1955 Dutch Grand Prix
The fourth round of the 1955 Formula 1 World Championship took place on June 19 in the Netherlands on the Zandvoort circuit, nestled among the sand dunes along the North Sea coast.. The length of the track was 4,193 km, while the drivers had to complete 100 laps.
In between the Belgium and the Dutch Grand Prix, the world of motorsport was shocked by a terrible tragedy that occurred during the 24 Hours of Le Mans race. Having been hit by another car, Pierre Levegh's Mercedes sports car soared into the air, and falling apart, landed right in the midst of the audience, killing 84 and injuring 120 people.
This tragedy shocked the entire motorsport community, and automobile clubs in many countries questioned the further conducting of motor racing in their jurisdiction. However, the Netherlands was not among them, and just a week after this tragedy, the fourth stage of the World Championship still took place.
Nevertheless, not all teams were able to take part in the Grand Prix. The Lancia team, which never recovered from the death of its leader Alberto Ascari and faced serious financial problems, announced its final retirement from Formula 1, selling all its cars to Enzo Ferrari. At the same time, along with the cars, the former driver of the Turin team, Eugenio Castellotti, also moved to Scuderia, which was very useful, since Nino Farina had just left Ferrari, who announced the end of his racing career. Besides, former team driver Mike Hawthorn also returned to Scuderia, who became disappointed with cooperation with Tony Vandervell and replaced Harry Schell in the Maranello team. As for the third driver of the Ferrari, it was, as before, Maurice Trintignant.
At the same time, as at the previous stage in Belgium, all three drivers received new Ferrari 555 "Super Sharks" at their disposal.
In addition to the factory drivers, Johnny Claes, a private racer, also took part in the Grand Prix at the wheel of an outdated Ferrari 500.
Meanwhile, the Daimler-Benz drivers remained unchanged, and the German team, as before, was represented by Juan-Manuel Fangio, Stirling Moss and Karl Kling. The Maserati team this time also fielded only three cars, driven by Jean Behra, Luigi Musso and Roberto Mieres, while Cesare Perdisa, who failed the race in Belgium, was temporarily suspended from participating in the Grand Prix. In addition, three more Maseratis were brought to the start by private racers Louis Rosier, Peter Walker and Horace Gould.
The last team to take part in the Grand Prix was the French Gordini. Having missed the previous stage of the championship in Belgium, Amadeus Gordini's team returned to action again, fielding three cars driven by the main team drivers Robert Manzon and Jacques Pollet, as well as Brazilian debutant Nano da Silva Ramos, who replaced Elie Bayol, injured in the 24 Hours of Le Mans race.
Qualification
Qualifying in the Netherlands turned into another demonstration of strength for the "Silver Arrows", whose drivers dominated throughout the training sessions and took the first three places on the starting field. The pole position was once again won by Juan-Manuel Fangio, who showed a time of 1’40.0 and bet the track record by 6.5 seconds, and Stirling Moss breathed into his back, as usual, losing only 0.4 seconds to the Argentine.
Karl Kling was not far behind his teammates this time and showed the third time, however, as in Belgium, Luigi Musso on Maserati was almost as good as the German, taking 4th place.
Mike Hawthorn, driving a Super Shark for the first time, looked quite confident and showed the 5th result, and Jean Behra showed the same time on another Maserati, despite the pain in his injured leg. The 7th was the Frenchman's teammate Roberto Mieres, who managed to get ahead of two Ferraris of Trintignant and Castellotti, and the fastest of the private racers was Peter Walker who closed the top ten. As for the Gordini drivers, they were sorely lacking in speed, and taking only 11th, 12th and 14th places, they were able to get ahead of only the rest of the private drivers.
Race
Start. Fangio manages a terrific start, and the Argentine enters the first corner as the leader of the race! Meanwhile, his teammates start not so well, and both of them are passed by Musso, who immediately takes second place!
Position after the 1st lap: Fangio, Musso, Moss, Kling, Behra, Hawthorn, Trintignant, Mieres, Manzon, Castellotti.
Lap 2: At the finish line, Moss hangs on the tail of Musso, passes the first turn, almost touching the Maserati, and in the next he attacks the Italian, getting ahead! By this point, Fangio has already managed to break away from Stirling for a couple of seconds, but the Englishman immediately rushes in pursuit of his teammate.
Meanwhile Behra wins back one position, overtaking Kling's Mercedes, and thus the Frenchman is already in 4th place!
Unlike Jean, his compatriot Manzon, on the contrary, loses two positions he won at the start, and falls to 11th again.
Lap 3: Mieres unexpectedly turns out to be the fastest driver on the track and shows the best lap in the race!
Meanwhile, one of the wheel bearings bursts on Peter Walker's Maserati, and the car, having almost lost the wheel, immediately goes into an uncontrollable skid! After making a couple of pirouettes, the Maserati eventually freezes on the side of the track, and the Englishman, though shocked, but, fortunately unharmed, leaves the car.
