The Ferrari versus Cooper-Climax battle continued at Monza with Ferrari entering five cars as the team helped Tony Brooks in his battle with Jack Brabham and Stirling Moss to win the World Championship. Brooks was joined by Phil Hill, Dan Gurney, Cliff Allison and Olivier Gendebien. Cooper ran Brabham, Bruce McLaren and Giorgio Scarlatti in the works cars while Rob Walker ran Moss and Maurice Trintignant as usual. BRM ran the usual three drivers: Harry Schell, Ron Flockhart and Jo Bonnier.

Moss set the fastest time in practice with Brooks and Brabham alongside him, while the second row was an all-Ferrari affair with Gurney slightly faster than Phil Hill. At the start Brooks went out straight away with an engine failure which left Moss ahead of Hill, Brabham, Gurney and Schell. Hill took the lead and further back Gurney overtook Brabham and after that the order remained fairly stable at the front although both Moss and Gurney each led briefly. Hill and the other Ferraris were called in for tyres at half-distance, expecting that Moss and Brabham would follow but they did not. Moss was able to win by a large margin while Hill finished second with Brabham third.