The 1989 French motorcycle Grand Prix was the eleventh round of the 1989 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season. It took place on the weekend of 14–16 July 1989 at the Bugatti Circuit located in Le Mans.
500 cc race report Eddie Lawson on pole. At the start, Wayne Rainey gets around Lawson, with Freddie Spencer in third, followed by Pierfrancesco Chili and Christian Sarron. Soon it’s the California duo with a small gap, and Kevin Schwantz has made up for his bad start by moving into third, with Kevin Magee in fourth.
Wayne Gardner crashes out, and Schwantz joins the fight for first, with back-marker traffic making life difficult for Lawson and Rainey.
Schwantz is braking very late and making it stick, and he and Lawson start to drop Rainey. Lawson manages to get past Schwantz on the start-finish straight, and though very few win a last lap battle with Schwantz, Lawson manages it, putting Schwantz in a crucial second place to extract maximum points from Rainey in third.
500 cc classification Pos. Rider Team ManufacturerLaps Time/RetiredGrid Points 1 Eddie Lawson Rothmans Kanemoto Honda Honda29 50:16.9401 20 2 Kevin Schwantz Suzuki Pepsi Cola Suzuki29 +0.7702 17 3 Wayne Rainey Team Lucky Strike Roberts Yamaha29 +15.5303 15 4 Christian Sarron Sonauto Gauloises Blondes Yamaha Mobil 1 Yamaha29 +23.5905 13 5 Kevin Magee Team Lucky Strike Roberts Yamaha29 +24.2104 11 6 Pierfrancesco Chili HB Honda Gallina Team Honda29 +37.0007 10 7 Niall Mackenzie Marlboro Yamaha Team Agostini Yamaha29 +53.5406 9 8 Mick Doohan Rothmans Honda Team Honda29 +59.1208 8 9 Rob McElnea Cabin Racing Team Honda29 +1:26.29011 7 10 Adrien Morillas Team ROC Elf Honda Honda29 +1:31.46015 6 11 Randy Mamola Cagiva Corse Cagiva28 +1 Lap13 5 12 Thierry Crine Minolta Suzuki Racing Team Suzuki28 +1 Lap16 4 13 Alessandro Valesi Team Iberia Yamaha28 +1 Lap19 3 14 Simon Buckmaster Racing Team Katayama Honda28 +1 Lap21 2 15 Fabio Biliotti Racing Team Katayama Honda27 +2 Laps27 1 16 Eddie Laycock Honda27 +2 Laps20 17 Bruno Kneubühler Romer Racing Suisse Honda27 +2 Laps22 18 Juan Lopez Mella Club Motocross Pozuelo Honda27 +2 Laps26 19 Claude Albert Suzuki27 +2 Laps23 20 Jean Paul Lecointe Motodepot Suzuki27 +2 Laps28 21 Nicholas Schmassman FMS Honda27 +2 Laps31 22 Pascal Seguela Honda27 +2 Laps34 23 Bernard Gitton Byblos Fior27 +2 Laps35 24 Francisco Gonzales Club Motocross Pozuelo Honda27 +2 Laps36 25 Cees Doorakkers HRK Motors Honda27 +2 Laps24 Ret Freddie Spencer Marlboro Yamaha Team Agostini Yamaha Retirement9 Ret Andreas Leuthe Librenti Corse Suzuki Retirement33 Ret Marco Gentile Fior Marlboro Fior Retirement18 Ret Wayne Gardner Rothmans Honda Team Honda Retirement10 Ret Marco Papa Team Greco Paton Retirement25 Ret Patrick Salles Fior Honda Retirement30 Ret Patrick Lerustre Fior Retirement29 Ret Bernard Andrault Honda Retirement32 Ret Fred Merkel HB Honda Gallina Team Honda Retirement12 Ret Raymond Roche Cagiva Corse Cagiva Retirement17 DNS Dominique Sarron Team ROC Elf Honda Honda Did not start14 DNQ Vittorio Scatola Honda Did not qualify Sources:
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