At the start of the race, Senna reserved the lead from Schumacher but race soon interrupted by a startline accident. On lap 6, the race resumed and Senna instantly set a quick pace with the third quickest lap of the race, followed by Schumacher.
As Senna entered the high-speed Tamburello corner on lap 7, the car left the track at around 307 km/h, hitting the concrete retaining wall at around 233 km/h, after what telemetry indicated application of the brakes for around 2 seconds. The red flag was shown as a result of the accident.