Before the Dutch Grand Prix began there was considerable activity on the Zandvoort circuit in the way of testing and experiments, for being a permanent closed circuit it is available at all times. A week before the race BRM were there with a car and the Dunlop engineers and, using Moss as the driver, 105 laps were covered at very high speed to give the disc brakes a thorough testing. The car proved admirably suited to the circuit and Moss lapped in times that were a considerable improvement on the existing record. Then during the week of the race the Walker team were there with a Cooper-Climax and Moss again drove a great many laps and nearly equalled his times with the BRM. On the day before practice began the Lotus team arrived and Graham Hill proceeded to try the cars and get them sorted out in readiness for the race.
The official practice began on Friday afternoon at 4:30pm, and though it was sunny there was a strong wind blowing head-on along the straight and everyone turned out, with Ferrari, BRM and Cooper having spare cars for training. Ferrari had as drivers Behra, Brooks, Hill and Allison and were hoping to get a last minute entry for their fourth car, while BRM and Cooper were limited to two entries each even though McLaren was there and a Cooper was available.
The pack leaves the start line – Jo Bonnier, BRM P25, leads Harry Schell, BRM P25, Masten Gregory, Cooper T51-Climax, Tony Brooks, Ferrari Dino 246, Jack Brabham, Cooper T51-Climax, Jean Behra, Ferrari Dino 246, Graham Hill, Lotus 16-Climax and Stirling Moss, Cooper T51-Climax. Carel Godin de Beaufort’s Porsche RSK is barely off the line
