Argentine GP 1957

Argentine GP, 1957

As usual the first race of the new season was an event on its own. The cars were much the same as they had been but there had been a few changes in the driver lineup. Juan-Manuel Fangio had left Ferrari and moved to rival firm Maserati. Mike Hawthorn returned to Ferrari to partner Peter Collins and Eugenio Castellotti.

The race in Argentina was a straight fight between the two Italian teams with Stirling Moss doing one more race for Maserati before he moved to Vanwall. He was fastest in qualifying, beating Fangio and Jean Behra with Castellotti the only Lancia-Ferrari on the front row. There were three of the cars on second row with Collins, Luigi Musso and Hawthorn side-by-side while the third row featured the Maseratis of Carlos Menditeguy, Harry Schell and two more Lancia-Ferraris for Froilan Gonzalez and Cesare Perdisa.

At the start of the race Behra took the lead from Fangio and Castellotti. Moss was taken by surprise and a juddering start damaged the throttle mechanism and he pitted at the end of the first lap. While Moss sat in the pits, Castellotti led but was then overtaken by Behra. Soon afterwards Collins worked his way to the front but within a few laps he was in trouble with his clutch and had to pit. This left Behra in the lead again but he was soon passed by Fangio. Castelotti had lost his third position after a spin so now Hawthorn was leading the charge although both he and Musso would retire after a while with clutch problems. Castellotti remained the only challenge to the Maseratis at the front but his race ended when a wheel fell off with 24 laps to go. It would be Castellotti's last Grand Prix. He was killed testing a Ferrari at Modena two months later.

Menditeguy and Schell were promoted to third and fourth when Castellotti went out and so Maserati started the year with a 1-2-3-4 result.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
Juan-Manuel Fangio Maserati 250F 100 3h00m55.900s  
Jean Behra Maserati 250F 100 3h01m14.200s  
Carlos Menditeguy Maserati 250F 99  
22 Harry Schell Maserati 250F 98  
5= 20 Froilan Gonzalez Lancia Ferrari 801   10 
5= 20 Alfonso de Portago Lancia Ferrari 801 98   
6= 18 Cesare Perdisa Lancia Ferrari 801   11 
6= 18 Peter Collins Lancia Ferrari 801    
6= 18 Wolfgang von Trips Lancia Ferrari 801 98   
24 Jo Bonnier Maserati 250F 95  13 
Stirling Moss Maserati 250F 93  
26 Alfonso de Portago Ferrari 500 91  12 
10 28 Luigi Piotti Maserati 250F 90  14 
14 Eugenio Castellotti Lancia Ferrari 801 75 Mechanical 
16 Mike Hawthorn Lancia Ferrari 801 35 Clutch 
12 Luigi Musso Lancia Ferrari 801 31 Clutch 
10 Peter Collins Lancia Ferrari 801 26 Clutch