The field for the final race of the 1992 season was as it had been in Japan two weeks earlier and World Champion Nigel Mansell was on pole from his rival Ayrton Senna. Riccardo Patrese was third in his Williams with Gerhard Berger fourth fastest in the second McLaren. Fifth place went to Michael Schumacher's Benetton with Jean Alési (Ferrari) sixth and the top 10 was completed by Andrea de Cesaris (Tyrrell-Ilmor), Martin Brundle (Benetton), Érik Comas (Ligier-Renault) and Mika Häkkinen (Lotus).

At the start Mansell led Senna while behind them the midfield had a shake-up when Pierluigi Martini (Dallara-Ferrari), Olivier Grouillard (Tyrrell) and Michele Alboreto (Footwork-Mugen) all collided with one another. Maurício Gugelmin was also affected, damaging a brake line and a few laps later had a big crash when he arrived at a fast corner and found that he had no brakes at all.

Mansell and Senna battled at the front until lap 19 when the Williams slowed suddenly behind the pits and Senna, caught unawares, ran into the back of it. Senna felt that Mansell had braked to shake him off. Whatever the case, both men were out.

With the two leaders gone, Berger and Patrese were left to fight for the lead. The fight continued until Berger stopped for new tyres. This dropped him to third behind Schumacher. He pitted later and could do nothing to stop Berger getting back into second. Patrese kept going on the same set of tyres. On lap 51, however, Patrese's race ended with an engine problem, leaving Berger to win. Schumacher was second with Brundle third while the minor positions went to Alési, Thierry Boutsen (Ligier) and Stefano Modena (Jordan), the Italian scoring the team's first point of the year.