1958 British Grand Prix
The sixth round of the 1958 Formula-1 World Championship took place on July 19 in Great Britain at the Silverstone circuit, which this year replaced the Aintree track in order of priority. In the two years since the last Grand Prix at Silverstone, the track configuration had not undergone any changes, and its length was still 4.71 km, while the total race distance in accordance with the new rules was reduced by a quarter and now amounted to only 75 laps.
After five rounds, the fight for the 1958 championship title was in full swing, with the two main contenders, Stirling Moss and Mike Hawthorn, tied on points.
Given that both contenders were British, the Grand Prix at Silverstone caused quite a stir among local public who were hoping to see one of their compatriots win with their own eyes, with most of them favoring, naturally, Moss, who was driving for the local team Vanwall. As before, Stirling's teammates in the British team were Tony Brooks and Stuart Lewis-Evans, while all three of Tony Vanderwell's drivers received the same cars that were used at the previous stage in France.
Meanwhile, after Luigi Musso's tragic accident in Reims, there were very significant changes in the main squad of the Scuderia, and the Italian's place in the team was taken by the German aristocrat Wolfgang von Trips, who now became a permanent teammate of Mike Hawthorn and Peter Collins.
At the same time, Ferrari and Vanwall this time were far from the only ones who entered three cars each for the Grand Prix, since here they were also joined by the local teams Lotus and Cooper, for whom it was extremely important to achieve a good result in front of their compatriots. Herewith, the places of third drivers in these two teams went to newcomers: at Lotus it was 24-year-old Alan Stacey, who has proven himself well with his successful performances in sports car racing, while at Cooper 28-year-old Ian Burgess got his chance, who was a mentor to young talents at the Cooper racing school. In terms of cars, Chapman's team was represented by two brand new Lotus 16s with 2.0-litre Climax engines, driven by Graham Hill and debutant Stacey, and one Lotus 12 with a 2.2-litre engine, which went, as usual, to Cliff Allison.
At Cooper, all three T45 bolids were of the same design, but this time the car with 2.2-litre engine was given to Roy Salvadori, while Jack Brabham and debutant Burgess had to settle for cars with less powerful 2-liter engines..
Besides, in addition to the Cooper factory team, another last year's T43 car was entered by Rob Walker's team, whose only driver was, as before, Maurice Trintignant.
Meanwhile, unlike Lotus and Cooper, BRM entered only two cars at the Grand Prix, which were driven by the team's permanent drivers Jean Behra and Harry Schell.
The last British cars entered here were two Connaught B with 1.5-liter Alta engines, owned by Bernie Ecclestone, who, after the unsuccessful debut of his team in Monaco, decided to try his luck again at his home stage, hiring two local drivers Jack Fairman and Ivor Bueb. As for the rest of the places on the list of participants, they were occupied by drivers on Maserati 250F cars, which, unlike the previous stages, there were only three here: Carroll Shelby and Gerino Gerini represented the Scuderia Centro Sud team, while Jo Bonnier, as usual, competed as a private driver.
Qualification
After a completely unconvincing performance at the previous stage in Reims, the Vanwall drivers arrived at their home track determined to prevail over their Scuderia rivals, and British team leader Stirling Moss fully lived up to the expectations of his fans, being the fastest driver on both the first and second days of practice sessions.
Moreover, the cars of the other British teams also demonstrated excellent speed here, and as a result, Stirling’s main rivals in qualifying were Schell in BRM, Salvadori in Cooper and Allison in Lotus, who lost less than one second to Moss and took 2nd, 3rd and 5th positions, respectively.
As for the Ferrari drivers, deprived of the opportunity to exploit the superiority of their powerful V-twin engines here, Hawthorn and Collins looked much weaker at Silverstone than in France, and managed to take only 4th and 6th positions, while von Trips turned out to be only 11th at all.
Meanwhile, the remaining places in the top ten also went to the drivers of the British teams Vanwall, BRM and Cooper, which gave local fans even more confidence in the successful outcome of tomorrow's race, while the only disappointment of this British festival of speed was the results of the Connaught drivers, who lost to Moss already more than 12 seconds and took only 17th and 19th places on the strting grid.
Race
Start. When the national flag waves, the cars take off, and Moss is the best one to start the race from the first line, who immediately gets ahead and enters the first turn in the lead!
However, an even more impressive start was made by Collins, who rushes from the second row past Schell, Salvadori and Hawthorn like a bullet and immediately takes second position, while already at the second turn of Maggots Peter attackes Moss, taking the lead!
