1958 Moroccan Grand Prix
The tenth and final round of the 1958 World Championship took place on October 19 in Morocco at the Ain Diab circuit, becoming the first Formula-1 Grand Prix in history to be held on the African continent.
Located south of Casablanca, the Ain Diab track ran along the Atlantic coastline directly on public roads, and its configuration was not only fast but also quite long, totalling over 7.6 km.
Six weeks after the Italian Grand Prix, Formula-1 drivers and teams came together once again to finish a very busy and intense season, and with the championship title still up in the air, Morocco was the event that attracted the most interest from both the local fans and visitors to the African country. By this point, there were only two title contenders left, but the main one was undoubtedly Scuderia leader Mike Hawthorn, who was eight points ahead of Stirling Moss from Vanwall and needed only to finish second to win the championship.
At the same time, Moss' chances also looked pretty good, since if he won, he would get all the laurels if Mike was beaten in the race by at least one other opponent. Given the stakes, both rival teams entered the final round as prepared as possible, and each of them was represented in Morocco by as many as three drivers. The Scuderia Ferrari main lineup this time included Hawthorn himself, Phil Hill and Olivier Gendebien, while Wolfgang von Trips, who suffered a rather serious leg injury in Italy, was forced to miss the last Grand Prix of the season.
The Ferrari bolids themselves were almost no different from those used in Italy, however, given the successful experience of using disc brakes at Monza, two cars were already equipped with them here, while the third still had drum brakes made of high-strength alloy.
As for Tony Vandervell's team, it was represented by the unchanged trio of drivers Stirling Moss, Tony Brooks and Stuart Lewis-Evans, while the British cars themselves were left unchanged in order to avoid any reliability problems.
Meanwhile, if the two leading teams decided to take a conservative approach at the end of the championship, fully concentrating on the confrontation with each other, then the other factory teams, not burdened with the fight for the title, on the contrary, presented many surprises here, deciding to make the most of the last stage. For example, Alfred Owen's team in Morocco for the first time in their history entered as many as four cars at the Grand Prix, behind the wheel of which, in addition to the main drivers Jean Behra and Harry Schell, were also the Swede Jo Bonnier, who had already raced for BRM in Italy, and the Scotsman Ron Flockhart, who was taking part in only his second Grand Prix this season. As for the Bourne cars, here they received modified oil radiators, which consisted of finned tubes behind the water radiators and were cooled by two new air scoops on the top of the nose cowlings.
Meanwhile, considering that the local organizers decided to combine Formula-1 and Formula-2 racing competitions in one Grand Prix, following the example of those in Germany, the most numerous cars in Morocco were not BRMs at all, but Coopers, of which there were as many as nine. At the same time, the Surbiton team became, in fact, the only one that fielded their cars in both classes, which, in fact, guaranteed them an unconditional victory in Formula-2 even before the start of the competition. As for the drivers, John Cooper chose Roy Salvadori and Jack Fairman to participate in the top class, while in Formula-2 the team was represented by Jack Brabham and Bruce McLaren, the latter holding his only second Grand Prix after the race at the Nurburgring. In addition to the works team, another Cooper was entered in the Formula-1 class by Rob Walker, who put it at the disposal of his regular driver Maurice Trintignant, while in Formula-2 his team was represented by François Piccard, for whom the Moroccan Grand Prix was his debut in the world championship. Besides, another Cooper in the Formula-2 class was entered by the new British Racing Partnership team, owned by none other than Stirling's father Alfred Moss, who put it at the disposal of Tom Bridger, while another couple of Coopers were entered by private drivers André Guelfi and Robert La Caze, the latter being the only local driver.
Meanwhile, Colin Chapman's team decided to limit themselves to the Formula-1 class this time, and they were represented, as usual, by Graham Hill and Cliff Allison, who, as in Italy, competed in a Lotus 16 and Lotus 12 respectively. As for the drivers in Maserati 250Fs, there were four of them here: Masten Gregory was again driving the newest superlight car of the Scuderia Temple Buell team, Wolfgang Seidel and Gerino Gerini represented the Scuderia Centro Sud, while Hans Herrmann was again driving the car belonging to Jo Bonnier.
Qualification
As in most Grands Prix this season, qualifying on the Moroccan circuit saw a heated battle for pole position between the Ferrari and Vanwall drivers, but this time they also had some serious competition from Jean Behra in the BRM, who rather surprisingly emerged as the fastest driver on the first practice day.
