Background

Both Mike Hawthorn and Stirling Moss came into the race with a chance of becoming World Drivers' Champion. Moss, on 32 points, needed to win the race and set fastest lap, with Hawthorn (40 pts) finishing no higher than third or to win without fastest lap with Hawthorn again finishing third or lower but also without fastest lap.

Practice and qualifying

There was an entry of 25 cars, of which 19 were to Formula One (F1) specification. Ferrari and Vanwall entered three cars each, BRM four and Lotus and Cooper two each. There were a further five non-works F1 entries. Six Formula Two Coopers brought the total entry to 25.^[2]

In Friday practice, Jean Behra (BRM) set fastest time at 2:25.2. Tony Brooks (Vanwall) and Hawthorn (Ferrari) were second and third, four and five tenths behind respectively. Moss did not better 2:26, despite a late attempt, having been hampered by other cars during some of his fast lap attempts.^[2]

On the Saturday, Hawthorn set fastest time with 2:23.1 which was one-tenth ahead of Moss who was content with his position in the middle of the front row on the three-then-two grid. Stuart Lewis-Evans was on his outside, a further half-a-second behind. The second row was made up of Phil Hill (Ferrari) and Behra.^[2]

Race

Moss and Lewis-Evans led away, with Phil Hill also making a good start from the second row. At the end of the first lap, Moss led from Hill and Hawthorn was third followed by Jo Bonnier, Brooks, Lewis-Evans and Behra.^[2] On lap three, Hill tried to out-brake Moss, but failed, and left the track without damaging the car, allowing Hawthorn and Bonnier to pass. Moss, now unhampered, began to draw away from Hawthorn who was being caught by Hill who had passed Bonnier after recovering from the earlier incident. By lap eight, Hill had passed Hawthorn but had little hope of catching Moss, who was already lapping the Formula Two cars at the rear of the field. Moss's teammate, Brooks, chased down Bonnier for fourth place and subsequently passed Hawthorn for third on lap 17.^[2] On lap 18 Moss was involved in a minor collision with the Maserati of Wolfgang Seidel which forced the latter to retire and Moss to be wary of engine temperature thereafter.^[2]

At 25 laps, Moss led Hill by 20s with Brooks a further 42s behind. Hawthorn was fourth followed by Bonnier and Olivier Gendebien with Lewis-Evans, Behra, Masten Gregory and Harry Schell completing the first ten runners.^[2] Hawthorn re-passed Brooks shortly afterwards and on lap 30 Brooks's engine blew and he retired. This left Hawthorn in third place, but some distance behind Hill, who was 27s behind Moss and steadily losing ground on the leader.^[2]

At this point, Gendebien, Tom Bridger and François Picard all retired through accidents, with only the latter sustaining more than minor injuries. Hill had little hope of catching Moss and the Ferrari team signalled to him to allow Hawthorn to catch up and take the second position needed to claim the Drivers' Championship.^[2] Hill's lead over Hawthorn was such that it took till lap 39 for the change to occur.^[2] Shortly afterwards, Moss lapped Schell, who then attempted to stay close to the Vanwall hampering Moss's progress. On lap 41, Lewis-Evans's engine broke in a corner, sending him off the road where the car caught fire. The driver was able to extricate himself but was badly burned.^[2]

At 48 laps, Moss slowed to allow Schell to move back ahead and thus avoid the possibility of further interference with his own race. Such was the lead that Moss had at this stage that he was still able to finish nearly 1.5 minutes ahead of the Ferraris of Hawthorn and Hill. Moss had also set fastest lap, but Hawthorn's second place was enough to secure him the World Drivers' Championship.^[2]

Post race

Lewis-Evans was airlifted back to Britain by Vanwall team owner Tony Vandervell^[3] but died as a result of his burns six days later.^[4] Vandervell, already in failing health himself, ended his involvement with the Vanwall team partly as a result of the accident.^[3] Lewis-Evans was also a close friend of Bernie Ecclestone, who was at the race. Following his death Ecclestone sold his Connaught team and cars^[5] and ceased involvement with the sport till 1965.^[6]

It was also the last race for Hawthorn who retired as a driver shortly after the season ended. He was killed in a road accident in Surrey on 22 January 1959.^[3][7]

