A week after the Portuguese GP the Formula 1 circus arrived at the new Circuit de Catalunya for the first time, Jerez having fallen from favour after Martin Donnelly's accident in 1990. The big news was that Max Mosley had been elected President of the FIA, taking over from Jean-Marie Balestre, and everyone waited to see what changes would result from the election. There were changes in the entry as Johnny Herbert was back in Japan for a Formula 3000 race and so Michael Bartels tried to qualify the second Lotus for the fourth time (and was unsuccessful for the fourth time).There had been a switcharound in the small teams with Olivier Grouillard having been dropped by Fondmetal and replaced by Gabriele Tarquini from AGS. Grouillard had moved to AGS. Pedro Chaves had decided that he was wasting his time with the Coloni team and withdrew and as no-one else wanted to drive the car it stayed in the garage. Roberto Moreno had been dropped by Jordan in favour of rising star Alex Zanardi.

Qualifying resulted in pole position for Gerhard Berger in his McLaren while Nigel Mansell, who still had a slim chance of the World Championship, was second in his Williams-Renault. Ayrton Senna was third in his McLaren after an engine failure in qualifying while Riccardo Patrese was fourth in the second Williams. Michael Schumacher was fifth in his Benetton with Alain Prost sixth for Ferrari, ahead of his team mate Jean Alési, Ivan Capelli of Leyton House, Emanuele Pirro's Dallara-Judd and Nelson Piquet in the second Benetton. Nigel Mansell had twisted his ankle playing football but, while he made a big thing of the injury, it did not seem to affect his performance much. The track was wet at the start but it was drying and Alain Prost wanted to use slicks. Ferrari refused to let him and he went out on wets.

At the start Mansell made an awful beginning and was overtaken by Senna who took second place behind Berger. Schumacher also overtook Mansell to run third. Further back Capelli and Pirro tangled at the first corner. Ivan retired on the spot and Emanuele had to pit and this dropped him to the back of the field.

Mansell retook third place from Schumacher early on and he then closed on Senna. They both went down the main straight side by side, with an inch or two between their wheels. In the end Senna backed down and Mansell went ahead. As the track dried so there were pit stops and during these Berger was delayed more than he should have been and so Senna was in the lead when the stops finished. Then came Prost who had pitted earlier and then Schumacher, who had a spin and a pit stop! On lap 12 Berger passed Senna again and Mansell closed up to the Brazilian for a second time. At the same time Schumacher blew past Prost. It began to rain again and Senna had a big spin which put Mansell and Schumacher into second and third. Then the track began to dry again and so Mansell caught and passed Berger while Schumacher also made a bid for the lead and spun off. This left Prost third, Senna fourth and Alési fifth although he would soon drop back because of 10-second penalty for a false start.

Both Benettons dropped back with a pit stop and Piquet lost more time as he arrived when Schumacher was there.

On lap 33 Berger's engine failed him and so Mansell was left ahead of Prost. Senna was third but would be overtaken by Patrese and Alési before the end of the race while Schumacher picked up one point for sixth place.

The World Championship was still open but with only two races to go and 16 points between Senna and Mansell.