1955 Dutch F1 Grand Prix Race Report & Results

Event: Dutch Grand Prix
Track: Circuit Zandvoort

Weather: dry

Juan Manuel Fangio won his 16th F1 World Championship race at the 1955 Dutch F1 GP. The Mercedes driver started from pole position and won on the Zandvoort circuit for the first time. It was his 3rd win of the season and the 7th win for the Mercedes F1 team in the championship era, the first Grand Prix held after the Le Mans 24 Hours disaster of 11 June 1955.

Zandvoort, 19 June 1955: a championship race in the Le Mans aftermath

The 1955 Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort fell exactly one week after the Le Mans 24 Hours disaster of 11-12 June, in which 84 spectators and the Mercedes-Benz driver Pierre Levegh were killed when Levegh's 300 SLR was launched into the crowd. The Zandvoort organisers and entrants, including the Mercedes-Benz F1 team, chose to proceed with the race; the cancellation wave that would eventually claim the French, German, Swiss and Spanish Grands Prix had not yet started. The V Grote Prijs van Nederland was contested across 100 laps of the 4.193-kilometre Zandvoort circuit, 419.3 kilometres in total.

Mercedes-Benz arrived with three open-wheel W196s for Fangio, Moss and Karl Kling. Ferrari brought 625s for Hawthorn, Trintignant, Castellotti (transferred from Lancia after Lancia's withdrawal) and Johnny Claes. Maserati's works squad carried Behra, Mieres, Musso and Walker. Gordini brought Manzon, Pollet and Hernando da Silva Ramos. Louis Rosier and Horace Gould drove privateer Maseratis.

Qualifying: Mercedes front row

Fangio took pole, with Moss alongside on the front row in the second Mercedes. Karl Kling was third in the third W196, Musso fourth in the leading Maserati, Hawthorn fifth, Behra sixth, Mieres seventh.

The race: another Mercedes 1-2

The race opened as the German parade Mercedes had made customary. Fangio led from pole with Moss in immediate pursuit, and the two W196s ran nose-to-tail through the dunes for the entire afternoon. Roberto Mieres set the race's fastest lap of 1:40.9 on lap three, his first and only F1 World Championship fastest lap, but the Maserati could not match the Mercedes pace over the long distance. Peter Walker's Maserati lost a wheel bearing on lap two; Karl Kling spun off on lap 21; Horace Gould followed him into the dunes on lap 23.

The race's middle stretch was almost incident-free at the front. Mercedes had instructed their drivers to settle into a tight formation, and the W196s ran without overtaking attempts for most of the second half. Robert Manzon's Gordini broke its transmission on lap 44; Maurice Trintignant's Ferrari gearbox went on lap 65.

Fangio took the chequered flag in 2:54:23.8 with Moss three-tenths of a second behind for the third consecutive Mercedes 1-2. Luigi Musso's Maserati was third at fifty-seven seconds back; Mieres's Maserati fourth at one lap down; Castellotti's Ferrari fifth at three laps; Behra's Maserati sixth at the same distance.

Championship fallout

Fangio's eight points lifted him to 27 in the Drivers' Championship and to a commanding lead in his title defence. Within the next month, the cancellation wave from Le Mans would reduce the 1955 calendar from eleven scheduled rounds to seven, only the British, Italian and Indianapolis 500 would join the four already-completed races for points. The next race was the British Grand Prix at Aintree on 16 July.

Classification 1955 Dutch F1 GP

Pos	#	Driver	Team	Time	Laps	Grid	Pts
1	8	Juan-Manuel Fangio	Mercedes	2:54:23.800	100	1	8
2	10	Stirling Moss	Mercedes	2:54:24.100	100	2	6
3	18	Luigi Musso	Maserati	2:55:20.900	100	4	4
4	16	Roberto Mieres	Maserati	+1 lap	99	7	4
5	6	Eugenio Castellotti	Ferrari	+3 laps	97	9	2
6	14	Jean Behra	Maserati	+3 laps	97	6	0
7	2	Mike Hawthorn	Ferrari	+5 laps	95	5	0
8	22	Hermano da Silva Ramos	Gordini	+8 laps	92	14	0
9	28	Louis Rosier	Maserati	+8 laps	92	13	0
10	24	Jacques Pollet	Gordini	+10 laps	90	12	0
11	30	Johnny Claes	Ferrari	+12 laps	88	16	0
DNF	4	Maurice Trintignant	Ferrari	Gearbox	65	8	0
DNF	20	Robert Manzon	Gordini	Transmission	44	11	0
DNF	32	Horace Gould	Maserati	Spun Off	23	15	0
DNF	12	Karl Kling	Mercedes	Spun Off	21	3	0
DNF	26	Peter Walker	Maserati	Wheel Bearing	2	10	0

Fastest lap: 1:40.900 min by Roberto Mieres (Maserati 250F) in lap 3

✅ Check out 1955 F1 Championship Standings
✅ Check out 1955 F1 Teams & Drivers

✅ Check out All Time F1 Drivers Rankings
✅ Check out All Time F1 Driver Records
✅ Check out All Time F1 Teams Rankings

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Leopold

Leopold Pleijsier founded F1-Fansite.com in 2001 and has followed Formula 1 since the early 1980s. He writes about daily F1 news, race weekends, drivers and the sport’s history.

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