With Nigel Mansell banned from the race and fined $50,000 following his disqualification and collision with Senna in Portugal the previous week, Ferrari entered only one car for Berger.

Osella topped a pre-qualifying session for the first time this season as Nicola Larini was fastest by four tenths of a second, ahead of Onyx driver JJ Lehto.

The usual suspects were in the lower positions, with ninth-placed Bernd Schneider notching up his thirteenth consecutive failure to pre-qualify in the Zakspeed, followed by Yannick Dalmas in the other AGS.

Philippe Alliot snared a career best fifth place on the grid in his Larrousse, proving that both the Lola chassis and the Lamborghini V12 designed by Mauro Forghieri was starting to come good.

Boutsen qualified 21st the new Williams FW13 that had debuted in Portugal, while Patrese with an eye on possibly finishing 3rd in the Drivers' Championship, reverted to the older model FW12C and ended up sixth on the grid ahead his former Brabham teammate Nelson Piquet in a surprisingly fast Lotus.

René Arnoux (Ligier) and the Rial pair of Pierre-Henri Raphanel and Gregor Foitek all failed to qualify for the race.