In practice Graham Hill had been round the twisting Aintree circuit (which must be infuriating to the driver of a fast car) in 2 min 00.2 sec, followed by Brabham in 2 min 6.06 sec, although he later had bearing trouble, while Moss also suffered bearing trouble and was relegated to the ninth row on the grid. Bruce McLaren completed the front row of the grid with 2 min 01.4 sec. The second row held Surtees and Clark, each having done a 2 min 02.1 sec, and Jack Lewis with his privately-owned Cooper having done 2 min 03.0 sec.
After the preliminary races were dealt with the Formula One cars began to warm up as the rain began to bucket down, and John Cooper, looking heavenwards, said a rude word and set about changing the tyres of Brabham's Cooper to the new high-hysteresis rubber Dunlop racing tyres which give a marked improvement in adhesion in the wet. These are only available in the size for F1 cars and some of the cars had to go without as not enough have yet been made to supply private owners.
As the flag fell the field disappeared into a cloud of spray, With Brabharn getting a perfect start and going straight into the lead, but others were not so lucky and Graham Eden and Lucien Bianchi collided in the murk and George Morgan in Tommy Atkins' Cooper received a badly dented nose which forced him to retire on lap one. Eden was able to continue but the Emeryson was definitely out. The order on lap one was Brabham, McLaren, Hill, Surtees, Marsh, Lewis, and Moss, but the Rob Walker Cooper completed only two laps the motor ruining its bearings again. Brabham began to pull away from McLaren who had passed Jim Clark, who, like all the other Lotus drivers, was finding the car a handful in the wet. Shortly afterwards Graham Hill in the BRM and Surtees in the Yeoman Credit Cooper also went past Clark. At the back of the field Masten Gregory was getting the hang of the Camoradi Cooper in the wet and he began to slide the car about in typical Gregory fashion. Brooks, in the other BRM, was going very gingerly in eleventh place, showing none of his old skill and was soon passed by Gregory.
