Summary
The Belgian Grand Prix returned to the calendar after being off the calendar the previous year, and the 8.7 mile Spa circuit had been slightly modified. The pits had been rebuilt, the pit straight had been widened and straightened and the entire track had been resurfaced. The race distance had been shortened from 36 to 24 laps.
The race was won by British driver Tony Brooks in a Vanwall. It was Brooks first solo Grand Prix victory after his car won the 1957 British Grand Prix in a shared drive with Stirling Moss. Brooks finished 20 seconds ahead of fellow Briton Mike Hawthorn driving a Ferrari 246 F1. Brooks' Vanwall teammate Stuart Lewis-Evans finished third in a career-best finish, the first of just two podium finishes to his short Grand Prix career. The race also marked the first World Championship race start (and finish) by a woman in the form of Maria Teresa de Filippis, who had entered the Monaco Grand Prix earlier in the year but failed to qualify. She finished tenth in her privately-entered Maserati 250F, two laps behind Brooks' Vanwall.
On the last lap, Brooks came out of La Source to end the race, and his gearbox seized as he crossed the line. When Mike Hawthorn was coming out of the same corner to end his race in second, his engine failed as he was coming to the finish line. Stuart Lewis-Evans's suspension collapsed on the way into La Source, and he crawled to the line in third. This race also marked the first points finish for Lotus when Cliff Allison came across the line in fourth.
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Mike Hawthorn 