Picard ultimately recovered from his injuries after six months of incapacity, but did not race again.^[8]

Qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Time	Gap
1	6	Mike Hawthorn	Ferrari	2:23.1	—
2	8	Stirling Moss	Vanwall	2:23.2	+0.1
3	12	Stuart Lewis-Evans	Vanwall	2:23.7	+0.6
4	14	Jean Behra	BRM	2:23.8	+0.7
5	4	Phil Hill	Ferrari	2:24.1	+1.0
6	2	Olivier Gendebien	Ferrari	2:24.3	+1.2
7	10	Tony Brooks	Vanwall	2:24.4	+1.3
8	18	Jo Bonnier	BRM	2:24.9	+1.8
9	38	Maurice Trintignant	Cooper-Climax	2:26.0	+2.9
10	16	Harry Schell	BRM	2:26.4	+3.3
11	32	Jack Fairman	Cooper-Climax	2:27.0	+3.9
12	36	Graham Hill	Lotus-Climax	2:27.1	+4.0
13	22	Masten Gregory	Maserati	2:27.6	+4.5
14	30	Roy Salvadori	Cooper-Climax	2:28.6	+5.5
15	20	Ron Flockhart	BRM	2:29.8	+6.7
16	34	Cliff Allison	Lotus-Climax	2:33.7	+10.6
17	28	Gerino Gerini	Maserati	2:35.1	+12.0
18	24	Hans Herrmann	Maserati	2:35.1	+12.0
19	50	Jack Brabham	Cooper-Climax	2:36.6	+13.5
20	26	Wolfgang Seidel	Maserati	2:38.2	+15.1
21	52	Bruce McLaren	Cooper-Climax	2:41.7	+18.6
22	56	Tom Bridger	Cooper-Climax	2:42.5	+19.4
23	58	Robert La Caze	Cooper-Climax	2:43.1	+20.0
24	54	François Picard	Cooper-Climax	2:46.4	+23.3
25	60	André Guelfi	Cooper-Climax	2:47.8	+24.7
Source:[2][9]

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	8	Stirling Moss	Vanwall	53	2:09:15.1	2	91
2	6	Mike Hawthorn	Ferrari	53	+1:24.7	1	6
3	4	Phil Hill	Ferrari	53	+1:25.5	5	4
4	18	Jo Bonnier	BRM	53	+1:46.7	8	3
5	16	Harry Schell	BRM	53	+2:33.7	10	2
6	22	Masten Gregory	Maserati	52	+1 lap	13
7	30	Roy Salvadori	Cooper-Climax	51	+2 laps	14
8	32	Jack Fairman	Cooper-Climax	50	+3 laps	11
9	24	Hans Herrmann	Maserati	50	+3 laps	18
10	34	Cliff Allison	Lotus-Climax	49	+4 laps	16
11	50	Jack Brabham	Cooper-Climax	49	+4 laps	19
12	28	Gerino Gerini	Maserati	48	+5 laps	17
13	52	Bruce McLaren	Cooper-Climax	48	+5 laps	21
14	58	Robert La Caze	Cooper-Climax	48	+5 laps	23
15	60	André Guelfi	Cooper-Climax	48	+5 laps	25
16	36	Graham Hill	Lotus-Climax	45	+8 laps	12
Ret	12	Stuart Lewis-Evans	Vanwall	41	Fatal accident	3
Ret	54	François Picard	Cooper-Climax	312	Accident	24
Ret	56	Tom Bridger	Cooper-Climax	303	Accident	22
Ret	10	Tony Brooks	Vanwall	29	Engine	7
Ret	2	Olivier Gendebien	Ferrari	29	Accident	6
Ret	14	Jean Behra	BRM	26	Engine	4
Ret	26	Wolfgang Seidel	Maserati	15	Accident	20
Ret	20	Ron Flockhart	BRM	15	Camshaft	15
Ret	38	Maurice Trintignant	Cooper-Climax	9	Engine	9
Sources:[2][10][11][9]

Notes

• ^1 – Includes 1 point for fastest lap

• ^2 – MotorSport magazine lists Picard with 28 laps, and indirectly supports this lower lap count with the article's narrative^[2]

• ^3 – MotorSport magazine lists Bridger with 26 laps, and indirectly supports this lower lap count with the article's narrative^[2]