After two consecutive Ferrari wins in World Championship events, Juan Manuel Fangio hit back at Bari with a win for Alfa Romeo and the stage was set for a fascinating battle at Monza between the Alfa Romeo and Ferrari teams. Alfa Romeo arrived with four cars for Fangio, Giuseppe Farina, Felice Bonetto and Baron Emmanuel de Graffenried while Ferrari fielded five cars for Alberto Ascari, Luigi Villoresi, José Froilán González, Piero Taruffi and Chico Landi. In addition to the usual Talbot Lagos there were factory teams from BRM, OSCA and Simca-Gordini.

The grid saw Fangio and Farina sharing the front row with Ascari and González while Villoresi, Taruffi, Bonetto and Reg Parnell should have been on the second. The BRM driver was withdrawn however because of lubrication problems.

At the start Fangio took the lead but after a few laps had to give way to Ascari. He fought back and took the lead again before coming into the pits for fresh tyres. Farina and de Graffenried were early retirements although Farina was later able to take over Bonetto's car. This left González in second place. Fangio tried to catch the Ferraris but his car started to misfire and it was left to Farina - in Bonetto's car - to charge up to third, passing Villoresi. He was very quick but his fuel tank was leaking and so he had to make two more stops and ended up third.

The result meant that the World Championship remained open with the finale scheduled to take place in Spain at the end of October.