Two Start line accidents The race started at 2:30 pm
Central European Time (
UTC+1). The first race start ended quickly after the
Zakspeed of
Martin Brundle crashed, then the two
Tyrrells of
Jonathan Palmer and
Philippe Streiff collided in the ensuing chaos with
Piercarlo Ghinzani also crashing his
Ligier. The second attempt to start was more serious. Mansell on the front row crawled away with clutch problems and the grid compacted behind him. The Österreichring's narrow front straight saw to the rest when
Eddie Cheever (
Arrows) and
Riccardo Patrese (
Brabham) collided and half the grid, including Johansson,
Alex Caffi (
Osella),
Ivan Capelli (
March), Pascal Fabre,
Philippe Alliot (
Larrousse-
Lola), and both Zakspeeds of Brundle and
Christian Danner were involved in the ensuing pile-up.
Restart For the third start Streiff was missing as Tyrrell had simply run out of usable cars and Palmer got the use of the surviving DG016 as he had qualified higher than his team mate (exactly the reverse of the situation earlier in the year in
Belgium when Palmer was forced to sit out the restart with both race Tyrrells wrecked, Streiff got the spare as he had qualified ahead of Palmer). Several drivers were in repaired cars or in spare cars, including
Ayrton Senna after a CV joint failed in his
Lotus during the second start. The third start, over two hours late, continued to claim cars.
Alain Prost (McLaren) had an electrical failure as the warm-up lap began. The team mechanics got the car going and Prost started from the pitlane along with Senna and the
Ferrari of
Michele Alboreto. The third attempt to start had no problems although Johansson soon pitted with a puncture then had a tyre fall off on his out lap after a chaotic pitstop. Johansson made it back to the pits and resumed. Piquet led early from
Thierry Boutsen in his
Benetton and Mansell. Boutsen pitted with gear linking problems and Mansell leapt past Piquet while negotiating lapped cars on the straight leading into the Bosch Kurve. Fabi (Benetton) was a lap down in third ahead of Boutsen in a season best result for the team. Recovering from their difficulties, Senna, Prost and Johansson finished fifth, sixth and seventh. Ghinzani was eighth for Ligier ahead of Danner and
René Arnoux in the second Ligier. Sixteen cars finished although Fabre had not completed enough laps to be classified and 14th placed Brundle would be disqualified for a bodywork infringement on the spare Zakspeed 871, pressed into service after the startline collisions.
Classification Numbers in brackets refer to positions of
naturally aspirated entrants competing for the
Jim Clark Trophy. ==Championship standings after the race==