1957 Argentine F1 Grand Prix Race Report & Results

Event: Argentine Grand Prix
Track: Autódromo Oscar Alfredo Gálvez

Weather: sunny, hot

Juan Manuel Fangio won his 21st F1 World Championship race at the 1957 Argentine F1 GP. The Maserati driver started from second on the grid and won on the Buenos Aires Autódromo for the third time. It was his 1st win of the season and the 6th win for the Maserati F1 team in the championship era, Fangio's first race back at Maserati in his title-defending year.

Buenos Aires, 13 January 1957: Fangio's Maserati return

The 1957 World Championship opened in Buenos Aires with Juan Manuel Fangio in the colours of Maserati. After his fourth title with Ferrari in 1956, the Argentine had moved back to Modena for what would prove to be his crowning year. The V Gran Premio de la República Argentina was contested across 100 laps of the 3.912-kilometre Autódromo Oscar Alfredo Gálvez, 391.2 kilometres in total, under the kind of summer heat that had characterised every Buenos Aires opener.

Maserati arrived in force with works 250Fs for Fangio, Behra, Schell, Menditeguy and Bonnier, plus Stirling Moss now also at the marque. Ferrari's Lancia-Ferrari D50s carried Hawthorn, Collins, Castellotti, Musso, Perdisa, von Trips, Alfonso de Portago and Argentine local José Froilán González. Privateer entries from Piotti and de Tomaso completed a small but high-quality field.

Qualifying: Moss on pole, Fangio second

Stirling Moss took pole position in his Maserati 250F, with Fangio second on the grid. Behra was third, Castellotti fourth in the leading Ferrari, Collins fifth, Musso sixth.

The race: clutch failures end Ferrari's challenge

The race opened with Moss leading from pole and Fangio in immediate pursuit. The Ferrari challenge collapsed early, Peter Collins's clutch failed on lap 26, Luigi Musso's on lap 31, Mike Hawthorn's on lap 35, and Eugenio Castellotti broke a wheel on lap 75. With four works Ferraris out, the race was a Maserati formality. Stirling Moss set the race's fastest lap of 1:44.7 on lap 75, but his car had its own troubles by then; he finished eighth at seven laps adrift.

Fangio took the lead from his team-mate Behra in the closing stretch and crossed the line in 3:00:55.9 with Behra just 18.3 seconds behind for a Maserati 1-2. Carlos Menditeguy's Maserati was third at one lap down, Harry Schell's Maserati fourth at two laps adrift. The shared de Portago/González Ferrari salvaged a single point each in fifth.

Championship fallout

Fangio's eight points opened his title defence. Behra's six made him the season's early second. The next race was the Monaco Grand Prix on 19 May.

Classification 1957 Argentine F1 GP

Pos	#	Driver	Team	Time	Laps	Grid	Pts
1	2	Juan-Manuel Fangio	Maserati	3:00:55.900	100	2	8
2	6	Jean Behra	Maserati	3:01:14.200	100	3	6
3	8	Carlos Menditeguy	Maserati	+1 lap	99	8	4
4	22	Harry Schell	Maserati	+2 laps	98	9	3
5	20	Alfonso de Portago José-Froilán González	Ferrari	+-96 laps	98 98	10 10	1 1
6	18	Cesare Perdisa Peter Collins Wolfgang von Trips	Ferrari	+-194 laps	98 98 98	11 11 11	0 0 0
7	24	Jo Bonnier	Maserati	+5 laps	95	13	0
8	4	Stirling Moss	Maserati	+7 laps	93	1	1
9	26	Alessandro de Tomaso	Ferrari	+9 laps	91	12	0
10	28	Luigi Piotti	Maserati	+10 laps	90	14	0
DNF	14	Eugenio Castellotti	Ferrari	Wheel	75	4	0
DNF	16	Mike Hawthorn	Ferrari	Clutch	35	7	0
DNF	12	Luigi Musso	Ferrari	Clutch	31	6	0
DNF	10	Peter Collins	Ferrari	Clutch	26	5	0

Fastest lap: 1:44.700 min by Stirling Moss (Maserati 250F) in lap 75

✅ Check out 1957 F1 Championship Standings
✅ Check out 1957 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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