Ferrari had won the non-championship Syracuse and International Trophy races in the Spring with the new Ferrari Dino 246s and so they were expected to do well in Monaco but after practice there were British cars monopolizing the two front rows of the grid with Tony Brooks on pole with his Vanwall, Jean Behra second in a BRM and Jack Brabham completing the front row in his Cooper. The second row featured Roy Salvadori in the second factory Cooper and Maurice Trintignant in a Rob Walker Cooper. Mike Hawthorn's Ferrari shared row three with the Vanwalls of Stuart Lewis-Evans and Stirling Moss.

It was a significant event in that it marked the World Championship debut of Team Lotus with drivers Cliff Allison and Graham Hill. It also saw a revival at international level of a Connaught team, Bernie Ecclestone having bought the cars. Bruce Kessler, Paul Emery and Ecclestone himself all tried to qualify the cars but without success.

The race saw Salvadori take the lead at the start from Brooks and Behra but the Englishman went wide at the first corner and had to pit after his suspension was bent by contact with another car. Behra thus took the lead from Brooks, Brabham and Moss. Hawthorn was the star of the early laps as he moved up to third place by lap eight. It would be another 11 laps before the Ferrari passed Brooks, who was suffering from a misfire which would lead to his retirement on lap 22. While this was going on Moss was closing up on Hawthorn. Behra went into the pits with brake trouble sooner afterwards and so Hawthorn and Moss began to battle for the lead. Moss took the lead on lap 33 but he retired with an engine failure five laps later and so Hawthorn was back in the lead. On lap 46 he stopped with a broken fuel pump. This left Trintignant in the lead in his Cooper and with a lead of 40 seconds he was safe for the rest of the event, being followed home by Musso and a recovering Behra. Brabhham finished fourth with Schell and Allison being credited with fifth and sixth places, despite finishing many laps behind.