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Race
 As
per usual, the weather was hot (around 50° C.), bright and sunny
as the 25 cars lined up to start the 1985 season. Off the grid, Rosberg
got away beautifully while Alboreto floundered, but kept ahead of the
fast-starting Prost by a whisker. Mansell had also drawn just in front
of the Ferrari, but was nudged by the Italian and slid off into the
first turn gravel trap. Behind Prost came Senna, de Angelis, Arnoux,
Piquet and Lauda, and by halfway round the first lap there was already
a gap developing to the rest, led by Patrese.
 Rosberg
scampered away on the first lap, crossing the line some two and a half
seconds clear, but Alboreto immediately pegged the gap, then began to
close, even having a look at the Williams at the end of the Junco straight.
Piquet dropped out of the leading group with locked transmission after
only two laps, while Mansell rejoined but only lasted until lap 9 before
it was clear his car's bent exhaust set fire to the back of the car.
By then, Prost was lurking on the back of Alboreto, and a lap later
was second as Rosberg pulled off in a cloud of smoke. Lauda was also
on the move, getting by de Angelis and looking at Senna, who he passed
on lap 14, while Arnoux had dropped right back.
 The
Ferrari's prodigious speed down the straight was causing Prost some
problems, but he kept close and promptly swept past when Alboreto missed
a gear as they came up to the line on lap 19. Prost soon strode clear,
and Lauda was suddenly right with Alboreto. However, the Austrian's
fuel metering system began playing up, and he dropped away from the
Ferrari and was soon repassed by Senna before pulling into the pits.
 The
first scheduled stop came from de Angelis, in from 4th on lap 25, but
the stop was a poor 18.1s due to a jamming wheel nut. This dropped him
to 6th, and promoted Arnoux to 4th, under heavy pressure from the charging
de Cesaris, but the battle was cut short when the Italian thumped the
back of the Ferrari. The Ligier was out on the spot, while Arnoux had
to limp around for almost a full lap with a left-rear puncture. Patrese
had already dropped out after being shoved in a similar manner by Laffite
in the other Ligier, while Hesnault had exited after contact with Cheever.
 Prost
had built up a lead of some 21 seconds before his own tyre stop, with
Alboreto diving in after him on the same lap. Senna followed a lap later,
and it all panned out that there had been no change to the leading quartet.
Behind Tambay and Alliot were promoted to the top 6 before their own
stops, with Arnoux, Laffite and Boutsen (recovering from needing a push-start)
next. Senna was the next to disappear from 3rd with an electrical fault,
a sad end to a mature and restrained Lotus debut for the Brazilian.
 Tambay
was briefly in 4th, but the charging Arnoux caught and passed the Renault,
the only significant change in the top six for the rest of the race.
Prost, Alboreto and de Angelis were all too spaced out to do much about
each other, and the McLaren driver reeled off the remaining laps in
his usual cool style. It was Prost's 17th career win, and once again
showed that McLaren were the team to beat. He allowed Alboreto to close
within three seconds, but hadn't looked back after passing the Ferrari.
 The
rest were lapped, lead by de Angelis. Arnoux did a respectable job to
fight back to 4th, while Tambay's 5th gave Renault some reward for a
very difficult weekend. Laffite took the final point for the revamped
Ligier outfit. Behind him came the Tyrrells, Johansson ahead of Brundle,
while Alliot's 9th place gave the hard-trying RAM team a fillip. Warwick
(much delayed by a stop to sort a misfire), Boutsen (with fuel feed
problems), Ghinzani and Winkelhock (also after a stop to fix fuel feed
trouble after a good practice) completed the finishers.
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