The 1956 Monaco Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 13 May 1956 at Monaco. It was race 2 of 8 in the 1956 World Championship of Drivers.
The Owen's BRM made their first appearance but after qualifying both cars were withdrawn due to engine valve problems. The other two non-starters were the too-slow Scarlatti and Chiron due to his engine blowing up in practice.
Moss, starting from the middle of the front row, took the lead at Gasworks on the first lap and led every lap. Fangio was not having a good day. He hit the straw bales on lap 2, causing Schell and Musso to retire when trying to avoid him, and on lap 32 he hit the harbour wall, bending a rear wheel. He turned the car over to Castellotti after the pit stop to fix the wheel. On lap 54 while second, Collins came in the pit and turned his car over to Fangio. He resumed in third and passed Behra for second on lap 70, but he was 47 seconds behind Moss. On lap 86 Perdisa's brakes locked when being lapped by Moss, the resulting contact caused Moss's bonnet to lift allowing Fangio to close the gap by two seconds each lap but Moss won with a 6-second cushion.
Classification Qualifying +PosNoDriverConstructorTimeGap1 20 Juan Manuel Fangio Ferrari 1:44.0—2 28 Stirling Moss Maserati 1:44.6 +0.63 22 Eugenio Castellotti Ferrari 1:44.9 +0.94 30 Jean Behra Maserati 1:45.3 +1.35 16 Harry Schell Vanwall 1:45.6 +1.66 14 Maurice Trintignant Vanwall 1:45.6 +1.67 32 Cesare Perdisa Maserati 1:46.0 +2.08 24 Luigi Musso Ferrari 1:46.8 +2.89 26 Peter Collins Ferrari 1:47.0 +3.010 10 Mike Hawthorn BRM 1:49.3 +5.311 4 Élie Bayol Gordini 1:50.0 +6.012 2 Robert Manzon Gordini 1:50.3 +6.313 12 Tony Brooks BRM 1:50.4 +6.414 6 Hermano da Silva Ramos Gordini 1:50.6 +6.615 8 Louis Rosier Maserati 1:51.6 +7.616 18 Horace Gould Maserati 1:51.7 +7.7 36 Giorgio Scarlatti Ferrari 2:09.1 +25.1 34 Louis Chiron Maserati Source:
Note: Both BRM cars (Mike Hawthorn and Tony Brooks) withdrew after qualifying due to engine issues.
Race Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 28 Stirling Moss Maserati 100 3:00:32.9 2 8 2 26 Peter Collins Juan Manuel Fangio Ferrari 100 +6.1 sec 9 34 3 30 Jean Behra Maserati 99 +1 Lap 4 4 4 20 Juan Manuel Fangio Eugenio Castellotti Ferrari 94 +6 Laps 1 01.5 5 6 Hermano da Silva Ramos Gordini 93 +7 Laps 14 2 6 4 Élie Bayol André Pilette Gordini 88 +12 Laps 11 7 32 Cesare Perdisa Maserati 86 +14 Laps 7 8 18 Horace Gould Maserati 85 +15 Laps 16 2 Robert Manzon Gordini 90 Accident 12 8 Louis Rosier Maserati 72 Engine 15 22 Eugenio Castellotti Ferrari 14 Clutch 3 14 Maurice Trintignant Vanwall 13 Overheating 6 16 Harry Schell Vanwall 2 Accident 5 24 Luigi Musso Ferrari 2 Accident 8 36 Giorgio Scarlatti Ferrari 10 Mike Hawthorn BRM Engine Valve 10 12 Tony Brooks BRM Engine Valve 13 34 Louis Chiron Maserati Blown Engine Notes – Includes 1 point for fastest lap – Fangio scored no points for fourth place as he had already scored points for finishing second
Shared drives Car #26: Peter Collins (54 laps) and Juan Manuel Fangio (46 laps). They shared the 6 points for second place (Fangio also scored an extra point for achieving fastest lap). Car #20: Juan Manuel Fangio (40 laps) and Eugenio Castellotti (54 laps). Since Fangio received points for second, only Castellotti received the 1.5 points for the shared fourth. Car #4: Élie Bayol (44 laps) and André Pilette (44 laps).
Championship standings after the race Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Jean Behra 10 2 Juan Manuel Fangio 9 7 3 Stirling Moss 8 1 4 Luigi Musso 4 1 5 Mike Hawthorn 4Source:
References