Driveshaft failures accounted for the EuroBruns of Stefano Modena and Oscar Larrauri (Modena, who had stalled his car at the start of the parade lap and started from the back of the grid, had two spins).
•
By lap 23 he had a three second lead before coming up to lap the Eurobrun of Stefano Modena and the Ligier of notorious blocker René Arnoux.
EuroBrun had been represented by Oscar Larrauri and Stefano Modena during the season, but it was Fabrizio Barbazza, who had never driven a Grand Prix, who drove the car at the Indoor Trophy.
On several occasions both Johansson and Arnoux struggled to outqualify 1987 Formula 3000 champion Stefano Modena and sportscar driver, 33 year old Argentine Oscar Larrauri (an F1 rookie) in the equally uncompetitive EuroBrun (the EuroBrun team were F1 'rookies' in 1988, though Modena, who had made his debut with Brabham in 1987, was seen at that stage as a future star of the sport...if he could get a competitive drive).