GP: Moroccan Grand Prix
Date: 19 October 1958
Winner: Stirling Moss - Vanwall
The last Grand Prix for a while for Pirelli, its tyres fitted to the Maseratis.
It would return to Formula 1 many years later in 1981.
Moss won the race in Casablanca, set the fastest lap for an extra point, but for the fourth time, finished second in the world championship.
He was beaten to the title by a single point by Ferrari's Mike Hawthorn and there's a strange twist to this tale.
Moss had won in Portugal two months earlier while, after finishing second, Hawthorn was disqualified for driving against traffic following a spin up an escape road.
Moss interceded on Mike's behalf, explaining that Hawthorn had been on a footpath at the time he restarted the Ferrari on a slight downward slope.
Hawthorn was reinstated into second place. It was a noble gesture which Moss never regretted, even though it cost him the world championship crown that year.
Hawthorn was born in Mexborough, England on 10 April 1929 and idiosyncratically always wore a polka-dot bow tie.
He suffered with kidney problems and retired shortly after winning the title. He died a few months later on 22 January 1959 in a road accident near Guildford.
He was no stranger to tragedy having inadvertently triggered the worst motor racing accident in history in the 1955 Le Mans 24 Hours, which he won.
It resulted in the death of 83 spectators when Pierre Levegh's Mercedes flew through the crowd at full speed down the straight.
In 2025 Pirelli will hit the 500 F1® Grands Prix mark during the season.
Legacy of Speed series looks back at the fifty most significant Grands Prix from Pirelli's time on the F1 World Championship trail.
