On 22nd May 1955, Monaco hosted its first Formula 1 Grand Prix since the first year of the World Championship, 1950. Going into the race, Mercedes were the big favourites who entered three cars, two of which were for star drivers Argentina’s Juan Manuel Fangio and Englishman Stirling Moss.
Ferrari answered the challenge with four cars: two 625 F1s for Italy’s Giuseppe Farina and France’s Maurice Trintignant and two 555 F1s for the American Harry Schell and Italy’s Piero Taruffi. Qualifying was a disaster for the Scuderia: the first row featured Fangio in the Mercedes and Alberto Ascari in the Lancia, with the best of the Ferrari, the Trintignant car, only ninth.
The race was chaotic to say the least: Trintignant got away slowly, dropping to tenth but regained the place after two laps. Farina then got it wrong, hitting the barrier, damaging a wheel and having to pit for repairs, while Trintignant thus moved up to sixth.
Ahead of him began a serious of happy coincidences; Eugenio Castellotti had a puncture in the Lancia and had to pit, while Jean Behra had to stop to top up the oil in his Maserati. Out in front, Fangio led Ascari and Moss. The Englishman went out with a broken engine and Ascari, possibly distracted by everything going on, got the approach to the port chicane completely wrong, he and his car ending up in the harbor. It was a scary accident, but the Italian emerged with just a broken nose and an unplanned bath. Fangio had victory in sight but suffered a mechanical failure. So Trintignant, quick and consistent only had to cross the line, looking after his car for the final 20 laps. It was the Frenchman’s first win and Ferrari’s first in Monaco. He was surrounded by Italians on the podium, Castellotti and Cesare Perdisa, the latter having shared his Maserati with Behra, when the Frenchman’s car had failed.
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