1955 Monaco Grand Prix

Results from the 1955 Formula One Monaco Grand Prix held at Monaco on May 22, 1955

Race report

Moss had been signed by Mercedes for the new season and Maserati had replaced him with Jean Behra. The silver cars dominated the early part of the race, Fangio and Moss leading in formation from Ascari and Castellotti. At the halfway mark, Fangio retired with engine trouble, giving the lead to Moss. Almost a lap ahead, a certain win for Moss was ended in a trail of thick black smoke. The new leader Ascari got it all wrong at the chicane, crashing through the barriers into the harbour and having to swim to safety. Maurice Trintignant inherited the lead and stormed home to his first Formula One victory.

Classification

Notes

* Pole position: Juan Manuel Fangio – 1:41.1.
* Fastest L
Juan Manuel Fangio – 1:42.4.
* Lap Leaders: Juan Manuel Fangio, Stirling Moss, and Maurice Trintignant.
* Shared Drives:
** Car #34: Jean Behra (42 laps) and Cesare Perdisa (57 laps). They shared the 4 points for third place.
** Car #48: Piero Taruffi (50 laps) and Paul Frere (36 laps).
** Car #40: Cesare Perdisa (40 laps) and Jean Behra (46 laps).
* Mercedes driver Hans Herrmann injured himself in practice and was replaced by André Simon.
* Grand Prix debut for Cesare Perdisa. Only Grand Prix appearance for Ted Whiteaway.
* Last Grand Prix appearance for Alberto Ascari. He would be killed four days later testing a Ferrari sports car at Monza.
* First win for Maurice Trintignant and Englebert tyres. First podium and points for Eugenio Castellotti and Cesare Perdisa.

Summary & Trivia

The 1955 Monaco Grand Prix was a remarkable race in a season marked by tragedy.

*Juan Manuel Fangio broke the track record that had stood since 1937, when Rudolf Caracciola turned a lap in 1:46.5 in a 5.6-litre Mercedes W125, running the circuit in 1:41.1 on the first day of practice in his Mercedes W196.
*Alberto Ascari matched Fangio's time in his Lancia D50 during the Saturday practice, though the order had been set on the first day of practice in a singular exception to the policy of the time of all practice laps counting towards grid position.
*In practice, Mercedes youngster Hans Herrmann crashed into a harbour wall and suffered injuries that took him out for the rest of the season.
*Ascari was driving the number 26 car, the same number that had been on the P2 Alfa Romeo his father, Antonio Ascari, had been driving when killed in the July 26, 1925 French Grand Prix. The superstitious Ascari was between Mercedes drivers Fangio and Stirling Moss in the numbers 2 and 6 respectively.
*Andre Simon had the first Mercedes to leave contention in the race, when engine failure took him out of the race. Of the Mercedes, Fangio left the race next with transmission problems on lap 50, leaving Stirling Moss in first and Ascari in second. Lap 80 saw Moss taken out by a minor problem in his car's sophisticated valve train, leaving Ascari in first. He never made it past the pits to see that, however: his Lancia didn't make the chicane (possibly losing traction on oil from Moss's engine failure) and he flipped over the barrier and in to the harbor. His Lancia was craned out of 25 feet of water while he spent the night in the hospital.
*Later events indicate that he probably should have kept his superstitions up and taken this as an omen, but his motivation wouldn't quit and four days later he was back in the cockpit at Monza, where he was killed in a bizarre accident while testing a Ferrari. On the 26th of the month. There are no definite explanations for either of Ascari's accidents, but the Monza incident was, apart from possible undetected brain injuries after the crash, probably caused by an improperly-sized tire – 7.00x16 rather than 6.50x16 – combined with an imperfect track surface.
*Mercedes also had not seen the last of their troubles – after all three cars left contention with mechanical problems at Monaco, the worst accident in racing history involved a Mercedes.
*Louis Chiron's start made him the oldest driver to start a grand prix (55 years, 292 days).

F1 race report
Name_of_race = Monaco Grand Prix
Year_of_race = 1955
Previous_race_in_season = 1955 Argentine Grand Prix
Next_race_in_season = 1955 Indianapolis 500
Previous_year's_race = 1952 Monaco Grand Prix
Next_year's_race = 1956 Monaco Grand Prix