With Ferrari retaining only Didier Pironi for the Canadian GP - which came a week after the inaugural Detroit GP - the field was little changed with Geoff Lees stepping in at Ensign to replace the injured Jan Lammers. having failed to qualify the Brabham-BMW in Detroit Nelson Piquet was keen to do well in Canada and lined up fourth while Manfred Winkelhock (ATS), the big surprise in Detroit, failed to qualify on this occasion (as did Emilio de Villota (Onyx March and Chico Serra (Fittipaldi). Riccardo Paletti did make it in his Osella and having qualified but not started in Detroit (because his team mate Jean-Pierre Jarier took the car) he was keen to well.

At the front of the grid Pironi was making the most of the Ferrari's considerable power and improving handling and he outqualified both Renault drivers, Alain Prost beating René Arnoux on this occasion. Then came Piquet, Bruno Giacomelli (Alfa Romeo), John Watson (McLaren), Keke Rosberg (Williams), Riccardo Patrese (Brabham), Andrea de Cesaris (Alfa Romeo) and Elio de Angelis (Lotus).

At the start Pironi stalled. Most of the field was able to avoid the Ferrari. But Raul Boesel (March) clipped the car and bounced across the road and behind him Paletti ran straight into the back of the Ferrari which was then punted across the track and into Lees's Theodore. Pironi immediately went to the aid of Paletti, who was trapped in the car. He was joined by F1 doctor Sid Watkins and as the two worked to free the Italian the car briefly caught fire. The blaze was quickly extinguished. It took nearly half an hour to get Paletti out and he was then helicoptered to hospital but there was little hope and he died two hours later.

All the delays meant that the race was not restarted until after six o'clock. Pironi took the spare Ferrari. the two Osellas and Lees (who did not have a spare) were missing. Pironi went into the lead from Arnoux, Prost, Piquet, Watson and Rosberg. On the first lap Nigel Mansell (Lotus) collided with Giacomelli and broke his wrist.

The Ferrari spare was not handling well and soon Pironi had dropped back to fourth. He would slip back for the rest of the afternoon.

Arnoux stayed ahead of Piquet only until the ninth lap and the early part of the race was marked by a drive to the front by Patrese who was second by lap 29. There he stayed to make it a Brabham-BMW 1-2. The first win for a BMW engine.

Both Renaults failed to make the distance Arnoux spinning off while running second and Prost going out soon afterwards with an engine failure. For much of the race de Cesaris was third with Eddie Cheever (Talbot Ligier) fourth, Watson fifth and Derek Daly (Williams) sixth. In the closing laps de Cesaris, Cheever and Daly all ran out of fuel and so Watson ended up third with de Angelis fourth, Marc Surer (Arrows) fifth and de Cesaris not running but sixth.