BRM was finally ready for action and at Silverstone the team had three cars available for Mike Hawthorn, Tony Brooks and Ron Flockhart. Lancia-Ferrari ran Juan-Manuel Fangio, Peter Collins, Eugenio Castelotti and the Marquis de Portago, while there were 10 Maseratis in the field, including the works cars of Stirling Moss, Jean Behra, Cesare Perdisa. Vanwall fielded Froilan Gonzalez alongside Harry Schell and Maurice Trintignant (back after his brief interlude with Bugatti at Reims). Also in action was Connaught with cars for Desmond Titterington, Archie Scott-Brown and Jack Fairman.

Moss was fastest in practice and lined up alongside Fangio, Hawthorn and Collins, while the second row consisted of Schell, Gonzalez and Roy Salvadori (Maserati).

At the start of the race Hawthorn went ahead and Brooks was quickly through to run second, the two BRMs being followed by Fangio and the rest. Fangio challenged Brooks and moved to second but then he spun and Brooks retook the position. Moss then took up the challenge and harried Brooks and on lap 11 he got ahead. Moss closed up on Hawthorn while Brooks dropped back and fell behind Salvadori. Moss took the lead on lap 16 while further back Fangio moved back up the fourth by getting ahead of Brooks. Hawthorn's BRM began to fade and Salvadori moved to second (Hawthorn would retire soon afterwards). Brooks's BRM also stopped. It was repaired and Brooks set off again but the car spun and overturned soon afterwards. Brooks was thrown out but without serious injury but the car was burned out.

Salvadori's good run was slowed because of a fuel line problem and so he dropped behind Fangio and Collins while Moss's lead was reduced when he called into the pits for more oil. Collins too hit mechanical trouble and retired but he then took over De Portago's car. Salvadori retired and Moss had to pit again because his engine lost power and that left Fangio in the lead. Moss rejoined but soon had to stop again and he finally retired a few laps from the finish when his axle broke. Fangio was a somewhat fortunate winner with Collins second (a lap down in Portago's car) second and Behra (two laps down) third.