The race also proved to be the 25th and final Grand Prix victory for triple World Champion Niki Lauda, driving a McLaren-TAG.

It was also the last Grand Prix for West German Stefan Bellof, who was killed the following week at the 1000 km of Spa World Sportscar race.

Renault's Patrick Tambay, who qualified sixth, had a huge crash at nearly 322 km/h (200 mph) in the Sunday morning warm-up following a suspension failure on the start-finish straight.

Senna's teammate Elio de Angelis was fifth, with Williams' Nigel Mansell taking the final point for sixth.

Following his car destroying crash at the previous race in Austria, this was also the last time Andrea de Cesaris appeared in a Ligier.