In the fortnight between Dallas and Brands Hatch Teo Fabi decided to stop trying to race in both CART and F1 and so his brother Corrado was left without his part-time F1 drive. A new Italian F1 team was announced by Giancarlo Minardi and Stefan Johansson was named as replacement for the injured Martin Brundle at Tyrrell. More dramatic, however, was the news that the Tyrrell team had been banned from F1 because of its use of lead balls in the water ballast it was using in races. The team appealed the decision although it was later confirmed and all Tyrrell's points in 1984 were taken away. Practice began badly with Johnny Cecotto crashing heavily at Westfield Corner and hitting the barriers head-on. He suffered very serious leg injuries which would finish his F1 career.

Qualifying resulted in pole position for Nelson Piquet (Brabham-BMW) with Alain Prost's McLaren-TAG alongside. Niki Lauda was third in the second McLaren and Elio de Angelis was fourth in his Lotus-Renault, the fastest Goodyear runner. The top 10 was completed by Keke Rosberg (Williams-Honda on Goodyears), Derek Warwick (Renault on Michelin), Ayrton Senna (Toleman-Hart on Michelin), Nigel Mansell (Lotus), Michele Alboreto (Ferrari on Goodyear) and Patrick Tambay (Renault). Jo Gartner was back in action with Osella but had a turbocharged Alfa engine on this occasion and he was allowed to start 27th because the Tyrrells were racing under appeal.

At the start Piquet went into the lead but halfway around the lap there was a big accident at Bottom bend as Riccardo Patrese (Alfa Romeo) tried to pass Jacques Laffite's Williams-Honda. The Italian spun. This caused his team mate Eddie Cheever to lift off. Behind him Johansson did the same but Philippe Alliot in the RAM did not have time to react and went into the back of the Tyrrell and then flew over it, landing on the rear of Cheever's car. Also involved was Gartner who tried to avoid the crash and ended up in the tyre barrier. The race went on with Piquet leading Prost and Lauda quickly moving ahead of de Angelis. He was followed through by Warwick. Little changed at the front apart from the retirement of Rosberg with engine failure. Prost was increasingly a challenger and blasted ahead of Piquet on the 12th lap. In fact it mattered little because before the end of the lap Jonathan Palmer had crashed the second RAM heavily at Clearways when his suspension failed. The car was parked beside the track and it was decided that if it was left it could become a launch pad if another car went off. The race was stopped. This meant that at the restart Piquet was on pole again as the order was based on the end of the 11th lap.

At the restart Piquet was not able to hold back Prost but managed to stay ahead of Lauda until lap 29. Nine laps later Prost stopped with gearbox failure and so Lauda went into the lead followed by Piquet and Warwick. On lap 67 Piquet's BMW broke its turbocharger and dropped back and so Warwick finished second with Senna third, de Angelis fourth, and the two Ferraris fifth and sixth, Alboreto ahead of Arnoux, after Tambay's Renault ran out of fuel.