For the first time since the 1986 Mexican Grand Prix, a non-Honda powered car was on the front row in the shape of the McLaren-TAG of Alain Prost, who qualified second. The pole position was taken once again by Nigel Mansell in his Williams-Honda, while the second row was occupied by Ayrton Senna's Lotus-Honda and Nelson Piquet's Williams. The fast nature of the circuit clearly suited the turbo cars: the best placed non-turbo driver was Ivan Capelli in the March 871 in 22nd place, about six seconds off the pace and slower on the Mistral Straight than the Williams-Hondas.