Pre-qualifying report As at the previous race in Brazil, the Brabhams were easily the fastest cars in the Friday morning session.
Stefano Modena was quickest on this occasion, with
Martin Brundle in second.
Alex Caffi pre-qualified his
Dallara in third, with
Nicola Larini's Osella in fourth. Only four cars went through from this session now that the injured Streiff had been replaced at AGS by Tarquini, who had left the abortive
FIRST team. Onyx improved on their showing in Brazil, with
Bertrand Gachot just missing out on pre-qualification in fifth place. The EuroBrun of
Gregor Foitek was sixth, ahead of the second Osella of
Piercarlo Ghinzani. The other Onyx of
Stefan Johansson was eighth, followed by the second AGS of
Joachim Winkelhock. Tenth was the
Coloni of
Pierre-Henri Raphanel, just ahead of the two Zakspeeds of
Aguri Suzuki and
Bernd Schneider, the Japanese driver outpacing his more experienced team-mate. Nearly four seconds adrift at the bottom of the time sheets was the
Rial of
Volker Weidler, despite the German trying all three of the team's cars.
Pre-qualifying classification Qualifying report The only change to the entry list for the San Marino Grand Prix was the arrival of
Gabriele Tarquini in the second car of the small
AGS team, which had only run one car in
Brazil after
Philippe Streiff had suffered career ending injuries in pre-season testing. A record 39 cars were entered for the Grand Prix, although only 26 were allowed to start the race. After their defeat in
Brazil,
McLaren spent eight days testing at Imola prior to the San Marino Grand Prix. According to
Ayrton Senna, they tested everything on the
McLaren MP4/5, including aerodynamics, suspension, brakes and fuel consumption. It worked for Senna and
Alain Prost, as they locked out the front row and were over 1.5 seconds faster than the
Ferrari of
Nigel Mansell.
Riccardo Patrese showed his and
Williams' revival with fourth on the grid followed by
Gerhard Berger (Ferrari) with
Thierry Boutsen rounding out the top six. At
Tyrrell,
Michele Alboreto failed to qualify for a race for the first time since the
1981 German Grand Prix, in the new
Tyrrell 018. Only one 018 was available, and although teammate
Jonathan Palmer managed to sneak onto the grid in 25th in the older model
017, he raced the 018.
Qualifying classification ==Race==