Gilles Villeneuve was killed in an accident during the final qualifying session. At the time of the crash, his teammate Didier Pironi had set a time 0.1s faster than Villeneuve for sixth place. Villeneuve believed Pironi had been ordered to remain behind him.
With eight minutes of the session left, Villeneuve came over the rise after the first chicane and found Jochen Mass in the March travelling much more slowly through Butte, the left-handed bend before the Terlamenbocht corner. Mass saw Villeneuve approaching at high speed and moved to the right to let him through on the racing line. At the same instant Villeneuve also moved right to pass Mass. The Ferrari hit the back of the March and was launched into the air at a speed estimated at 200–225 km/h (120–140 mph). It was airborne for over 100 metres before nosediving into the ground and disintegrating as it somersaulted along the edge of the track. Villeneuve, still strapped to his seat but without his helmet, was thrown a further 50 metres from the wreckage into the catch fencing on the outside edge of Terlamenbocht.
Several drivers stopped and rushed to the scene. John Watson and Derek Warwick pulled Villeneuve, his face blue, from the catch fencing. The first doctor arrived on the scene within 35 seconds to find that Villeneuve was not breathing, although his pulse continued throughout; he was intubated and ventilated before being transferred to the circuit medical centre and then by helicopter to University St Raphael Hospital where a fatal fracture of the neck was diagnosed. Villeneuve was kept alive on life support while his wife travelled to the hospital and the doctors consulted with specialists worldwide. He died at 21:12 that evening.
The Ferrari team withdrew from the race after the accident and left the circuit. The final eight minutes of the qualifying were run after the crash debris had been removed. No drivers improved their times, leaving the Renaults of Alain Prost and René Arnoux on the front row of the grid.
John Watson won the 70-lap race, driving a McLaren-Ford. Keke Rosberg finished second in a Williams-Ford, with Eddie Cheever third in a Ligier-Matra after Watson's teammate Niki Lauda was disqualified when his car was found to be underweight.
This was the 200th Grand Prix in which a German driver participated.
In those 200 races, German drivers achieved 20 podium finishes, 1 pole position, and 4 fastest laps and won 3 Grands Prix.
This was the 25th Grand Prix start for Osella and the 5th Grand Prix start for Toleman.
This was the 5th Grand Prix start for a Hart-powered car.
This was the second of only three races that the Ferrari team entered but did not start.
The other two were the 1950 French Grand Prix and the 1982 Swiss Grand Prix.
This was the 9th Belgian Grand Prix win for a Ford-powered car, breaking the previous record set by Ferrari at the 1979 Belgian Grand Prix.