Prost's British teammate Damon Hill finished second, having started from pole position and led the first 26 laps, with German Michael Schumacher third in a Benetton-Ford.

[2] This was the first race to feature BBC commentary from Jonathan Palmer, replacing James Hunt after his death following the Canadian Grand Prix.

With local hero Alain Prost taking pole position in all of the previous seven races, there was a massive turnout for qualifying where the Williams were usually dominant.

The Ligier team, in its home race, filled the second row with Martin Brundle ahead of Mark Blundell, and thus completed a 1-2-3-4 for Renault-powered cars.

Ayrton Senna in the McLaren and Jean Alesi in the Ferrari were on the third row, Michael Schumacher in the Benetton and Rubens Barrichello in the Jordan made up the fourth, and the Larrousse team, also contesting its home race, took up the fifth with Érik Comas ahead of Philippe Alliot.