Although there was only a fortnight between the French and British GPs there were several changes when the F1 circus arrived at Silverstone. The Vanwall VW11 did not reappear: Tony Brooks going back to his BRP Cooper and with both Scarabs having blown up at Reims they were not present although Chuck Daigh and Lance Reventlow shared a third factory Cooper, Daigh being faster and thus getting to race.

Aston Martin showed up with DBR5s for Roy Salvadori and Maurice Trintignant while John Surtees reappeared in a works Lotus and there was the usual crop of British privateers including Keith Greene in the Gilby Engineering Cooper-Maserati and Brian Naylor in his JBW-Maserati.

Qualifying resulted in pole position for Jack Brabham, a second faster than Graham Hill's BRM with Bruce McLaren's Cooper and Jo Bonnier's BRM making it a balanced front row.

The start saw three cars stall: Graham Hill (his second race running) and the two BRP Coopers of Brooks and Henry Taylor.

McLaren was second on the first lap but soon dropped behind Bonnier and the factory Lotus of Innes Ireland. Ireland then passed Bonnier to take second place. Graham Hill drove a storming race from the back of the field and worked his way back, passing Ireland for second after 37 laps and setting off after Brabham. To the delight of the crowd he caught him and on lap 55 took the lead. Further back Surtees displaced Ireland in third place.

Hill had been suffering brake problems for some time and on lap 72 he spun at Copse Corner. He was out. Brabham took the lead and five laps later took the chequered flag with Surtees and Ireland second and third for Team Lotus.