He announced his retirement upon his triumph, having been profoundly affected by the death of his teammate and friend Peter Collins two months earlier during the German Grand Prix.

The Hawthorn Memorial Trophy was established in his honour by the RAC in 1959, being awarded to the most successful British, or Commonwealth, driver in Formula One each year.

[2] His father owned the Tourist Trophy Garage in Farnham, franchised to supply and service several high performance brands, including Jaguar and Ferrari.

[4] Mike Hawthorn made his competition debut on 2 September 1950 in his 1934 Riley Ulster Imp, KV 9475, winning the 1,100 cc sports car class at the Brighton Speed Trials.

He made his Formula One debut at the 1952 Grote Prijs van Belgie on the legendary Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, finishing in fourth place.

[9] At Scuderia Ferrari for the 1953 season, Hawthorn immediately showed his worth with victory, at his ninth attempt, in the French Grand Prix at Reims, outmanoeuvring Juan Manuel Fangio in what became dubbed 'the race of the century' with the top four drivers finishing within five seconds of each other after 60 laps.

[15] In a crash during the Gran Premio di Siracusa Hawthorn suffered serious burns,[2] but finished the year with three seconds and then victory in the season finale in Spain, placing him third in the Drivers' Championship.

[17] Hawthorn won the 1955 les 24 Heures du Mans following what has been described as an inspired drive in which he set a lap record of 4 minutes and 6.6 seconds during a three-hour duel with Fangio in the early stages.

The impact shattered the front end of the car, which then somersaulted high, pitching debris into the spectator area, before landing atop the earthen embankment.

[18] The French press carried photographs of Hawthorn and Ivor Bueb celebrating their win with the customary champagne but treated them with scorn.

Aside from two layout changes to make the circuit shorter, the track was largely unaltered since the inception of the race in 1923, when top speeds of cars were typically in the region of 100 km/h (60 mph).

[19] The death toll led to a ban on motorsports in France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany and other nations, until the tracks could be brought to a higher safety standard.

Whilst sharing the Jaguar D-Type with Desmond Titterington during the 1955 RAC Tourist Trophy at Dundrod, Hawthorn passed Fangio twice, and set the lap record for the RAC Tourist Trophy on the Dundrod Circuit, only to lose in the final stages when, running on full tanks, he was passed by Stirling Moss when the D Type's engine failed on the last lap.

The 1957 version, with the polar centred pannier tanks removed, still handled well, but was not the masterpiece Jano designed; it lacked straight line speed and was not competitive by mid 1957, clearly inferior to the new Vanwalls.

Leading easily in the 1958 Monaco Grand Prix at half distance, his 246 engine blew,[24] while at Monza he was a minute ahead of Tony Brooks when his clutch forced him to slow to second place.

[26] After a pit stop midway through that race, Hawthorn accelerated back through the field to gain an extra point for fastest lap.

In the last laps, second-placed Phil Hill slowed and waved Hawthorn through to gain enough points to take the Championship; the first ever to be won by an English driver.

Breschi recalled that the antagonism between Musso and the two English drivers encouraged all three to take more risks: "The Englishmen (Hawthorn and Collins) had an agreement", she says.

Breschi related that Musso was in debt at the time of his death, and the money for winning the 1958 French Grand Prix (traditionally the largest monetary prize of the season), was all-important to him.

[33] On 22 January 1959, only three months into his retirement, Hawthorn died in a car accident on the A3 Guildford bypass near Onslow Village, while driving his comprehensively modified 1958 Jaguar 3.4-litre saloon (now known as the 3.4 Mk 1) VDU 881 to London.

), Hawthorn overtook a Mercedes-Benz 300SL 'gull-wing' sports car driven by an acquaintance, the motor racing team manager Rob Walker.

On entering a right-hand bend shortly after passing the Mercedes, Hawthorn clipped a 'Keep Left' bollard dividing the two carriageways, causing him to lose control.

[36] Possible causes of the accident include driver error, a blackout, or mechanical failure, although examination of the wreck revealed no obvious fault.