Ayrton Senna made a perfect start to lead from Nigel Mansell, Riccardo Patrese, Jean Alesi, Gerhard Berger and Alain Prost, building up a lead of three seconds by lap eight. Nigel Mansell was closing and by lap 20 the gap was down to 0.7s. On lap 17 Alain Prost pitted for new tyres, keen to avoid being stuck behind Nelson Piquet's Benetton. Nigel Mansell pitted on lap 26, but the stop was terrible - lasting over 14 seconds. This returned him to the race in fifth place behind Riccardo Patrese, Jean Alesi and Gerhard Berger.
After Ayrton Senna and Riccardo Patrese had made their stops, Nigel Mansell was seven seconds behind the lead McLaren. On lap 50 Nigel Mansell had to stop for a new set of tyres after a puncture caused by debris on the track. Ayrton Senna's gearbox was failing, having lost fourth gear and by lap 60 the lead was halved and Nigel Mansell had set fastest lap. Yet it was Nigel Mansell's gearbox that gave way first, forcing the Williams into a spin and causing him to retire on lap 61. With just a couple of laps left, Ayrton Senna had also lost fifth and third gears. Riccardo Patrese was catching him rapidly, but with gearbox problems of his own he was unable to pass.
Ayrton Senna won 2.9 seconds ahead of Riccardo Patrese. When he crossed the finish line, he started to scream in celebration of achieving his dream of winning at home. The tremendous struggle of trying to keep the car under control caused him to have muscle cramps and fever. After stopping his car, Ayrton Senna was almost unable to move on his own. He had to be lifted bodily from the car due to exhaustion and driven to the podium in the medical car. Despite a small fire on the grid and a sticking throttle, Gerhard Berger claimed the final podium place from Alain Prost, Nelson Piquet and Jean Alesi. On the podium, after all that effort, Ayrton Senna barely managed to lift the trophy.
In the Friday morning pre-qualifying session, a Dallara was again the fastest car, but this time it was JJ Lehto who topped the time sheets. He was six tenths of a second ahead of the Jordan of Andrea de Cesaris, who was a fraction faster than his team-mate Bertrand Gachot in third. The fourth pre-qualifier was the other Scuderia Italia Dallara, driven by Emanuele Pirro.
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