Sunday 10th May 1936

The X° Gran Premio Di Tripoli was run over 40 laps of the Autodromo Di Mellahaa circuit. Stuck was leading the race after having opened up a comfortable gap to his team mate Varzi. Rosemeyer had retired when his car caught fire. But then Auto Union’s new team manager Dr. Feuereissen began to give strange team orders, Stuck was ordered to slow down and Varzi to speed up. Achille Varzi put in a new lap record on the last lap and passed a very surprised Stuck just before the finish line.The whole thing ended with great bitterness and fury for both drivers when they found out the truth. Varzi, who had done nothing wrong, was humiliated in public at the victory party when the Governor of Libya, Marshal Balbo, proposed a toast for the real winner of the race, i.e. for Stuck.