Ayrton Senna took pole position in his Lotus-Renault and led until he suffered an engine failure on lap 14.

As usual for the time, the FIA allowed only 20 cars to start the race, due to the tight confines of the Monaco circuit.

The Toleman team entered their first race of the season, having missed the opening three rounds due to not having tyres.

Having bought out the tyre contract of the struggling Spirit team, Toleman were able to race for the rest of the season.

This dropped him to 4th behind Andrea de Cesaris, Elio de Angelis and Prost; he caught and passed his compatriots but could not catch Prost; who despite a leaking turbo wastegate, had kept the gap wide enough for Alboreto to be unable to catch him in the remaining laps.