The World Championship finale took place on the 3.9 mile Pedralbes street circuit in Barcelona with Alberto Ascari and Juan Manuel Fangio both needing to win to be sure of the World title. The Ferrari and Alfa Romeo teams each ran four cars with Ferrari fielding Ascari, Luigi Villoresi, José Froilán González and Piero Taruffi and Alfa Romeo running Fangio, Giuseppe Farina, Felice Bonetto and Baron Emmanuel de Graffenried.

Ascari was fastest in practice and shared the front row of the 4-3-4 grid with Fangio, González and Farina. Behind them were Villoresi, de Graffenried and Taruffi.

Ascari led from the start with González chasing but by the end of the first lap González had dropped to fifth behind Farina, Fangio and Bonetto. Fangio quickly passed Farina and took the lead from Ascari on the fourth lap. As Fangio sailed away to victory Ferrari's challenge fell apart as tyres began to fall apart - the team having opted to use smaller wheels than normal. By the time the team had sorted out the problem Ascari was two laps behind. Fangio duly won the race and the championship with González finishing second and Farina third.