When the Formula 1 paddock was packed up after the 2008 French Grand Prix at Magny-Cours, uncertainty surrounded the future of the race.
But the event was on the following year's draft calendar, and few then seriously believed that 10 years would pass before there was another French GP.
Motorsport was born in France, and it thrived there during its infancy. Irrespective of which competing definition of the first real motor race you favour, it was held in France. The first race to carry the title 'Grand Prix' was staged in the south-western town of Pau in 1901, and five years later Ferenc Szisz won the French Grand Prix at Le Mans, recognised as the first true grand prix, driving a Michelin-shod Renault.