However, despite all his efforts, the Frenchman was unable to maintain such a high pace throughout qualifying, and in the end he had to be content with only fourth position on the starting grid, while the two fastest drivers, as expected, were two title contenders, with Hawthorn at the head, who beat Moss by just 0.1 seconds.
It is worth noting that Stirling showed his best result in the car of his teammate Brooks, which behaved much more stable in the turns, while Tony himself, who was also one of the fastest drivers at the wheel of this car on Friday, after changing the "horses" was not able to significantly improve his own result and ended up only 7th. As for the third driver of Vandervell, Lewis-Evans, he once again demonstrated a very impressive speed and, lagging behind Moss by only 0.5 seconds, Stuart took the 3rd position next to his teammate on the first row of the starting field.
As for Hawthorn's teammates, they also looked quite good here, and, again showing approximately the same results, Hill and Gendebien took 5th and 6th positions respectively. At the same time, if the results of the Scuderia drivers could be considered quite predictable, then the excellent speed of Bonnier, who already in his second Grand Prix for the Bourne team managed to show the 8th result and get ahead of his teammate Schell, was quite a big surprise.
The American himself did not look very confident this time and took a place only at the very end of the top ten, losing out to Trintignant from Walker's team, who in Morocco turned out to be the fastest of the Cooper drivers. As for the factory drivers of the Surbiton team, they did not shine with particular speed here and took only 11th and 14th positions, with Fairman at the head, and things were also not going well for the Lotus drivers, the best of whom, Graham Hill, managed to show only 12th result. But in the Formula-2 class, things were going brilliantly for John Cooper's team (which was not surprising, given the complete lack of competition), and their drivers Brabham and McLaren easily outstripped all their rivals, taking 19th and 21st positions respectively.
Race
On the day of the race, the Grand Prix opening ceremony took place, and the Ain Diab circuit was graced with the presence of the ruler of the Kingdom of Morocco, Sultan Mohammed V, and his eldest son and heir Hassan II.
Meanwhile, before the start of the race, both opposing teams had a detailed briefing with their drivers, each of whom was assigned a specific role in this Grand Prix…
Start. At the wave of the national flag the cars take off, and after a slight hesitation, Hawthorn immediately lets his two rivals from Vanwall pass him! Moreover, while Moss manages to immediately take the lead, his teammate Lewis-Evans is already passed at the first corner by Phil Hill, who again manages a simply fantastic start from the second row!
Besides, Bonnier also demonstrates a very impressive start to the race, immediately breaking through to 3rd, while his teammate Behra, on the contrary, does not start very well and ends up only 7th.
First lap. Having broken through to second position, Phil Hill doesn't stop there and immediately starts attacking Moss, who only with great difficulty manages to keep the American behind!
Meanwhile, Hawthorn, who did not start the race very well, gets to action already on the first lap, and having passed Lewis-Evans and Bonnier one after the other, Mike found himself in 3rd position by the end of the lap!
As for Stuart, in addition to Hawthorn, he also lets his teammate Brooks through, as a result of which the Englishman finishes the first lap only 6th!
Position after Lap 1: Moss, Phil Hill, Hawthorn, Bonnier, Brooks, Lewis-Evans, Behra, Trintignant, Schell, Gendebien.
Lap 2: Phil Hill is doing everything he can to overtake the leading Moss, but Stirling uses such skillful defense that he doesn't give the American a single chance to get ahead!
Meanwhile, Hill's teammate Gendebien, who had a rather poor start, leaves Trintignant and Schell behind on this one lap, and thus the Belgian is already 8th!
Besides, Allison also wins back two positions, which moves him up to 16th, while Flockhart wins back one, leaving Fairman behind.
Lap 3: In an attempt to get ahead at all costs, Phil Hill tries to out-brake Moss into the first corner, but due to the lack of effectiveness of his drum brakes he fails and ends up on the escape road!
Cursing under his breath, the American gets back to the track in a wide arc, however, as a result of his unsuccessful maneuver, he loses two positions to Hawthorn and Bonnier and now finds himself only in 4th! Meanwhile, on the same lap, Gregory makes up one position, overtaking Salvadori, while Gerini, on the contrary, loses two, letting Herrmann and Brabham through.
Lap 4: After getting rid of the American chasing him, Moss immediately picks up the pace and wins back one and a half seconds from Hawthorn at once!
Meanwhile, on the same lap, Gregory makes up another position at the expense of Graham Hill, while Gerini continues to drop further and further, finding himself already in 21st position!
