There was more action off the track than on it. Alain Prost had signed for Williams with a deal excluding his old rival Ayrton Senna from joining the team, Senna's future being uncertain. Nigel Mansell had quit F1 and was tipped for a drive with the Newman-Haas team in CART racing in America. Riccardo Patrese had signed to be Michael Schumacher's partner at Benetton, leaving Martin Brundle out of a drive. Ferrari had signed Gerhard Berger and Jean Alési while McLaren had a deal with Michael Andretti and had talks with Mika Häkkinen in case Senna decided not to continue. At the same time Honda had confirmed that it was withdrawing from F1 leaving the team without an engine. Ron Dennis was trying to acquire the Renault supply from Ligier.

While all this was happening Ferrari decided to drop Ivan Capelli for the final two races of the year and replace him with test driver Nicola Larini. March needed more money and so Karl Wendlinger stood down and Jan Lammers took over, returning to F1 after 10 years.

The grid was settled on Friday as Saturday was ruined by torrential rain. It was a familiar story, however, with the Williams of Nigel Mansell and Riccardo Patrese ahead of the McLarens of Ayrton Senna and Gerhard Berger. Michael Schumacher was fifth for Benetton with Johnny Herbert sixth in his Lotus ahead of team mate Häkkinen. Érik Comas was eighth in his Ligier-Renault ahead of Andrea de Cesaris's Tyrrell-Ilmor and Thierry Boutsen in the second Ligier. Ferrari was nowhere with Larini 11th in an experimental active Ferrari F92A and Jean Alési was back in 15th position with the F92AT. Martin Brundle was suffering from food poisoning and was 13th.

At the end of the first lap Mansell was 3.1 secs ahead of Patrese. Senna was third but soon disappeared with engine failure. Berger was still there but he pitted early and so dropped behind Schumacher and the two Lotus drivers. On lap 13 Schumacher went out with a gearbox failure. Herbert's gearbox failed shortly afterwards and so he lost third place.

Just before the pit stops Maurício Gugelmin crashed his Jordan heavily and Mansell ran over some of the wreckage. He pitted immediately. His stop coincided with the mid-race pits stops when the tyres are changed. Berger and Brundle gained back what they had lost with their early stops and were third and fifth respectively. A few laps later both pitted again, but neither lost a place.

This left Mansell 20secs ahead of Patrese with Berger third. Häkkinen was fourth ahead of Brundle and Érik Comas and de Cesaris were fighting for sixth before Érik parked the Ligier with an engine failure.

At the end of lap 36 however Mansell pulled off the racing line. Patrese went into the lead. Mansell then speeded up again and began to hassle his team mate. This appeared to be a repeat of his performance in Italy. Mansell's second charade in three races ended with an engine failure. Patrese was delighted not to have to worry about Mansell playing behind him. Berger was second and, as Häkkinen had retired with an engine problem, Brundle was third. De Cesaris moved up to fourth while fifth and sixth places went to Alési and Christian Fittipaldi (Minardi).