There was still no sign of the new Lancia team when the World Championship teams gathered at Monza in early September and so it was once again a three-way battle between Mercedes-Benz, Maserati and Ferrari. Alberto Ascari had been loaned to Ferrari for the occasion while his friend Gigi Villoresi was driving for Maserati. Fangio was fastest in practice with Ascari second and Stirling Moss third in his Maserati. The second row followed a similar pattern with Karl Kling ahead of Froilan Gonzalez (Ferrari) and Villoresi while Mike Hawthorn's Ferrari was on row three with Hans Herrmann's Mercedes and the Maserati of Sergio Mantovani.

At the start Kling made the best start and took the lead ahead of Fangio, Ascari and Gonzalez. Kling stayed ahead until he made a mistake on the fourth lap and dropped to fifth. Ascari then took the lead from Fangio. Moss battled for third for a long time with Gonzalez before the Argentine driver retired with gearbox trouble. he took over Umberto Maglioli's car and began to charge up through the field.

Villoresi also started to make progress and overtook Moss, Fangio and about to challenge for the lead when his clutch failed. Moss took up the challenge for Maserati and took the lead on lap 45 but Ascari fought back only to have his engine blow up shortly after he was back in the lead. Moss continued to lead but eventually had to pit for more oil and so Fangio moved ahead. Moss rejoined by the Maserati engine blew and so Hawthorn ended up second with Gonzalez (in Maglioli's car) third.