Apart from two excursions to Rouen, the fast, triangular circuit at Reims was the home of the French Grand Prix throughout the 1950s. Never a place for the faint-hearted, Reims provided a greater challenge than usual in 1959 when temperatures soared so high that on race day the surface of the circuit started to melt.
The third race of the season following Monaco and Holland, Reims was expected to suit the Ferraris of Tony Brooks, Phil Hill and Jean Behra, and so it proved in the Wednesday practice session with Brooks setting a time of 2min 19.4sec which only Stirling Moss in a BRM could get near. Brooks and Moss were so content with their times that they sat out Thursday practice, during which Brabham’s Cooper and Phil Hill nipped ahead of Moss to record the second and third fastest times respectively. These positions remained unaltered on the Friday and, with Saturday free, race day on the Sunday saw Brooks, Brabham and Hill line up on the front row with Moss and Behra on row two. Friday had been hot, but Sunday was even worse and by lunchtime the tarmac on parts of the circuit was beginning to melt in the extreme heat. How it would stand up to 50 laps remained to be seen.
The start was at 2p.m., and from the flag Brooks went straight into the lead with Moss surging through from the second rank. As the cars passed the grandstands for the first time Brooks still led from Moss, the American Masten Gregory (Cooper-Climax), Brabham and Phil Hill. Already the surface at Thillois hairpin was starting to break up and soon big stones and lumps of tar were being thrown up by the tyres. As the drivers suffered, Innes Ireland (Lotus) was the first to stop for replacement goggles. On lap eight Graham Hill brought his Lotus into the pits with a stone through the radiator and on the next lap Gregory stopped with a badly cut face and the effects of heat exhaustion.
By the tenth lap Brooks had a four-second lead over Maurice Trintignant’s Cooper, followed by Brabham, Moss, Phil Hill and crowd favourite Behra, who had fought his way through the pack after stalling on the starting grid and having to be push-started. On lap 20 Trintignant spun at Thillois and stalled. Although he managed to push-start the car he was so tired that he had to stop at the pits for refreshment before resuming in twelfth place. By halfway Behra had worked his way up to fourth, but he had to retire on lap 32 when his engine blew.
All of the drivers were struggling in the intense heat. Brabham recalled: ‘I was almost at the stage of collapsing at the wheel, so I broke all the windscreen away with my hand to try to get some air. Every car I got near showered me with bricks and stones. I was coasting into the corners rather than braking, because my feet were so badly burnt that I could hardly put any pressure on the pedals.’
Brabham’s discomfort was heightened when Phil Hill passed him as, on lap 38, did Moss. However five laps later Moss stalled at Thillois and, unable to restart without outside assistance, was automatically disqualified. With the circuit continuing to disintegrate, Brooks picked his way around to win from Phil Hill and Brabham, the Australian having to be lifted out of the cockpit at the end of the race. The scene in the pits afterwards was likened to a hospital, with nearly every driver suffering from cuts and bruises caused by flying stones and tar, as well as the heat.