Nelson Piquet secured his 24th and final F1 pole position in his Williams-
Honda with Nigel Mansell completing an all-Williams front row. The race was comfortably won by Mansell who passed Piquet at the end of the first lap and was never headed. The battle for third (then second) was led for much of the time by Ayrton Senna, who like the previous year tried to complete the race without changing tyres. Both Senna and
Lotus were of the opinion that the
99T's computerised
active suspension system would help preserve his tyres throughout the race. Senna had a queue of both
Ferraris, Prost's McLaren and
Thierry Boutsen's
Benetton behind him, which was joined by Piquet after a long pit-stop. For lap after lap, Senna held off all-comers, similar to
Gilles Villeneuve's performance in his Ferrari at
Jarama for the
1981 Spanish Grand Prix. The Lotus-Honda was very fast in a straight line with a low downforce setup, but was slow through Jerez's many twists and turns as a result. Senna's pursuers could not pass him on the long pit straight, and with Jerez generally having a lot of dust and sand off the racing line, they were not able pass him through the corners without losing grip. However, Piquet's similarly powered Williams was able to get by (not before having a spin) followed eventually by Boutsen and Prost as the Brazilian's tyres finally went off. Senna faded to finish fifth, but the battle for second continued between Boutsen and Piquet - Boutsen went out avoiding Piquet who was rejoining the track after having gone off - and then between Piquet and Prost, with Prost getting the better of the Williams driver who also lost third place to McLaren's
Stefan Johansson who put in another strong drive. Both Ferraris blew their engines.
Martin Brundle, who finished 11th in his
Zakspeed, described his drive as "the time I got out the car thinking no human could have done [any] better". == Classification ==