The first test run took place two years later when Enzo Ferrari sent a car to the track and Alberto Ascari ran some demonstration laps.

In April 1963, the first race with Formula One cars took place at Imola, as a non-championship event, won by Jim Clark for Lotus.

In 1980, the Italian Grand Prix moved from the high-speed Monza circuit to Imola (later known as Autodromo Dino Ferrari), as a direct result of 1978's startline pile-up, which claimed the life of the popular Swedish driver Ronnie Peterson.

Only 14 cars competed, and after the Renaults of Alain Prost and René Arnoux retired, Ferrari had no competition, and finished first and second.

Teammates Villeneuve and Pironi battled fiercely on the track, but while the third-placed Tyrrell of Michele Alboreto was far behind, Ferrari ordered their drivers to slow down to minimize the risk of mechanical failure or running out of fuel.

Thus, Villeneuve failed to protect the inside line going into the Tosa corner on the final lap, and Pironi passed him to take the win.

Villeneuve was irate at what he saw as Pironi's betrayal, although opinion inside the Ferrari team was split over the true meaning of the order to slow down.

They proved to be prophetic words, as he was still not on speaking terms with his teammate when he died during qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix two weeks later.

It was another notable event which saw Austrian Gerhard Berger crash heavily while going straight on at Tamburello; he was knocked unconscious and the car, after coming to rest and being soaked with fuel, burst into flames.

McLaren teammates Prost and Senna made an agreement that whoever got to the slow, long Tosa corner first would stay in front.

In 1990 pole-sitter Senna suffered a puncture on the third lap; leaving Nigel Mansell and Berger to battle hard for the lead.

On the Friday, during practice, Jordan driver Rubens Barrichello suffered a severe concussion in a collision at the Variante Bassa chicane in which he decelerated violently, went off the banked kerbing and into the fence protecting the crowd from the circuit.

The next day, in qualifying, Simtek driver Roland Ratzenberger crashed at the Villeneuve Corner after his front wing, which he damaged on his first qualifying lap, broke off and Ratzenberger, unable to steer the car into the corner, crashed almost head on into a retaining wall close to the track at nearly 195 mph, suffered a basilar skull fracture and was killed.

German Michael Schumacher won the race, with Ferrari temporary replacement Nicola Larini finishing second, but there were no celebrations at all.

Much stronger and more efficient materials (such as carbon fibre) in the cars' construction and an increase in track and driver safety over the years meant that fatalities became considerably less frequent.

For 1995, the Tamburello and Villeneuve corners - which had seen a number of heavy shunts over the years - were altered from flat-out sweeping bends into slower chicanes, and the Variante Bassa was straightened.

That year and the next saw Damon Hill win, and 1998 saw Briton David Coulthard take a marginal victory while his Mercedes engine was failing.

2000 featured dominance from Mika Häkkinen and Schumacher, the Finn dropped back after hitting a piece of debris, losing time and having a slower pit stop meaning the German was able to come out on top.