Meanwhile, the main loser of the start is Allison, who, having barely picked up speed, immediately loses pace, which is why the Englishman immediately misses a dozen opponents at once and ends up only 14th!
Position after 1st lap: Collins, Moss, Hawthorn, Schell, Brooks, Salvadori, Lewis-Evans, von Trips, Hill, Bonnier.
Lap 2: Brabham attacks Bonnier for 10th and gets through!
Lap 3: Moss drives his car to the limit, trying to reach Collins, however, Peter manages not only to keep Stirling away, but even to increase his lead!
Meanwhile, on the same lap, Bonnier loses another position, missing Behra, while Allison, on the contrary, wins one back, leaving Trintignant behind.
Lap 4: Lewis-Evans passes Salvadori in the fight for 6th, while Bonnier succumbs to Allison's attacks and thus drops already to 13th!
Lap 5: Having overtaken Bonnier and Trintignant, Allison makes a small mistake and lets both of his rivals through again!
Lap 6: Having missed Lewis-Evans, Salvadori is immediately attacked by von Trips and thus loses another position!
Lap 7: Lewis-Evans, who looks clearly more confident than Brooks here, attacks his teammate for 5th and takes the lead!
Lap 8: Fairman, in last place, pulls into the pits with a faulty ignition, becoming the first retiree of this race.
Lap 9: The engine in Schell's BRM starts to lose oil, and the American is immediately passed by Lewis-Evans, who is already 4th!
Lap 10: Brabham, having caught up with the tightly packed group of drivers ahead, joins their fight and in one lap wins back three positions at once, leaving Hill, Salvadori and von Trips behind!
Position after 10 laps: Collins, Moss, Hawthorn, Lewis-Evans, Schell, Brooks, Brabham, von Trips, Hill, Salvadori. Collins is still the clear leader of the race, bringing his advantage over Moss up to 3 seconds!
Lap 11: The oil temperature in Schell's BRM continues to rise and the American loses another position, missing Brooks!
In addition, on the same lap, Salvadori manages to get ahead of von Trips and Hill again, while Trintignant leaves Bonnier behind.
Lap 12: Schell loses two more positions to a couple of Cooper drivers, and thus the American is already 8th! Meanwhile, directly behind the American, von Trips and Hill stage a real battle between themselves, from which the Lotus driver emerges victorious! In addition, on the same lap, Allison also wins back one position, leaving Bonnier behind.
Lap 13: Brooks is clearly feeling out of sorts today, and the Englishman is passed one by one by both Cooper drivers!
Lap 14: Schell continues to lose ground and now gives way to Hill in the Lotus, which rises up to 8th position!
Lap 15: The trio of Hill, Schell and von Trips catch up with Brooks, and Tony lets all his rivals through without any struggle, thus dropping already to 10th!
Meanwhile, on the same lap, Allison finally catches up with Trintignant, and leaving the Frenchman behind, Cliff is now in the top dozen.
Lap 16: After passing several rivals together, the Cooper drivers eventually start fighting among themselves, and Salvadori comes out of it the winner!
Meanwhile, on the same lap, von Trips passes Schell, thus pushing the American to 9th!
Lap 17: Hill, who had a very strong race today, suddenly pulls into the pits with an overheated engine, retiring from the race!
Lap 18: One of the cylinders in Trintignant's engine stops working, and the Frenchman immediately pulls into the pits for repairs. However, as soon as Maurice stops his car, the problem suddenly disappears by itself, and the Frenchman, under the amazed looks of his mechanics, immediately rushes back to the track!
Lap 19: Behra, who has not shown himself in this race so far, unexpectedly hits a hare running onto the track and gets a puncture!
Having reached the pits, the Frenchman hands over his BRM to the mechanics, who immediately discover damage to the suspension, after which Jean, with visible relief, goes into the garage, freed from the need to continue this completely disastrous Grand Prix. Meanwhile, the Frenchman is not the only one who retires on this lap, as a little later debutant Stacey also appears in the pits, who has the same problem as Hill: engine overheating.
Lap 20: Another retirement: Bueb’s gearbox fails, and thus Ecclestone’s team ends this Grand Prix ahead of schedule.
Position after 20 laps: Collins, Moss, Hawthorn, Lewis-Evans, Salvadori, Brabham, von Trips, Schell, Brooks, Allison. Collins, demonstrating simply phenomenal control over his car today, continues to increase his lead over Moss, bringing it to 6 seconds, while Hawthorn, who is in third place, is already 20 seconds behind his teammate!
