Moss continued to lead the way and only stretched further away from Schell in 2nd place. A little ways behind Schell, Jean Behra, Schell’s BRM teammate, would come up after running 6th in the early part of the race to get by Hawthorn and Salvadori to make it two BRMs in the top three.
Unfortunately, about the same time Behra was promoted to 3rd place after Lewis-Evans’ retirement, Scarlatti’s chances at a race finish would take yet another blow. The fast nature of the undulating Zandvoort circuit made it tough on a car’s suspension. The compression and going light only worked the suspension members all that much harder as the race wore on. Sadly, after 52 laps, just a little less than 23 laps from the end of the race, the rear axle on the Maserati would fail leaving Giorgio out of his fourth-straight Formula One race of the 1958 season. A year before he suffered a retirement in his first World Championship race of the season and then went on to finish three-straight, each of them top ten results. One year later and he would have to count making it past the halfway mark in a race as a race finish and a victory.
Moss, on the other hand, was on cruise control. He would run out the final 20 laps of the race in comfortable fashion. Averaging almost 94mph, Moss would fly home to victory crossing the line nearly 48 seconds ahead of Schell in 2nd place. Jean Behra would give way to his teammate and would finish in 3rd place nearly a minute further behind.
Scarlatti faced some seriously important decisions. The costs to go racing were not being offset by the rewards of having done so. The failure to even finish one of the four races in which he had contested was coming back to haunt him. He could decide to leave Formula One for the rest of the season. He had been doing well in sportscars and could have focused on that for the remainder of the season.
However, there would be one other option available to him to try out and this could buy him some time before he had to make a final answer. This other possible solution would actually share the pits with him at Monaco.
Following the Dutch Grand Prix, the next round of the World Championship would be in the Indianapolis 500. Fangio would actually go to Indy to attempt to take part in the race. None of the other Formula One drivers would do so. They would wait to take part in the fifth round of the championship, the Belgian Grand Prix.
In the case of Scarlatti, his next attempt to have his Formula One season turn around would come at the 6th round of the championship—the French Grand Prix. The race would take place at the usual site of the French round of the World Championship—Reims. Scarlatti would arrive with his Maserati. However, he would not be listed as the driver for the race on the 6th of July.
At the Monaco Grand Prix back in May, the Maserati factory had sent engineers and crews to help support Scarlatti and his 250F. The factory would also look after another 250F in the field, the one belonging to Jo Bonnier. Bonnier’s race would last longer than that of Scarlatti’s and it certainly appeared as though Bonnier had the superior pace. Therefore, for the French Grand Prix Scarlatti would turn into a team owner overnight having Bonnier as his driver.
Reims was the perfect place for someone like Bonnier to take over the drive from Scarlatti. Giorgio was known for being a steady and mistake-free driver, but that usually came at the price of speed. At 5.15 miles and being almost nothing but straights, Reims was not a circuit a driver could not drive flat-out. There could be no hesitation or holding back. The driver had to fully commit. Bonnier was certainly much more willing to commit to that level than what Scarlatti.
The Reims circuit would be comprised of public roads literally just to the west of the famous French city. Overrun with farmland, the circuit would be wide-open and fast. The lap would begin with a sprint down the long start/finish straight utilizing the D27 stretching from the village of Thillois to Gueux. The circuit used to extend into the village of Gueux but would actually sweep around a fast right-hand bend named for the village it bypassed. Another fast sweeping right-hander known as Hovette would then lead to some fast esses that eventually spilled out to the Muizon hairpin. The circuit then turned onto Route Nationale 31, a long straight with a rather impressive incline and descent before reaching another tight hairpin known as Thillois. Powering back up the long start/finish straight completed a lap of the circuit. The circuit was fast, demanding and certainly quite dangerous.
The cars would take to the circuit for practice and it would become immediately apparent who the strong contenders would be. The redesigned suspension on the Ferrari 246 Dino meant Mike Hawthorn was quite comfortable behind the wheel. He would end up going fastest around the circuit and would take the pole with a time of 2:21.7. Luigi Musso, driving another Dino 246, would end up 2nd, just seven-tenths slower than Hawthorn. The final spot on the front row would go to Harry Schell in one of the BRMs. This would be very poignant as it had been the Vanwalls that showed the greatest straight-line speed over the previous couple of years. However, there would be just one Vanwall, that belonging to Tony Brooks, found in the first two rows of the grid.
Fangio would be back for one more race. This too would be poignant as he would be back behind the wheel of a Maserati 250F. He would end up on the third row of the grid along with Maurice Trintignant in a BRM and Stirling Moss in another of the Vanwalls. So it was clear the 250F still had the speed to be up close near the front of the field.
Of course a lot would have to do with the driver behind the wheel. And Bonnier, as talented as he was, was no Fangio. This would become self-evident when he posted a best lap time of 2:30.9, a time more than six just slower of just Fangio, let alone those occupying the front row of the field. Again, however, the season had been a terrible one for Scarlatti and it was likely he made Bonnier well aware of the need to finish a race, not worry so much about where he started.
Bonnier would not be too concerned with where he started, not with a lap time like that which he put together in practice. As it turned out, Scarlatti’s Maserati would end up on the seventh row of the grid in the 16th position overall.
The focus heading into the race was clear. Finishing was all that mattered. The day of the race would be beautiful. The grandstands, and all around the circuit, would be filled with enthusiastic crowds waiting for what had the potential of being a very memorable race. Back in 1953 an incredible battle developed between more than half a dozen cars and lasted almost the entire race distance. It was one of the most dramatic races in Formula One history, yet, heading into the 1958 edition of the race, there was the potential for something even more special. There were many teams with fast cars. Less than two seconds separated the first seven cars on the grid. And with slipstreaming, the cars could stay locked together all day long. The potential was huge. For Scarlatti, he hoped the potential would just result in a result.