Lap 4: Mieres attacks Trintignant in the fight for 7th place and passes him!
Lap 5: Moss catches up with Fangio, there's only half a second between them!
Meanwhile, Musso, who is in third place, clearly cannot keep up the pace of the two leading Mercedes, but the Italian manages to easily break away from all other rivals.
Lap 6: Mieres gets ahead of Hawthorn and is already 6th!
Behind Pollet has problems with the handling of his Gordini, and he misses Gould.
Lap 7: Pollet continues to lose ground and now misses Rosier.
Lap 8: Pollet eventually pulls into the pits, where he is met by Amadeus Gordini. Jacques expressively reports his boss about his problems, receives an equally expressive response, and, having achieved nothing, returns back to the track, dropping to the last place!
Lap 9: Moss is still hanging on Fangio's tail, however, unlike the Monaco Grand Prix, he does not make any attempts to get ahead!
It becomes clear as day that both drivers have definite instructions regarding their position on the track, and the Englishman is clearly destined to play second fiddle here!
Position after 10 laps: Fangio, Moss, Musso, Behra, Kling, Mieres, Hawthorn, Trintignant, Castellotti, Manzon.
Lap 11: Gould passes Ramos, rising to 11th place.
Lap 20: Hawthorn has gearbox problems and he turns into the pits. The mechanics manage to fix the problem, but Mike loses a lot of time and returns to the track only 12th.
Lap 21: Mieres catches up with Kling and starts pressing the Mercedes driver!
Meanwhile, Gould also drives into the pits due to an oil leak in the gearbox. After topping up the oil, the Englishman returns to the track, missing two rivals.
Lap 22: Kling tries to pick up the pace, but makes a mistake, flies off the track and his Mercedes gets stuck in the sand! All attempts of the German to start again are futile, and he has no choice but to leave the race.
On the same lap, Gould also makes a mistake in front of the hairpin, however, despite the 180-degree spin, he still manages to stay on the track. At the same time, not being able to immediately make a reverse turn, the Englishman calmly turns on the reverse gear, drives backwards to the nearest widening, surprising the drivers rushing past, after which he calmly turns around and continues the race!
Lap 23: Hawthorn wins back two positions, overtaking Ramos and Rosier, and takes 9th place.
Lap 24: Two laps after his spin, Gould drives into the pits again with a faulty gearbox, this time for good.
Lap 30: Rosier passes Ramos, moving up to 10th place.
Position after 30 laps: Fangio, Moss, Musso, Behra, Mieres, Trintignant, Castellotti, Manzon, Hawthorn, Rosier.
Lap 45: Serious transmission problems occur on Manzon's Gordini, and the Frenchman turns into the pits, dropping out of the race.
Lap 46: Behra loses pace, and his teammate Mieres is rapidly catching up with him!
Lap 47: Mieres easily passes Behra and thus takes 4th place!
Lap 49: Behra drives into the pits, gesturing about problems with the rear suspension. After examining the back of the car, the mechanics just shrug and release Jean back on the track, while the Frenchman manages not to even lose any positions.
Position after 50 laps: Fangio, Moss, Musso, Mieres, Behra, Trintignant, Castellotti, Hawthorn, Rosier, Ramos.
The two leading "Silver Arrows" are still driving in conjunction with each other, and their lead over Musso is already 17 seconds.
Lap 56: Trintignant catches up with Behra, struggling with his car, and passes the Frenchman, rising to 5th place.
Lap 58: Ramos overtakes Rosier and becomes 9th.
Lap 61: Castellotti, in his turn, passes Behra, and the Frenchman drops already to 7th!
Lap 62: It starts to drizzle, forcing the drivers to slow down.
Lap 66: Trintignant turns into the pits with a faulty gearbox, dropping out of the race and losing 5th place to his teammate Castellotti.
Lap 67: The rain stops and the track starts to dry out again.
Lap 85: Passing the hairpin, Musso's Maserati hits the wheel on a wet spot and spins!
Fortunately, the Italian manages to miss the passing Gordini and continue the race without losing a single position.
Last lap: Two Silver Arrows, once again demonstrating an overwhelming advantage over all rivals, cross the finish line one after another, bringing the German team a second double in a row!
At the same time, Fangio wins his third victory of the season, seriously strengthening his leadership in the championship, while Moss, thanks to another second place, becomes the main rival of the Argentine in the fight for the title! Finishing third is Luigi Musso, who showed himself in all his glory today, losing only two Silver Arrows and far ahead of all other rivals. Meanwhile, Roberto Mieres, finishing fourth, gets not only three points for a productive finish, but also one more, for the best lap in the race, which even the Mercedes drivers could not surpass. Eugenio Castellotti gets the last two points for fifth place, who, like his teammates, struggled with the understeer of his Super Shark throughout the race, but still managed to bring it to a productive finish in his first race for Ferrari.
Interesting facts:
- Roberto Mieres' first fastest lap.
Driver standings
Alternative GP results
