Porsche's first and only Grand Prix win at a World Championship round at Rouen in 1962, driving a Porsche 804. He also won in 1964 with a Brabham BT7 Climax. The 1968 French Grand Prix ended tragically when Jo Schlesser died in a fiery accident at the Six Freres curve while driving a Honda RA302. Following this event, Formula One never returned to the circuit.
After losing the French Grand Prix, Rouen-Les-Essarts continued to host major Formula Two events until 1978. It was then used for the annual round of the French Formula 3 Championship until the end of the 1993 season. The circuit officially closed in 1994 due to safety and economic constraints, as organizing races on public roads was deemed too dangerous for modern standards. In 1999, most physical evidence of the circuit, including grandstands, the pit complex, and control towers, was demolished to make space for a road extension. The cobbled Nouveau Monde hairpin was covered with asphalt, though the original circuit route remains largely passable. Today, the cobblestones of Nouveau Monde are visible again as the asphalt has worn away, and remnants of the permanent section between Gresil and Paradis can still be seen.
The name "Les Essarts" is derived from a nearby village.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
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