A week after Formula 1's first visit to Hungary, the teams were in action again in Austria and it was a surprise to see the two Benetton-BMWs on the front row with Teo Fabi two-tenths faster than Gerhard Berger. Keke Rosberg was third quickest in his McLaren-TAG but the good performance from BMW was highlighted by Riccardo Patrese's fourth place for Brabham. Alain Prost was fifth in his McLaren and then came the regular front-runners and World Championship contenders Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet in their Williams-Hondas and Ayrton Senna in his Lotus-Renault. The top 10 was completed by Michele Alboreto's Ferrari and Derek Warwick's Brabham. Brabham had problems in the warm-up and so Warwick had to hand over his car to Patrese and was not able to take the start.

At the start Berger took the lead from Fabi, Prost, Mansell, Piquet, Rosberg and Senna. The Benettons were highly competitive and pulled quickly away from the field while Senna soon disappeared with electrical trouble. On lap 17 Fabi went into the lead only to have his engine fail and so Berger went ahead again. Prost stopped for new tyres and so Mansell moved to second. This became the lead a few minutes later when Berger pitted with an electrical problem. Mansell pitted and so Prost went into the lead while Piquet disappeared with an engine problem. Almost immediately Mansell too went out with a broken driveshaft. This left Prost by himself at the front with the two Ferraris running second and third, with Alboreto ahead of Stefan Johansson. The two Haas Lolas were fourth and fifth with Alan Jones ahead of Patrick Tambay while the final point went to Christian Danner's Arrows.