Entering the race, Alain Prost led the Drivers' Championship by 16 points over Ayrton Senna, 76 to 60, both driving for McLaren. Senna had won six races to Prost's four but had finished in the points only once otherwise, whereas Prost had finished outside the points only once all season. Senna therefore needed to win both this race and the final round in Australia to have any chance of retaining his championship. Under the dropped-scores system in use that year, if Senna won both remaining races he would be champion regardless of Prost's finishes. Prost told team principal Ron Dennis before the race that, unlike in the past, he would not leave the door open if Senna challenged him.
Pre-qualifying for the smaller teams was held on the Friday morning. Nicola Larini was fastest in pre-qualifying for the second race in a row in his Osella, just ahead of Philippe Alliot in his Larrousse-Lola. Bernd Schneider qualified his Zakspeed-Yamaha third, having not pre-qualified since the Brazilian season opener; the team credited development work on the Yamaha engine. The fourth pre-qualifying spot went to Michele Alboreto in the other Lola. Aguri Suzuki, at his home circuit, recorded his 15th consecutive failure to pre-qualify in the underpowered Zakspeed.
In the main qualifying session, Senna was over a second and a half faster than his teammate Prost. Prost, aware the McLarens were superior to the rest of the field, deliberately set up his car for the race rather than maximising qualifying pace. Gerhard Berger and Nigel Mansell qualified third and fourth for Ferrari, Berger edging Mansell by two-tenths. Patrese qualified fifth for Williams, with Nannini sixth in his Benetton-Ford using the development HBA4 V8 engine. Schneider qualified 21st, only 4.851 seconds off Senna's pole time — a significant result for the Zakspeed programme. Jonathan Palmer's Tyrrell-Ford took the final 26th grid slot; four drivers failed to qualify and nine failed to pre-qualify.
Before the race, Prost had his Gurney flap removed to improve straight-line speed, without Senna's knowledge, as later reported by Formula One journalist Maurice Hamilton. Prost made a much faster start than Senna, immediately erasing the pole-position advantage. Gerhard Berger drew alongside Senna from third on the grid, though Senna held the inside line into the first corner and kept the Ferrari behind him.
Over the first half of the race, Prost steadily built a lead of almost six seconds. Senna then lost an additional two seconds with a slow pit stop. On fresh tyres, however, Senna began reeling in the championship leader. Behind the leading pair, Berger's Ferrari gearbox failed on lap 34 and Mansell's Ferrari suffered engine failure nine laps later, removing any further challenge from the Scuderia. Nannini's Benetton ran the less powerful but more reliable HBA1 engine in the race rather than the development HBA4, and he held third place. Nannini's teammate Emanuele Pirro used the development V8 and climbed from 22nd to 10th before colliding at the hairpin with Andrea de Cesaris on lap 33.
Senna caught Prost on lap 40. For the next five laps the gap held at approximately one second as both drivers jockeyed for position. Prost had greater top speed on the straights; Senna's high-downforce setup gave him an advantage through the corners. On lap 47 Senna used his cornering advantage through the double-apex Spoon Corner to close on Prost and pull into the aerodynamic tow down the following straight, negating much of Prost's straight-line speed advantage. Through the high-speed 130R left-hand curve Senna reduced the gap to two car lengths.
At the chicane, the second-slowest corner on the circuit, Senna dived to the inside as Prost braked. Senna never drew fully alongside; his front wheels remained just behind Prost's. Prost turned for the apex on the normal racing line. The two cars made contact, their wheels locked and engines stalled. Both cars came to rest at the mouth of the chicane escape road, having missed the chicane entry entirely. Prost unbuckled and left his car in neutral to be removed by marshals. Senna gestured to the marshals to push him down the escape road; as the McLaren moved forward he restarted the engine and accelerated between the bollards arranged across the escape road.
Senna's front wing had been damaged in the collision. He completed almost a full lap before pitting for a nose replacement. Despite the collision, the stall time, the slow in-lap, and the pit stop, when Senna rejoined the race he was only five seconds behind the new race leader, Nannini — a measure of the McLaren-Honda's performance advantage. Senna caught and passed Nannini two laps after rejoining, at the very corner where the Prost collision had occurred. Unlike Prost, Nannini offered little resistance; a locked wheel was the only sign of how hard he tried to defend.
Two laps later Senna took the chequered flag. Nannini finished second, followed by the two Williams-Renaults of Patrese and Boutsen, who had run together off the race pace throughout. Nelson Piquet finished fourth in his Lotus-Judd, having started 11th; he was the only other driver on the same lap as the podium finishers. Only 11 of the 26 starters were still running at the finish. Martin Brundle took sixth, and Derek Warwick recovered from 25th on the grid in his Arrows to finish seventh, having removed virtually all downforce from his car before the race to gain straight-line speed.
Immediately after the race the stewards disqualified Senna for rejoining the track illegally after missing the chicane. Senna personally alleged that FISA President Jean-Marie Balestre had ordered the decision to hand the championship to his fellow Frenchman Prost; both the stewards and Balestre denied this, stating Balestre was not present at the stewards meeting. Nannini was formally awarded the victory. This proved to be the only Formula One win of Nannini's career, which was ended approximately one year later when a helicopter crash severed his right forearm. The disqualification also made it mathematically impossible for Senna to overhaul Prost's points total, and Prost was confirmed as the 1989 Drivers' Champion.
Senna and McLaren appealed the ruling, with Ron Dennis stressing the team's objection was not about preventing Prost — who was leaving McLaren for Ferrari — from winning the championship, but about what they believed was an incorrect decision that cost them a race win and associated prize and bonus sponsorship money. At a FISA hearing in Paris later that week, the disqualification was upheld and additional penalties were imposed: a US$100,000 fine and a suspended six-month ban, with FISA labelling Senna a "dangerous driver." Debate over the incident — whether Prost deliberately drove into Senna, whether Senna was overambitious, or whether it was simply a racing incident between two bitterly opposed teammates — has continued ever since.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
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