The win, Piquet's third of the season, allowed him to move to within eight points of Drivers' Championship leader, Argentine Carlos Reutemann, who retired with an engine failure.

The two Renault turbo cars were on the front row with Alain Prost almost half a second quicker than teammate René Arnoux.

Williams locked out the second row with World Championship leader Carlos Reutemann third and teammate Alan Jones fourth.

The top 10 was completed by Jacques Laffite (Ligier), Gilles Villeneuve (Ferrari) and the two McLarens of John Watson and Andrea de Cesaris.

After around 30 laps, rain started to fall on the circuit and the Renaults suffered from poor handling and third place Piquet quickly overtook Prost for second.