Brabham, Dallara and Rial had scored enough points across the opening rounds of the season to enable them to escape the Friday morning sessions entirely.

Philippe Alliot was now partnered by Michele Alboreto who had left Tyrrell after a sponsorship dispute, replacing Éric Bernard, who had stood in at Larrousse for two races.

Bertrand Gachot topped the pre-qualifying session for the third time in a row, with his Onyx team-mate Stefan Johansson second.

At the start, Philippe Alliot went off the track after he was touched from behind by the Minardi of Pierluigi Martini and lost control of his Lola, spinning off into the grass.

His new teammate Michele Alboreto was forced out of his first race with Larrousse just past turn 1 on the second lap after his car's electrics failed.

Senna decided to take advantage of his lead and came into the pits for his tyre change, his stop was even worse than Prost's, lasting 23 seconds.

With Mansell having problems with his Ferrari, Senna and Prost battled for the entire race, as both drivers were driving on the limit.

They started trading off fastest laps[citation needed] and Prost held off Senna for almost the entire race.

In the post race press conference, Senna refused to speculate on whether he would have been able to pass Prost if he hadn't lost top gear, instead stating that winning after suffering four straight DNFs was all he was concerned about.