There were no changes in the driver line-up and after qualifying there was the usual situation of Alain Prost and Damon Hill first and second in their Williams-Renaults. Ayrton Senna was third and McLaren had given up trying to get Benetton to agree to allow Mclaren access to the best Ford V8 engines. Benetton was Ford's factory team and thus had access to the best while McLaren had to content itself with customer engines. McLaren had therefore decided to develop its own versions of the units, using TAG Electronics. Michael Schumacher's Benetton was fourth fastest ahead of his team mate Riccardo Patrese while Karl Wendlinger was fifth for Sauber ahead of Michael Andretti's McLaren, Jean Alési's Ferrari, J.J. Lehto's Sauber and the Lotus of Johnny Herbert.

Herbert's Lotus failed to get away at the start of the parade lap and had to start from the back of the field. It lasted only two laps because of wiring problems in the active suspension which caused the car to jump up and down. There were wiring problems with the lights signaling the start of the race as well as the green light never showed and a flashing orange light came on instead. This should have indicated an aborted start but the field took off anyway. Hill beat Prost away with Senna, Schumacher, Patrese, Andretti, Alési, Lehto, Berger and Philippe Alliot (Larrousse-Lamborghini) chasing. The two Williams pulled away and on lap 11 Prost took the lead.

Prost then stayed ahead until his car began to handle oddly and he came under pressure from Hill again but his race was saved when Damon's engine blew on lap 41. This left Senna second but a long way behind with Schumacher third. He had looked vaguely threatening for Senna but had gone off and bounced over a sandtrap and so had to settle for third, ahead of Patrese, Andretti (scoring his first F1 points) and Berger.