Louis Renault, who had been third to start off ahead of the pack in the morning and the first to arrive in Bordeaux never raced again after losing his older brother.

Camille du Gaste competed in the 1901 Paris-Berlin race driving her late husband’s 20CV Panhard-Levassor and in 1903 was hired by Adrien de Turckheim to drive the No.29 5.7 litre 30hp De Dietrich in the Paris-Madrid race.

With her track record (and of course great PR) the Benz factory team offered her one of their cars for the 1904 Gordon Bennett Cup. However the French Government banned women from competing in motorsport citing ‘feminine nervousness’.

In 1905, finding less nervous authorities in England she took part competing against Dorothy Levitt who prevailed driving her 80 hp Napier at a speed of 79.75 miles per hour setting a World Speed record for Ladies in the inaugural Brighton Speed Trials. 

Camille du Gaste in her 5.7-litre 30 hp De Dietrichs 

As of May 1903 City to City Races were Banned.

Factors contributing to the Paris Madrid disaster, were road conditions, the inadequate number of police allocated to manage crowds and fundamental organisation of the start procedure.

Spectators would crowd the roads further obscuring the route from drivers already half blinded by the dust raised from vehicles ahead, then hemmed in by those pressing to catch a glimpse of a car for the first time in their lives. 

The first hundred kilometers of the route were thronged with spectators, and drivers reducing speed, found that crowds just took longer to move out of the way; pets, livestock and children were oblivious to the dangers. 

Cars broke down, crashed, sometimes into and sometimes avoiding spectators.

Hearsay of incidents at the time was rampant, word of mouth distorting fact into fiction and vice versa.

Entries ( accounts do vary, but an approximation): 

• 88 cars in the heaviest class (650 to 1000 kg)
• 49 cars between 400 and 650 kg
• 33 voiturettes under 400 kg
• 54 motorcycles 

Camille du Gaste, whom Gordon Bennett once called ‘the greatest sportswoman of all time’, was the second woman in France to be issued a driving license and was the only woman driver at the Versailles start.

Making good time on the first leg to Bordeaux of the 1903 Paris-Madrid motor race, she found her fellow De Dietrich driver, Englishman Phil Stead, trapped under his car when it rolled in a ditch. 

With her mechanic she helped and then gave first aid, probably saving his life until an ambulance arrived, whereupon she resumed the race and reached Bordeaux in 77th place where the race was curtailed due to the fatalities and injuries during the race.

Fernand Gabriel, the winner in his 60hp Mors

The top twelve of the ninety-nine competitors who arrived at Bordeaux:

1. Fernand Gabriel on a Mors at 5:13:31
2. Louis Renault, Renault light car 5:39:59 
3. Salleron, Mors car, 5:46:05 
4. Jarrott, De Dietrich car, 5:51:55 
5. Warden, Mercedes car, 5:56:30 
6. De Crawhez, Panhard car, 6:01:08
7. Voigt, Charron, Girardot & Voigt car, 6:01:09 
8. Gasteaux, Mercedes car, 6:8: 0 
9. H. Fournier, Mors car, 6:11:39 
10. Baras, Darracq light car, 6:12:49 
11. IL Rougier, De Dietrich car, 6:16:0
12. Mbutier, De Dietrich car, 6:17: 54

Manufacturers Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG) entered 12 Mercedes in the 1903 race six of which were six brand-new 90 hp racing cars, four of which were out performed by the proven 60hp and 40hp engines. 

Further problems beckoned with a devastating fire at the Cannstatt factory in the early hours of 10 June 1903 which destroyed 90 cars, some complete and some partially so.

Those that were destroyed included those destined for the 1903 Gordon Bennett International car race.