Niki Lauda needed second place to secure the championship, even if his team mate at McLaren Alain Prost wins the race.
Nelson Piquet was fastest man in qualifying in Brabham BMW, 0.071 seconds in front of Alain Prost in McLaren TAG and 0.233 seconds in front of Ayrton Senna in Toleman Hart. Lauda was only 11th, 1.480 s behind fastest Piquet.
Prost did everything he could and won the race, but Lauda overtook car after car, set the fastest lap of the race and managed to finish second after Mansell retired in lap 52/70 with a brake issues.
Niki Lauda won his third and final title with only half a point advantage over his team mate Alain Prost. Lauda became the driver with biggest gap between two consecutive championships – it was seven years since he won his second title in Ferrari in 1977.
Lauda and Prost dominated the season and won 12 of 16 races in 1984. Lauda won five and Prost seven races.
Interestingly, Lauda won the title without starting from pole position in that year and he is the only second driver in F1 history who achieved that after Denny Hulme in 1967.
