High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Royal Automobile Club International Grand Prix was a motor race held on 2 October 1948, at Silverstone Airfield, Northamptonshire, UK. The race was held to the then recently introduced Formula One regulations, which effectively replaced the pre-war Grand Prix motor racing standards, two years prior to the inauguration of the FIA World Championship, and is commonly cited as the first British Grand Prix of the modern era (although it did not have official Grande Epreuve status). The race meeting marked the opening of the Silverstone Circuit, although at the time the site was only on a one-year loan to the RAC from the Air Ministry, having been a bomber station during World War II. The 65-lap Grand Prix was won by Italian Luigi Villoresi, driving a Maserati 4CLT/48. The main race was preceded by a 13-lap 500 cc race which was won by Spike Rhiando in a Cooper, while Stirling Moss failed to finish after mechanical problems.