The big news in Belgium was that Jordan driver Bertrand Gachot had been sent to jail in England having been convicted of spraying a taxi driver with CS gas the previous winter. There was much indignation about it but Gachot stayed in Brixton Prison and Jordan did a deal to hire a young German driver called Michael Schumacher. He was eighth fastest in his first F1 qualifying session on a track he had never raced at before. Johnny Herbert was back in action with Lotus after missing two races because of Formula 3000 commitments in Japan.

The track was rather bumpy after resurfacing work at the Blanchimont corner and this led to Gabriele Tarquini's AGS breaking its suspension and crashing heavily in pre-qualifying. In the Friday morning session Eric van de Poele (Modena Team) lost control of his Lamborghini at the same spot and hit the wall hard. The Belgian walked unsteadily away from the wreck and was carted off to hospital.

In qualifying on Saturday Ayrton Senna took pole in his McLaren-Honda while Alain Prost recorded the second quickest time in his Ferrari. Nigel Mansell was third in his Williams-Renault and Gerhard Berger fourth for McLaren. Then came Jean Alési's Ferrari, Nelson Piquet's Benetton and the remarkable Schumacher. Roberto Moreno was eighth in his Benetton ahead of Pierluigi Martini's Minardi-Ferrari and the Tyrrell-Honda of Stefano Modena. Andrea de Cesaris was 11th in the second Jordan. Schumacher was fourth fastest in the morning warm-up but his race lasted as far as the first corner where his clutch failed.

Senna took the lead from Prost, Mansell, Piquet, Berger and a slow-starting Alési. On the second lap Mansell overtook Prost, the Frenchman stopping with a blown engine. Mansell pressured Senna but the Brazilian held him off until the pit stops for fresh tyres began. Mansell's was faster and he emerged in the lead. Alési was running without a stop and briefly challenged Mansell for the lead but then he began to drop away and came under pressure from Senna. Piquet was fourth with de Cesaris fifth.

On lap 21 Mansell's engine cut and Alési went ahead. Soon afterwards Senna's engine stopped. He was coming to a stop when he found a gear and set off again. The battle for third place became very lively with Patrese, Piquet and de Cesaris scrapping.

On lap 31 Alési's engine failed and so Senna was in the lead while de Cesaris had got ahead of Piquet to take second place. De Cesaris was able to attack Senna but every time he did his temperature gauges rose and he had to back off. On lap 41 the engine blew. Patrese now attacked but he ran into gearbox trouble and Berger moved to second. It was a McLaren 1-2 with Gerhard protecting Senna. Piquet was third with Moreno fourth, Patrese fifth and Mark Blundell sixth, scoring the first point for Brabham-Yamaha.

In spite of his failure to actually compete in the race, Michael Schumacher's exploits in qualifying made him a name to look out for in the future. This was to be made apparent as soon as the following Grand Prix in Italy.