There were signs of Alesi's talent in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza where he qualified the under powered Tyrrell in 5th place less than a second slower than Senna's pole time. At both the original and restart (caused by Derek Warwick's Lotus crashing heavily), Alesi passed the more powerful V12 Ferrari of reigning World Champion Alain Prost for 3rd place and within a lap would be harrying McLaren's Gerhard Berger for 2nd. On lap 5, though, he spun into the barriers at the Rettifilo chicane.