In the fortnight between the British and German GPs there was a test at Zandvoort with ATS running a new rising star called Gerhard Berger. Tyrrell announced that it would be running Mike Thackwell in the German race at Stefan Bellof was committed to driving a sportscar race. Toleman decided not to replace the injured Johnny Cecotto as it had only two chassis left and preferred to make these available to Ayrton Senna.

Qualifying resulted in pole position for World Championship leader Alain Prost (who had 43.5 points to Niki Lauda's 39). Elio de Angelis was second fastest in his Lotus-Renault with Derek Warwick and Patrick Tambay next up in their factory Renaults. Then came Nelson Piquet (Brabham-BMW), Michele Alboreto's Ferrari, Lauda's McLaren, Teo Fabi (Brabham-BMW), Senna and René Arnoux Ferrari). Thackwell failed to qualify. At the start of the race de Angeles got ahead of Prost with Piquet blasting up to third place ahead of the two Renaults and Senna making a good start to run sixth. On the fifth lap the rear bodywork of Senna's Toleman blew off, tearing off the rear wing and the Brazilian had a high-speed accident. The impact, however, was not too acute and the Toleman clattered down the barriers. On lap eight the leader de Angelis disappeared with an engine failure but Prost's lead lasted only briefly as Piquet accelerated past him. Lauda was up to third with Keke Rosberg (Williams-Honda) having driven a remarkable early few laps to move from 19th on the grid to fourth place by lap nine. On the next lap he retired with electrical trouble and so Warwick was back in fourth. And so it remained until Piquet went out with gearbox failure on lap 23, leaving the two McLarens to run 1-2 all the way to the flag with Warwick third, Mansell fourth, Tambay fifth and Arnoux sixth.