The weather in Switzerland was not good for what would turn out to be the last ever Swiss GP - motor racing would be banned in Switzerland in 1955 after the Le Mans disaster. Once again it was to be a battle between Mercedes-Benz, Ferrari and Maserati as the new Lancia racing cars were still not ready. Mercedes-Benz ran Juan-Manuel Fangio, Karl Kling and Hans Herrmann as usual, while Ferrari fielded Froilan Gonzalez and Mike Hawthorn and Maserati - which had just lost Onofre Marimon - relied on Stirling Moss and Roberto Mieres.

At the start of the race Fangio went into the lead from Gonzalez and Moss. Kling spun off early and dropped to the tail of the field while Moss moved ahead of Gonzalez on lap three but could do nothing to stop Fangio who was in complete control. Hawthorn moved up into fourth place and was soon able to overtake Gonzalez and Moss as well but soon afterwards he had to pit to sort out a sticking throttle. He would retire soon afterwards and with Moss and Trintignant also going out with mechanical troubles Gonzalez found himself back in second place and Kling was third, having driven through the field after his early spin. Unfortunately he retired with fuel feed problems on lap 39.

The rest of the race was rather processional with Fangio winning by nearly a minute. Herrmann finished third with Mieres fourth but two laps down. Victory gave Fangio the World Championship.