Inter eight clear after win at Cremonese marred by fans' flare flinging
Lautaro Martinez and Piotr Zielinski's first-half strikes were enough for Inter to extend their unbeaten league run to 11 matches and pile pressure on nearest challengers AC Milan who face Bologna on Tuesday.
Inter again comfortably dealt with one of the division's lesser lights, their consistency against the lower-ranked teams. Cristian Chivu's team have collected 31 points from those 11 fixtures.
"It's not a message to the rest of the league, it's a message to ourselves," said Martinez.
"There's still along way to go and it's a very evenly-balanced division."
Martinez's header, which came in the 16th minute from Federico Dimarco's corner, made him Inter's joint fourth-highest goalscorer in Serie A -- level on 128 with Alessandro Altobelli who won the World Cup with Italy in 1982.
Martinez celebrated both his goal and his daughter's fifth birthday, but a positive evening for him and Inter almost took a darker turn when Audero fell to the turf following the arrival of the firecracker from the Inter fans massed behind his goal.
The match was stopped for a few minutes and for a moment it appeared Audero, who played four times for Inter during the 2023/24 season, had been directly struck by the explosive, which went off near him in the penalty area.
Fortunately a stunned Audero had only suffered minor injuries to his leg and was able to continue, and the match finished without further incident.
"It's something you have to condemn... it's a very dangerous thing that you cannot do," said Inter defender Alessandro Bastoni, who was born in Cremona and whose father played at full-back for Cremonese.
"I can only express solidarity with Emil who was a teammate of ours. Let's hope they don't happen any more."
Cremonese started the season well but nine matches without a win has left them in 16th, five points above the relegation zone with fixtures against Atalanta, Roma and Milan coming up in the next few weeks.
Como would have moved above fourth-placed Roma on goal difference had rising star Nico Paz netted from the spot in the eighth minute of added time after Giorgio Scalvini's handball.
But Marco Carnesecchi pulled off a brilliant save to deny Paz and earn 10-man Atalanta, who had Honest Ahanor sent off in the eighth minute, a hard-earned goalless draw.
Como stay sixth on 41 points, two behind Roma who are at Udinese on Monday and five ahead of seventh-placed Atalanta.
The 21-year-old Paz has scored eight times and set up six more this Serie A season as Como, owned by tobacco giant Djarum and coached by Cesc Fabregas, have exceeded expectations in just their second top-flight season in a quarter of a century.
Paz was bought in August last year from Real Madrid in a complicated deal which gives the Spanish giants the right of repurchase before 2027.
Juventus can temporarily take fourth spot from Roma with a win at Parma in the day's late match.