Qualifying report

Before the previous race in Portugal it was revealed that René Arnoux had been fired by Ferrari, with no explanation ever given for his sudden departure by either the team or Arnoux. In his place was Swedish driver Stefan Johansson. Arnoux was in the pits at Imola, but was seen with the Brabham team, starting a false rumor he would soon join the team alongside Nelson Piquet. As it turned out, Arnoux would not drive in F1 again until joining Ligier in 1986.

Ayrton Senna took pole position in his Lotus-Renault with a time of 1:27.327, with Keke Rosberg alongside him on the front row in the Williams-Honda. For Senna it would be the first of seven consecutive pole positions at Imola, a run which ended in 1992.

Filling the second row were Elio de Angelis in the second Lotus and Michele Alboreto in the Ferrari. Belgian Thierry Boutsen was a surprise 5th fastest in the Arrows-BMW, ahead of the McLaren-TAG of Alain Prost. In his second race for Ferrari, Johansson qualified 15th.

Qualifying classification

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Gap
1	12	Ayrton Senna	Lotus-Renault	1:27.589	1:27.327
2	6	Keke Rosberg	Williams-Honda	1:28.347	1:27.354	+0.027
3	11	Elio de Angelis	Lotus-Renault	1:30.325	1:27.852	+0.525
4	27	Michele Alboreto	Ferrari	1:27.871	1:30.637	+0.544
5	18	Thierry Boutsen	Arrows-BMW	1:28.829	1:27.918	+0.591
6	2	Alain Prost	McLaren-TAG	1:28.604	1:28.099	+0.772
7	5	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Honda	1:29.756	1:28.202	+0.875
8	1	Niki Lauda	McLaren-TAG	1:29.413	1:28.399	+1.072
9	7	Nelson Piquet	Brabham-BMW	1:29.427	1:28.489	+1.162
10	17	Gerhard Berger	Arrows-BMW	1:28.697	1:29.654	+1.370
11	15	Patrick Tambay	Renault	1:30.201	1:29.102	+1.775
12	23	Eddie Cheever	Alfa Romeo	1:30.605	1:29.259	+1.932
13	25	Andrea de Cesaris	Ligier-Renault	1:30.339	1:29.406	+2.079
14	16	Derek Warwick	Renault	1:30.440	1:29.466	+2.139
15	28	Stefan Johansson	Ferrari	1:30.240	1:29.806	+2.479
16	26	Jacques Laffite	Ligier-Renault	1:31.625	1:30.982	+3.655
17	30	Jonathan Palmer	Zakspeed	2:30.990	1:31.028	+3.701
18	22	Riccardo Patrese	Alfa Romeo	1:31.388	1:31.108	+3.781
19	29	Pierluigi Martini	Minardi-Motori Moderni	1:32.770	1:48.391	+5.443
20	8	François Hesnault	Brabham-BMW	1:33.142	1:33.160	+5.815
21	10	Philippe Alliot	RAM-Hart	1:34.201	2:05.141	+6.874
22	24	Piercarlo Ghinzani	Osella-Alfa Romeo	1:34.974	1:34.209	+6.882
23	9	Manfred Winkelhock	RAM-Hart	1:34.936	1:34.579	+7.252
24	4	Stefan Bellof	Tyrrell-Ford	1:35.774	1:35.653	+8.326
25	3	Martin Brundle	Tyrrell-Ford	1:36.397	1:36.661	+9.070
26	21	Mauro Baldi	Spirit-Hart	1:36.922	1:38.235	+9.595

Race report

Limited fuel allowances played a big part in the race, as a succession of drivers ran out of fuel in the last few laps. Prost took the chequered flag before stopping on the slowing-down lap and hitching a ride with Patrick Tambay on the side pod to return to the pits. Later, Prost's car was found to be two kilograms underweight in post-race scrutineering, resulting in his disqualification. Summing up the general feeling that FISA's fuel limit rules had seen Formula One races reduced to mere economy runs, Williams driver Nigel Mansell noted that "it wasn't really racing".

Stefan Johansson ran a good race in his second drive for Ferrari. After starting 15th he steadily made his way through the field and by late in the race had moved to second (benefiting from others running out of fuel) and was poised to benefit from Senna also running dry 3 laps from home. Johansson took the lead from the Lotus to a thunderous applause from the Italian fans, only to run out of fuel himself half a lap later coming out of the Acque Minerali chicane. A post race examination of his car revealed the Ferrari had an electrical malfunction that caused the engine to use more fuel than the readout was telling the team or Johansson. The Ferrari's readout had told Johansson that he still had enough fuel to finish the race.

Prost's disqualification promoted de Angelis to the win, his second in F1, with second place awarded to Boutsen — who ran out of fuel as he reached the start-finish straight on his final lap and pushed his Arrows across the finish line to secure his finishing position — and third to Frenchman Patrick Tambay, in what would turn out to be the last podium finish for both Tambay and the original factory Renault team. Mauro Baldi and Spirit Racing entered their last Grand Prix: the small British team were having financial troubles and the Toleman team offered to buy out their tyre contract: Spirit accepted and withdrew from the championship, allowing Toleman to race for the rest of the season.

Race classification

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	11	Elio de Angelis	Lotus-Renault	60	1:34:35.955	3	9
2	18	Thierry Boutsen	Arrows-BMW	59	Out of fuel	5	6
3	15	Patrick Tambay	Renault	59	+ 1 Lap	11	4
4	1	Niki Lauda	McLaren-TAG	59	+ 1 Lap	8	3
5	5	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Honda	58	Out of fuel	7	2
6	28	Stefan Johansson	Ferrari	57	Out of fuel	15	1
7	12	Ayrton Senna	Lotus-Renault	57	Out of fuel	1
8	7	Nelson Piquet	Brabham-BMW	57	Out of fuel	9
9	3	Martin Brundle	Tyrrell-Ford	56	Out of fuel	25
10	16	Derek Warwick	Renault	56	+ 4 Laps	14
DSQ	2	Alain Prost	McLaren-TAG	60	Underweight	6
Ret	23	Eddie Cheever	Alfa Romeo	50	Engine	12
NC	24	Piercarlo Ghinzani	Osella-Alfa Romeo	46	+ 14 Laps	22
Ret	27	Michele Alboreto	Ferrari	29	Electrical	4
Ret	9	Manfred Winkelhock	RAM-Hart	27	Engine	23
Ret	10	Philippe Alliot	RAM-Hart	24	Engine	21
Ret	6	Keke Rosberg	Williams-Honda	23	Brakes	2
Ret	26	Jacques Laffite	Ligier-Renault	22	Turbo	16
Ret	29	Pierluigi Martini	Minardi-Motori Moderni	14	Turbo	19
Ret	25	Andrea de Cesaris	Ligier-Renault	11	Spun off	13
Ret	21	Mauro Baldi	Spirit-Hart	9	Electrical	26
Ret	8	François Hesnault	Brabham-BMW	5	Engine	20
Ret	4	Stefan Bellof	Tyrrell-Ford	5	Engine	24
Ret	17	Gerhard Berger	Arrows-BMW	4	Engine	10
Ret	22	Riccardo Patrese	Alfa Romeo	4	Engine	18
DNS	30	Jonathan Palmer	Zakspeed	0	Engine	17
Source: [1] [2]