Lap 5: Only inflamed by his mistake, Phil Hill rushes around the track like a hurricane, and, unable to withstand his onslaught, Bonnier gives up 3rd to the American!
Meanwhile, on the same lap, Flockhart manages to overtake Salvadori, while Gerini drops another position, letting Bridger through.
Lap 7: Phil Hill literally eats up his gap to Hawthorn in a couple of laps, and following the approved plan, Mike lets the American pass into 2nd without any fight!
Meanwhile, on the same lap, Flockhart wins back another position, overtaking Graham Hill, while, after a little hesitation, the Lotus driver immediately lets Salvadori through as well!
Lap 8: Having a clear track in front of him, Phil Hill again rushes to chase Moss, however, by this time Stirling has already managed to overtake a couple of lappers and increase his lead over the American up to 9 seconds!
Lap 9: Phil Hill shows the best lap of the race with a result of 2'23.3 and thus the American makes up more than half a second over leading Moss!
Meanwhile, after several laps of wheel-to-wheel fighting, Behra still manages to put the squeeze on Lewis-Evans, and thus Jean pushes Stuart back to 7th!
Besides, this same lap brings the first retirement of the race: the engine fails on Trintignant's Cooper, who was in 9th.
Lap 10: Phil Hill, in his turn, catches up with the first lappers, and, taking advantage of this, Moss manages to increase his lead over the American by another second!
Meanwhile, things aren't going so well for his teammate Lewis-Evans, and Stuart loses another position to Gendebien!
Position after 10 laps: Moss, Phil Hill, Hawthorn, Bonnier, Brooks, Behra, Gendebien, Lewis-Evans, Schell, Gregory.
After 10 laps Moss is still leading, clearly aiming for the race win, and with Hawthorn currently only in 3rd, it's Stirling who now looks the main contender for the title!
Lap 11: The engine on Hill's Lotus begins to overheat dangerously and Graham pulls into the pits, dropping to the back of the field!
Lap 13: Continuing to push their cars to the limit and passing the lappers along the way, Moss and Phil Hill are showing roughly the same pace, with the gap between them still remaining within 10 seconds! Meanwhile, this lap is not a good one for BRM drivers Bonnier and Behra, who simultaneously let Brooks and Gendebien through respectively, thus losing one position each!
Lap 16: With just a monstrous difference in pace, Moss is lapping Seidel already for the second time and, not having time to get out of the way of the Vanwall, the German is hit in his Maserati's rear by the Englishman! Moreover, if Moss manages to get away with only a dent on the nose of his car, then Wolfgang is less lucky and, having received damage to the suspension, the German turns into the pits and retires! Meanwhile, this lap brings two retirements at once, since, in addition to Seidel, Flockhart also stops in the pits, on whose BRM the camshaft has failed.
Lap 17: After a long battle, Allison finally manages to overtake Fairman, and thus the Lotus driver takes 12th position from his rival!
Lap 19: Despite the damage to his car, Moss continues to show incredible pace and on lap 19 the Englishman sets a new fastest lap with a time of 2'22.9!
Meanwhile, things are not going so well for the second title contender Hawthorn, and unable to hold off the onslaught of Brooks, Mike lets the Vanwall driver pass, thus dropping to 4th!
Position after 20 laps: Moss, Phil Hill, Brooks, Hawthorn, Bonnier, Gendebien, Behra, Lewis-Evans, Schell, Gregory.
With two rivals now separating him from Hawthorn and still comfortably leading the race, Moss further increases his chances for the title, however, there are still 32 laps left, so anything can happen!
Lap 21: Moss drives even faster and improves the lap record again, stopping it at 2’22.5, as a result of which his gap from Phil Hill reaches 14 seconds already!
Meanwhile, on the same lap, McLaren stops for a pit stop, as a result of which the New Zealander lets three rivals pass and drops to 19th.
Lap 22: After several laps of hard fighting, Gregory finally manages to pass his compatriot Schell, and thus Masten is already 9th!
Meanwhile, having overtaken Fairman, Allison still fails to create a sufficient gap on his Cooper, and after a counterattack, Jack gets ahead again!
Lap 25: Continuing to show just an incredible pace, Moss completes laps 1.5 seconds faster than Hill, and thus Stirling increases his gap to the American already to 20 seconds!
Meanwhile, the engine on Behra's BRM is starting to show signs of overheating and, losing pace, the Frenchman gives up 7th to Lewis-Evans without any fight!
Lap 26: Feeling that the title is literally slipping out of his hands, Hawthorn mobilizes all his strength and, counterattacking Brooks on the straight leading to Azemmour Road, Mike regains 3rd again!
