In the fortnight between the Belgian and Detroit races the big news was that Gerard Ducarouge had joined Team Lotus. He immediately began work to revamp the troublesome Lotus 93T, hoping to have a new version ready within six weeks. The field was smaller than usual because RAM Automotive decided not to make the trip, Eliseo Salazar having left the team.

Qualifying resulted in pole position for René Arnoux's Ferrari with Nelson Piquet second in his Brabham-BMW and Patrick Tambay third in the second Ferrari. Then came Elio de Angelis in the Lotus-Renault and the surprisingly quick Marc Surer (Arrows). Michele Alboreto was sixth in his Tyrrell, fitted with the new Cosworth DFY engine and then there were more turbos with Eddie Cheever (Renault), Andrea de Cesaris (Alfa Romeo) and Derek Warwick (Toleman-Hart). The top 10 was rounded off by rising star Thierry Boutsen in his Arrows.

Tambay stalled at the start and as Arnoux went away in the lead from Piquet, de Angelis, de Cesaris, Alboreto and Warwick. Surer was badly delayed and ended up in 10th place. The early laps saw Cheever and de Angelis both disappear with technical troubles, while Keke Rosberg made his way ahead of Warwick for sixth place. A few laps later he was ahead of Alboreto as well and on the 11th lap Rosberg took third from de Cesaris. On lap 20 he moved to second ahead of Piquet. While the major runners stopped for tyres and fuel in the mid-race Piquet and Alboreto stayed out and with Arnoux disappearing with electrical trouble it was Piquet who ended up in the lead with Alboreto second and the recovering Rosberg third. John Watson (McLaren) had also decided to go nonstop and so was fourth with Jacques Laffite (Williams) fifth after his stop and the nonstop Boutsen in sixth place. In the closing laps the Belgian lost sixth place to Nigel Mansell in the old Lotus 92. The race was settled on lap 51 when Piquet had a puncture and had to pit. He dropped to fourth behind Alboreto, Rosberg and Watson but still ahead of Laffite and Mansell.