The usual band of European teams were joined as usual at Silverstone by a variety of local machinery. Mercedes-Benz, which had dominated on their debut at Rheims two weeks earlier, was still strong with Juan Manuel Fangio setting the fastest time in practice but he was only a second quicker than the Ferraris of José Froilán González and Mike Hawthorn while Stirling Moss made a good impression setting the fourth quickest time in his Maserati. The Maserati team had failed to arrive in time for practice and so Luigi Villoresi and Alberto Ascari (on loan from Lancia), Onofre Marimón and Roberto Mières were forced to start from the back of the grid.

At the start González went into the lead chased by Hawthorn, Fangio, Moss, Behra and Marimón (who had passed a remarkable 19 cars on the first lap). Fangio soon overtook Hawthorn leaving the English driver to battle with Moss - to the delight of the crowd. Fangio began to drop away because of a gearbox trouble and because the aerodynamic body of the Mercedes made it difficult to judge the corners and he hit several oil drums which were being used to mark out the course. Further back Ascari went out with mechanical trouble and so took over Villoresi's car although would retire as well a few laps later.

Fangio was eventually passed by both Moss and Hawthorn but despite heavy rain González was able to stay ahead to win. Moss suffered rear axle failure and so Hawthorn finished second with Marimón third and Fangio fourth.