The 1990 Japanese motorcycle Grand Prix was the first round of the 1990 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season. It took place on the weekend of 23–25 March 1990 at the Suzuka Circuit.
500 cc race report Wayne Rainey's pole of 2:09.589 is the first sub-2:10 lap at Suzuka. Rainey gets the start of the new 4-column grid, followed by Mick Doohan, Eddie Lawson and the field. Rainey goes through the chicane with a sub-second gap, followed by Lawson, Doohan, Kevin Schwantz and Wayne Gardner.
Rainey is opening a gap, but Schwantz moves into second and leads the chase. Entering the back straight, Schwantz looks behind him to see who's back there, but Lawson's proximity probably blocks the view.
Perhaps Schwantz had a feeling something bad was about to happen. Going into 130R, Gardner barely manages to pass on the brakes and move into second place, while Doohan brakes for all he's worth, getting the back wheel in the air, and loses the front end as he leans it in. Unfortunately, he's inside of Lawson when he falls, so Doohan's bike hits Lawson's rear wheel hard, taking him out too. Lawson, who came out of 1989 without a race crash, begins the season with a DNF and a broken left ankle.
Rainey has a large gap, and Gardner and Schwantz are scraping fairings for second.
Last lap and Rainey has an untouchable lead, and Gardner goes slightly wide heading towards the chicane, but manages to hold Schwantz off; as they flick it right and then left, Schwantz touches Gardner's back tire and drops his bike. Because it happened at such a low speed, Schwantz is able to get back on quickly and still cross the line in third place.
Schwantz: "I thought I had Gardner sorted out pretty good for the last lap going into the chicane. Just as soon as I got up the inside and he saw my wheel, he came in and I think he was still going in too fast. He went into the chicane real deep. I got turned quick because I knew he was going to be wide. He came back across and as I was coming down, we hit. I guess it all depends on how you look at it as to fault it was. I'd say it was his."Schwantz, Kevin: Blurred Past kevinschwantz.com 1994.
500 cc classification Pos. No. Rider Team Manufacturer Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 2 Wayne Rainey Marlboro Team Roberts Yamaha 22 48:52.475 1 20 2 10 Wayne Gardner Rothmans Honda Team Honda 22 +3.237 3 17 3 34 Kevin Schwantz Lucky Strike Suzuki Suzuki 22 +15.556 2 15 4 4 Kevin Magee Lucky Strike Suzuki Suzuki 22 +40.689 7 13 5 6 Sito Pons Campsa Banesto Honda 22 +41.008 9 11 6 21 Tadahiko Taira Tech 21 Yamaha 22 +51.363 10 10 7 5 Pierfrancesco Chili Team ROC Elf La Cinq Honda 22 +51.536 6 9 8 14 Jean-Philippe Ruggia Sonauto Gauloises Yamaha 22 +53.739 15 8 9 39 Shinichi Itoh Team HRC Honda 22 +1:02.515 8 7 10 11 Juan Garriga Ducados Yamaha Yamaha 22 +1:25.526 18 6 11 37 Hikaru Miyagi Teera Honda 22 +1:29.184 20 5 12 41 Shinji Katayama UCC Yamaha 22 +1:42.002 21 4 13 38 Osamu Hiwatashi Schick Advantage Suzuki 22 +1:42.713 19 3 Ret 43 Keiji Ohishi Yamaha 18 Retirement 22 Ret 18 Randy Mamola Cagiva Corse Cagiva 18 Retirement 17 Ret 28 Alex Barros Cagiva Corse Cagiva 12 Retirement 24 Ret 40 Satoshi Tsujimoto Suzuki 9 Retirement 13 Ret 3 Christian Sarron Sonauto Gauloises Yamaha 8 Retirement 11 Ret 8 Ron Haslam Cagiva Corse Cagiva 8 Retirement 23 Ret 36 Kunio Machii Yamaha 7 Retirement 12 Ret 1 Eddie Lawson Marlboro Team Roberts Yamaha 4 Retirement 4 Ret 9 Mick Doohan Rothmans Honda Team Honda 4 Retirement 5 Ret 15 Norihiko Fujiwara Yamaha Motor Company Yamaha 2 Retirement 16 DNS 35 Shunji Yatsushiro YS Racing Honda Did not start 14 DNQ 26 Nicholas Schmassman Team Schmassman Honda Did not qualify DNQ 44 Kenmei Matsumoto Meikoh Honda Did not qualify Sources:
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