This was crunch time for the two contenders in the Drivers Championship race, the only championship left to be decided. Jean-Louis Schlesser versus Martin Brundle, Sauber Mercedes versus Silk Cut Jaguar. Fuji was to decide the outcome.

For once neither of the big two teams made the front running in practice, preferring to concentrate on setting the cars up for the coming battle. It was going to be a race where tactics and strategy were to play an important part.

Clouds gathered round Mount Fuji, but the rain held off as the 224 lap race started, and from the start Mauro Baldi put the Sauber Mercedes into the lead which he held for 25 laps, until mechanical maladies forced a lengthy pit stop. Incidents, accidents and mechanical failures were to play an important part in the outcome of the race.

There aren't many tracks these days where cars pass the pits at 200mph. It's an impressive sight, and one which you can enjoy time and again in this excellent video of what is possibly the last 1000 kms race for World Sportscars.