Stirling Moss spent much of the week before the Dutch GP doing development testing for BRM at Zandvoort. The result was that Jo Bonnier (BRM) set the fastest time in practice with Jack Brabham second in his Cooper and Moss, back in his Rob Walker Cooper, was third fastest. Jean Behra was fourth in his Ferrari while Graham Hill showed a considerable improvement in the Lotus-Climax package with fifth on the grid. The Aston Martin Grand Prix cars appeared for the first time but they were not competitive with Carroll Shelby 10th on the grid and Roy Salvadori 13th.

The race started with only 15 cars and Jo Bonnier took the lead while Masten Gregory surprised everyone by taking his factory Cooper from the third row to second place. Moss, on the other hand, was stuck in the midfield after a bad start. Gregory took the lead during the second lap and stayed there for the next 12 laps until the American started to suffer from gearbox trouble and had to let Bonnier ahead again. Brabham had moved to third place and passed Gregory soon afterwards while Moss and Behra fought over fourth place. Moss then chased after Gregory and then began to close on the leaders who were together. In the excitement that followed Behra spun and Moss, having taken the lead, suffered a gearbox failure and so victory went to Bonnier, giving BRM its first World Championship win. Brabham was second with Gregory third and debutante Innes Ireland fourth in a Lotus.