During the race morning warm-up session, Alain Prost spun his McLaren-TAG and hit a course car parked at the side of the circuit.

Prior to the Grand Prix, young Brazilian driver Ayrton Senna had won a special Race of Champions event where all the competitors were driving the Mercedes-Benz 190E's against a host of former and current star drivers including Alain Prost, Carlos Reutemann, Denny Hulme, Phil Hill, Niki Lauda, Stirling Moss, James Hunt and Alan Jones.

However, when the Grand Prix itself started, Senna had no such luck, triggering a first corner accident which took out the cars of Keke Rosberg, Marc Surer, Gerhard Berger, and Piercarlo Ghinzani.

Senna's Toleman (which had started 12th) had run into the back of Rosberg's Williams under braking at the end of the main straight which caused the accident.

When they got out of their cars which stopped at the pit exit, Alboreto and Piquet raised their arms to each other in a gesture of frustration at FISA's 220 litre fuel limit for turbos which had reduced races to economy runs.