Meanwhile, the battle between the two Americans Gregory and Schell, which has been going on for more than ten laps, is as hot as ever, and, in turn, having attacked Masten, Harry takes the lead again!
Lap 27: After driving a couple of laps with an overheated engine, Behra finally gives up and pulls into the pits, once again leaving the race due to a technical malfunction!
Lap 28: Coming out of the final corner, Brooks attacks Hawthorn on the finish line and, having passed two lappers Salvadori and Gerini along the way, Tony leaves Mike behind again!
Lap 29: Hawthorn does not give up and, in turn, counterattacking Brooks, Mike breaks ahead again!
Lap 30: Preparing for a new attack, Tony pushes his car to the limit, but the strain eventually becomes too much for the Vanwall's engine, which ends its existence on lap 30 with a loud bang and spectacular explosion! Under the sudden acceleration, Brooks almost loses control of his car, but luckily he still manages to stay on track and stops his Vanwall just millimetres from the side of the road!
Meanwhile, this lap is becoming extremely exciting not only for Tony, but also for Gendebien, who, having slipped on the oil from the Vanwall engine, spun and was immediately hit by a lapper Picard, as well as for Bridger, who, trying to avoid two entangled cars, also ends the race on the side of the road! At the same time, despite the triple accident, only Picard is more or less seriously injured, while the Englishman and the Belgian manage to get out of this mess with only a slight fright.
Position after 30 laps: Moss, Phil Hill, Hawthorn, Bonnier, Lewis-Evans, Schell, Gregory, Salvadori, Fairman, Allison.
With Brooks out, it is Hawthorn who now confidently occupies 3rd, and thus Mike's chances for the title are rapidly increasing!
Lap 35: Realising that Phil Hill is no longer able to catch Moss, they in Scuderia go to plan B and show the American a "Slow Down" sign, hoping that he will give up that coveted second position to Hawthorn, which will guarantee Mike the championship title!
Lap 39: Obeying the order, Hill slows down, and, having caught his teammate four laps later, it is Hawthorn who now finds himself in 2nd place!
Lap 41: After spending almost the entire race behind Allison, Herrmann finally overtakes the Lotus, and the German now gets into the top ten.
Lap 42: The engine on Lewis-Evans' Vanwall, like Brooks', eventually gives in to the heat of the race and explodes, but unlike Tony, Stuart is much less lucky, and his car spins and flies straight into a group of nearby trees! Moreover, when the tail hits a tree, the Vanwall's rear fuel tank splits in two, and the fuel spilled on the hot parts immediately bursts into flames, turning the Englishman's car into a fireball! Remaining conscious, Stuart immediately jumps out of the cockpit, but, covered by a wave of fire, his jumpsuit also catches fire, and, experiencing unbearable heat, the Englishman begins to run along the track, not noticing the marshals with fire extinguishers running towards him from the other side! When the Englishman's legs finally give out and he falls to the ground, the firefighters who run up still manage to put the fire out, but by this point Stuart has already got such terrible burns that they have no choice but to urgently call a medical helicopter to the scene...
Last lap: Completely unaware of what happened to his teammate, Moss finally crosses the finish line first and wins a truly brilliant victory today... which, however, does not bring him the laurels of the champion.
The main triumphant of this season turns out to be his main rival Hawthorn, who, having finished second once again, scores enough points to overcome Stirling in the championship, and, receiving congratulations already as the first British Formula-1 champion, Mike first of all shakes the hand of his teammate Phil Hill, without whom this success would not have been possible.
The American himself ends up finishing right behind Hawthorn, and having produced another great race and won another podium, Hill, without a doubt, deserves the full right to be called the Rookie of this year! Meanwhile, fourth place in this Grand Prix goes to Bonnier, who also managed to show a very confident performance today and thus win his first points in Formula-1, while his teammate Schell ends up fifth, who, having achieved another productive finish, eventually takes 6th place in the overall standings.
P.S. Despite the triumph of the British drivers in the 1958 championship, the last race of the season ultimately turned into another tragedy, as, unable to survive the burns he received, Stuart Lewis-Evans slowly faded away six days later...
Interesting facts:
- Stirling Moss' 10th victory;
- Jo Bonnier's first points;
- Jean Behra's 50th Grand Prix;
- Mike Hawthorn's last Grand Prix;
- Stuart Lewis-Evans' last Grand Prix;
- Vanwall's last victory.
Driver standings
Constructor standings
Alternative GP results