Lap 21: The last Lotus is out of the race with engine problems, leaving a frustrated Chapman with no choice but to become a bystander at his home Grand Prix!
Lap 25: After breaking away from his teammate, Salvadori manages to catch up with Lewis-Evans' Vanwall, and, having decided to attack on the inside radius at the Stowe, Roy leaves his opponent behind with a beautiful maneuver, passing literally millimeters from the fence!
Lap 26: Moss is in trouble! Pushing his car to the limit, Stirling manages to narrow the gap to Collins, but the Vanwall's engine eventually succumbs to the frenzied pursuit, leaving the Englishman yet another retiree in this race!
Position after 30 laps: Collins, Hawthorn, Salvadori, Lewis-Evans, Brabham, von Trips, Schell, Brooks, Bonnier, Trintignant. After Moss' retirement, Collins and Hawthorn in two Ferraris gain full control of the race and can now afford to slow down a little, while the main contender for third place is now Salvadori in a Cooper!
Lap 41: Third Cooper driver Burgess, who spent the entire race at the back of the field, eventually retires with a clutch failure.
Lap 42: After 20 laps behind Brabham, von Trips receives a signal from the pits to accelerate, and, despite the oil leak and tight brakes, the German heeds the order, starting to get close to his rival!
Lap 44: Hawthorn, confidently in second place, suddenly turns into the pits, loudly shouting “Olio, olio, molto olio!”
Luckily, one of the mechanics already has an oil container ready, so refueling doesn't take much time and thus Mike gets back to the track still in 2nd place with a 6-second lead over Salvadori!
Meanwhile, on the same lap, von Trips finally manages to pass Brabham in Copse, and thus the German still displaces the Australian from the points!
At the same time, against the backdrop of such interesting events, the retirement of Gerini, who drops out of the race due to problems with the gearbox, goes completely unnoticed.
Lap 49: Bonnier, who managed to breaks through already into 9th place thanks to problems with his rivals, is also forced to leave this race due to gearbox malfunction.
Lap 50: The engine on von Trips' Ferrari begins to overheat and lose power, and the German succumbs to Brabham's attacks, allowing the Australian to get ahead again!
Meanwhile, the German's teammate Hawthorn, on the contrary, is now the fastest driver on the track, completing this lap with a record speed of 168.2 km/h!
Position after 50 laps: Collins, Hawthorn, Salvadori, Lewis-Evans, Brabham, von Trips, Schell, Brooks, Trintignant, Shelby.
Lap 55: Race leader Collins catches up by a lap with Schell, who lets him pass without any delay, however, the American immediately gets attached behind the Ferrari, hoping thus to increase the top speed of his BRM!
Lap 60: Von Trips' hopes of at least finishing this race fade away with a failed engine, and the German, in his turn, pulls into pits, retiring.
Lap 61: After six laps with Schell on his tail, Collins' patience finally runs out and he waves to the American to overtake and move on!
Not daring to refuse such a generous offer, Harry overtakes the leader and rushes in pursuit of Brabham, to whom he is now only a few hundred meters away!
Lap 63: Literally swallowing the remaining distance in a couple of laps, Schell leaves the Australian behind and thus gets back into the points!
Lap 66: Due to the high temperature inside the cockpit, Salvadori begins to lose pace, and the following Lewis-Evans is immediately made aware of this, advising him to speed up!
Lap 71: Having managed to completely close the gap to Salvadori in five laps, Stuart hangs on the Cooper's tail and begins to attack his compatriot!
Laps 72-74: Despite the Vanwall's advantage in top speed, Salvadori, due to the better handling of his Cooper, feels much more confident in corners, which allows him to easily repel all attacks of his rival!
Last Lap: After 75 laps, all of which he led, Collins finally crosses the line first and takes a truly magnificent victory in his home Grand Prix, which becomes his first major success in almost two years!
Having stopped his car, Peter immediately receives his winner's wreath, with which he takes a lap of honor, while his friend and teammate Hawthorn finishes behind him, who today not only brings a double to his team, but thanks to the seven points received, he now becomes the sole leader of the World Championship!
Meanwhile, 26 seconds after Mike, Salvadori crosses the finish line, who still manages to beat Lewis-Evans by a measly 0.2 seconds, and thus Roy wins his first podium in Formula-1 race today!
As for fifth place, it goes to Schell in BRM, who, after a series of ups and downs this weekend, still manages to record another couple of points.
Interesting facts:
- Peter Collins' last victory;
- Roy Salvadori's first podium.
Driver standings
Constructor standings
Alternative GP results
