One of the surprises of qualifying was American veteran Eddie Cheever. Not noted as the best qualifier, Cheever qualified 8th in his Arrows-Megatron, though he was still 4.1 seconds behind Senna. Cheever and Arrows had tested at Imola a week before the race and came up with a set-up they liked. The same settings were put on Derek Warwick's Arrows but the Briton admitted he found the settings lazy and could only qualify 14th, 1.2 seconds slower than his teammate. The turbocharged Arrows', with Cheever and Warwick still hampered by the pop-off valve cutting in early, were touching just under on the run to Tosa to make them the fastest behind the Honda powered cars.