The March F1 team had withdrawn from the World Championship, the latest victim of the recession, but otherwise the field was unchanged in Brazil and the Williams-Renaults were dominant again with Alain Prost on pole ahead of Damon Hill. Ayrton Senna (McLaren-Ford) was third with Michael Schumacher (Benetton-Ford) fourth while Michael Andretti did a good job to put his McLaren in fifth place on the grid. Then came the second Benetton of Riccardo Patrese, J.J. Lehto's Sauber, Jean Alési's Ferrari, Karl Wendlinger's Sauber and Mark Blundell's Ligier-Renault.

Prost made a good start to lead Senna and Hill into the first corner but behind them there were problems in the midfield with Andretti and Berger colliding. The McLaren flew over the Ferrari, narrowly missing Berger's head, and both cars then hit the wall hard. Out at the front Prost quickly built up a lead while Hill pressured Senna until the Brazilian could hold him back no longer on lap 11. Schumacher was fourth. The order would remain unchanged until Senna was given a 10-second stop-go penalty for overtaking under yellow flags (which prohibit such maneuvers in dangerous situations). He rejoined fourth just in time for a huge rain storm. Aguri Suzuki lost control of his Footwork on the pit straight and crashed heavily. He was followed moments later by Ukyo Katayama's Tyrrell. During the stops Schumacher was delayed when his car fell off its jack while Prost midheard a radio call and stayed out too long. He arrived on the scene of another accident, involving Christian Fittipaldi, and slid into the wrecked Minardi. The new F1 Safety Car was sent out. The Safety Car's job is to hold the F1 cars up and lead them round the track at a slow pace until the circuit is cleared. By this time Hill was leading. At the restart Alési (who had already overtaken several cars behind the Safety Car) was passing others before the start-finish line (which he shouldn't have done).

The track was drying and with the cars on wet tires it was time to pit and switch to dry ones. The man to stop first was Johnny Herbert (Lotus) and he gained a lot of places as a result. When everyone else had stopped Herbert was third behind Senna and Hill, the Brazilian having taken the lead after the stop. Alési and Schumacher dropped back with stop-go penalties but Schumacher charged back and by the end had overtaken Blundell and Herbert to grab third. Herbert was fourth with Blundell fifth and Alex Zanardi sixth in the second Lotus.

It was McLaren's 100th victory and a significant one for the team as the Ford management began to wonder if it might not be a better idea to give the best engines available to McLaren rather than to Benetton, ostensibly the factory team.