Another beautiful day would greet the teams, drivers and spectators leading up to the start of the race. The scene of the Mediterranean in the background and the mountains to the north would give cause for reflection and nostalgia. Then, at last, the prince would make his entrance clearing the circuit. A short time later the cars would be wheeled out to their grid positions and the drivers readied to take their places behind the wheel.
All cars ready to go, engines roaring, the flag would finally wave to start the race. The field would stream towards the tight Gazometre hairpin for the first time. With the field plowing its way into the tight first turn it was unlikely there was not going to be some kind of incident. Sure enough Salvadori would find himself in trouble in the first couple of hundred yards as he would drive deep into the corner but would end up going too deep and would contact another car bending his suspension. This left him at the back of the pack while the rest of the field powered its way toward Sainte Devote for the first time. Behra would be in the lead with Brooks, Brabham and Moss following along not far behind. Starting at the back of the grid, Scarlatti would take care to avoid any first corner problems but would be up a position already as a result of Salvadori’s troubles.
At the completion of the first lap Scarlatti would be in good position in 13th position while Behra would hold onto the lead over Brooks and Brabham. Brabham would start out strongly but would begin to fade quickly. This enabled Moss to come up to 3rd place by the end of the second lap while Scarlatti would make a mistake and would lose out a couple of positions to end the third lap right around 15th.
Behra maintained the lead of the race while Brooks followed. Moss would be in 3rd place but would come under fire from Hawthorn in one of the Ferraris. These two fast Brits would battle it out with Hawthorn taking the position and maintaining it over Moss for more than a quarter of the race.
Scarlatti’s early slip-up would cost him and it would put him a bit on the back-foot compared to his competitors. He would try and recover and would end up getting back by Graham Hill, the future Mr. Monaco, to run in 14th place. He would receive a little help up the leaderboard when Stuart Lewis-Evans retired early in the race. Brabham would also continue to suffer terrible woes and would fall well behind Scarlatti. Scarlatti would be running just outside the top ten through the first quarter of the race.
Up at the front, meanwhile, Behra would soon run into trouble as the Achilles of the BRM, its brakes, would erupt causing the fast-flying Frenchman to retire after leading the first 30 laps of the race. Hawthorn would now take over the lead with Moss doing what he could to maintain contact in 2nd place.
The drama was just beginning. Eight more laps would pass after Behra retired and suddenly Moss would be in trouble with engine problems. Hawthorn would be all alone in the lead of the race. His pace was such that he could carry on carefully through the last half of the race and still come out the victor. However, nine laps later, a fuel pump failure would cause the victory to slip through his hands. The potential victory would be snatched from Hawthorn’s hands and given to the man providence had given the race to before—Trintignant.
Unfortunately for Scarlatti, he was both too far back, and out of the race, by the time Behra, Moss and Hawthorn ran into trouble. Giorgio had been settling in, albeit at the back of the pack. He had managed to make it up to 13th and 12th position before his engine began to give him signs its day was done. Once again, the famous Maserati that had carried Fangio through his incredible storm back to the front at the Nurburgring would fail Scarlatti before a race had even reached halfway. It would seem to answer why it was Fangio had five titles when the very same car he had driven so beautifully wouldn’t even last half a race for anyone else.
Trintignant was again handed the lead in the Monaco Grand Prix. However, there was plenty of time for things to go wrong with his Cooper. Maurice would take over the lead of the race with half of the race distance still left to travel. It would seem like the longest half a race of his life. He would be chased by the very talented and capable Luigi Musso in one of the powerful Ferrari Dino 246s. It was a car perfectly capable of challenging for and holding onto the lead if it ever gained control.
However, around the tight streets of Monaco the tiny mid-engined Cooper would be showing its mettle, doing more than what was needed to hold onto the position and fend off any attack from any of the other drivers following along behind. If there was any question as to the advantage of such a car it was being answered by Trintignant this day.
It was an interesting story. Trintignant was a very capable driver, but not the fastest. He was driving for Rob Walker, a talented privateer team, but not the factory Cooper effort. However, it would be Walker’s team that would earn the Cooper its first World Championship victory when it won the Argentine Grand Prix earlier in the year and it was the same outfit leading the Monaco Grand Prix as it headed into its final quarter distance.
Throughout the first half of the race Musso could not really challenge the Coopers up the road ahead of him. Now, when the remaining laps were waning down, he still could not do much as Trintignant controlled the pace and the distance back to the Ferrari quite well.
It was quite remarkable as Trintignant continued to hold onto the lead. Musso, try as he would, just could not reel in the Walker Cooper. Fortune shined on the Frenchman once again around the streets of Monte Carlo and he would just smile back and say ‘thank you’ as he carried on around the circuit for the final time.
It was undoubtedly a beautiful day in Monaco, at least for Rob Walker and Maurice Trintignant. The victory in Argentina had certainly been something of a surprise. But to win two in a row, and at Monaco at that, was something Walker likely would have never imaged.
Trintignant, averaging nearly 68mph over the course of the race, would take his second World Championship victory, both coming at Monaco. Musso would finish in 2nd place 20 seconds behind. Peter Collins would make it two Ferraris finishing in the top three as he finished about 18 seconds further behind Musso.
