Piquet took his third victory of the season by 1.8 seconds from compatriot Ayrton Senna, who led in his Lotus-Honda before running wide at the Parabolica with eight laps to go.

It was also the sixth consecutive victory for the Williams team, a run of wins that had begun at the French Grand Prix in early July.

French Tyrrell driver Philippe Streiff was the first naturally aspirated Jim Clark Trophy car to finish in 12th, three laps down on Piquet.

Piquet's faith in the suspension system however was absolute after completing a full race distance test session at Imola (albeit on a virtually deserted track), finishing 3 minutes faster than Mansell's win there earlier in the year.

By using the Reactive car, Piquet was able to run less wing than his team mate and was over 5 mph (8.0 km/h) faster through the speed trap than Mansell in the passive FW11B.