Driver Eric van de Poele had decided that he was wasting his time at Brabham and so moved to Fondmetal to replace Andrea Chiesa. The team had built up a new GR02 chassis for the Belgian, to replace the one destroyed by Chiesa at Magny-Cours. Brabham reduced its involvement to just one car for Damon Hill.

Qualifying resulted in pole position going to Riccardo Patrese while Nigel Mansell - who was hoping to claim the World Championship after eight wins in 10 races - was second. Ayrton Senna was third as usual in his McLaren-Honda while Michael Schumacher was fourth for Benetton. Then came Gerhard Berger in the second McLaren, Martin Brundle in the second Benetton and Michele Alboreto in the Footwork-Mugen. Thierry Boutsen was eighth in his Ligier-Renault while the top 10 was rounded off by the two Ferraris of Jean Alési and Ivan Capelli. Gabriele Tarquini impressed with 12th place in his Fondmetal.

At the start Patrese took the lead from Mansell and as Mansell backed off to avoid hitting Patrese both Senna and Berger overtook him. Behind the leaders there was a mess as the two Ligiers of Thierry Boutsen and Érik Comas collided (a repeat of similar events in Brazil). As they spun they took out Johnny Herbert's Lotus and Tarquini's Fondmetal.

Mansell overtook Berger for third place on the eighth lap and set off after Senna but the Brazilian as always did everything he could to stop Mansell passing him. On lap 31 Mansell made a mistake and dropped behind Berger again but within a couple of laps Mansell was again ahead. On lap 39 Patrese spun off. He rejoined in seventh position but his engine blew soon afterwards. With Patrese out Mansell had only to finish second to clinch the World Championship. Mansell was no longer taking risks and Senna began to pull away. Mansell had a problem later in the race and had to pit and was sixth when he rejoined. He quickly caught and passed Mika Häkkinen's Lotus and was helped when Schumacher's rear wing broke as a result of being hit from behind earlier by Brundle. The German's Benetton was thrown into a series of high speed spins which fortunately did not end up in contact with a barrier. Mansell easily overtook Brundle and Berger and returned to second place. Senna made a precautionary pit stop in the closing stages but he was nearly a minute ahead and it made little difference.

In the final laps Häkkinen overtook Brundle (who was struggling without sixth gear) and tried to pass Berger. The Finn spun off and Brundle had to do the same to avoid a collision. They both rejoined.

Senna duly won with the new World Champion Nigel Mansell second ahead of Berger, Häkkinen, Brundle and Capelli.