The 1989 San Marino Grand Prix (formally the IX Gran Premio Kronenbourg di San Marino) was a Formula One motor race held at the Imola circuit on 23 April 1989. It was the second race of the 1989 Formula One season. The race was overshadowed by Gerhard Berger's massive accident at Tamburello corner. The race was stopped for one hour and restarted. The race was won by Ayrton Senna who started from pole position. The Grand Prix had a total of 39 entrants, the largest amount in Formula One history. This record was equalled in the following 14 races of the season but, as of 2024, it has not been broken.
Background
The event, officially titled the Gran Premio Kronenbourg di San Marino, was held at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in the Italian town of Imola, with free and qualifying practice sessions held on Friday 21 April and Saturday 22 April and a warm-up session and the main Grand Prix race held on Sunday 23 April 1989. Thirty-nine cars were entered for the event by twenty different constructors. Thirteen teams used Goodyear tyres whilst the other seven teams used Pirelli tyres. Larrousse introduced the Lola LC89 at this event and Tyrrell Racing introduced the 018, whilst Arrows, Brabham, Ligier, McLaren, Minardi, Onyx Grand Prix, Scuderia Ferrari, Scuderia Italia, Williams, and Zakspeed brought new modifications for their existing cars. Automobiles Gonfaronnaises Sportives (AGS) had built a new chassis to replace one destroyed in testing, whilst EuroBrun, Onyx Grand Prix, Williams, and Zakspeed had also built new chassis for spare cars. Osella had also repaired a chassis before this event. Starting from this event, Gabriele Tarquini replaced the paralysed Philippe Streiff at AGS.
Qualifying Pre-qualifying report As at the previous race in Brazil, the Brabhams were easily the fastest cars in the Friday morning session. Stefano Modena was quickest on this occasion, with Martin Brundle in second. Alex Caffi pre-qualified his Dallara in third, with Nicola Larini's Osella in fourth. Only four cars went through from this session now that the injured Streiff had been replaced at AGS by Tarquini, who had left the abortive FIRST team.
Onyx improved on their showing in Brazil, with Bertrand Gachot just missing out on pre-qualification in fifth place. The EuroBrun of Gregor Foitek was sixth, ahead of the second Osella of Piercarlo Ghinzani. The other Onyx of Stefan Johansson was eighth, followed by the second AGS of Joachim Winkelhock. Tenth was the Coloni of Pierre-Henri Raphanel, just ahead of the two Zakspeeds of Aguri Suzuki and Bernd Schneider, the Japanese driver outpacing his more experienced team-mate. Nearly four seconds adrift at the bottom of the time sheets was the Rial of Volker Weidler, despite the German trying all three of the team's cars.
Pre-qualifying classification Pos No Driver Constructor Time Gap 1 8 Stefano Modena Brabham-Judd 1:27.350 2 7 Martin Brundle Brabham-Judd 1:28.197 +0.747 3 21 Alex Caffi Dallara-Ford 1:29.346 +1.996 4 17 Nicola Larini Osella-Ford 1:29.787 +2.437 5 37 Bertrand Gachot Onyx-Ford 1:30.384 +3.034 6 33 Gregor Foitek EuroBrun-Judd 1:30.620 +3.270 7 18 Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Ford 1:30.631 +3.281 8 36 Stefan Johansson Onyx-Ford 1:30.647 +3.297 9 41 Joachim Winkelhock AGS-Ford 1:32.071 +4.721 10 32 Pierre-Henri Raphanel Coloni-Ford 1:32.267 +4.917 11 35 Aguri Suzuki Zakspeed-Yamaha 1:32.287 +4.937 12 34 Bernd Schneider Zakspeed-Yamaha 1:32.855 +5.485 13 39 Volker Weidler Rial-Ford 1:36.480 +9.130
Qualifying report The only change to the entry list for the San Marino Grand Prix was the arrival of Gabriele Tarquini in the second car of the small AGS team, which had only run one car in Brazil after Philippe Streiff had suffered career ending injuries in pre-season testing. A record 39 cars were entered for the Grand Prix, although only 26 were allowed to start the race.
After their defeat in Brazil, McLaren spent eight days testing at Imola prior to the San Marino Grand Prix. According to Ayrton Senna, they tested everything on the McLaren MP4/5, including aerodynamics, suspension, brakes and fuel consumption. It worked for Senna and Alain Prost, as they locked out the front row and were over 1.5 seconds faster than the Ferrari of Nigel Mansell. Riccardo Patrese showed his and Williams' revival with fourth on the grid followed by Gerhard Berger (Ferrari) with Thierry Boutsen rounding out the top six.
At Tyrrell, Michele Alboreto failed to qualify for a race for the first time since the 1981 German Grand Prix, in the new Tyrrell 018. Only one 018 was available, and although teammate Jonathan Palmer managed to sneak onto the grid in 25th in the older model 017, he raced the 018.
Qualifying classification Pos NoDriverConstructor Q1 Q2Gap 1 1 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 1:42.939 1:26.010 2 2 Alain Prost McLaren-Honda 1:44.538 1:26.235 +0.225 3 27 Nigel Mansell Ferrari 1:49.665 1:27.652 +1.642 4 6 Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault 1:47.486 1:27.920 +1.910 5 28 Gerhard Berger Ferrari 1:42.781 1:28.089 +2.079 6 5 Thierry Boutsen Williams-Renault 1:49.451 1:28.308 +2.298 7 19 Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Ford 1:45.536 1:28.854 +2.844 8 11 Nelson Piquet Lotus-Judd 1:48.124 1:29.057 +3.047 9 21 Alex Caffi Dallara-Ford 1:48.868 1:29.069 +3.059 10 26 Olivier Grouillard Ligier-Ford 1:47.371 1:29.104 +3.094 11 23 Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 1:47.321 1:29.152 +3.142 12 9 Derek Warwick Arrows-Ford 1:47.859 1:29.281 +3.271 13 16 Ivan Capelli March-Judd 1:48.178 1:29.385 +3.375 14 17 Nicola Larini Osella-Ford 1:47.577 1:29.485 +3.475 15 24 Luis Pérez-Sala Minardi-Ford 1:46.800 1:29.503 +3.493 16 22 Andrea de Cesaris Dallara-Ford 1:53.681 1:29.669 +3.659 17 8 Stefano Modena Brabham-Judd 1:48.415 1:29.761 +3.751 18 40 Gabriele Tarquini AGS-Ford 1:48.795 1:29.913 +3.903 19 15 Maurício Gugelmin March-Judd 1:52.119 1:30.163 +4.153 20 30 Philippe Alliot Lola-Lamborghini 2:00.293 1:30.168 +4.158 21 10 Eddie Cheever Arrows-Ford 1:45.375 1:30.233 +4.223 22 7 Martin Brundle Brabham-Judd 1:46.279 1:30.271 +4.261 23 20 Johnny Herbert Benetton-Ford 2:05.126 1:30.347 +4.337 24 12 Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Judd 1:46.483 1:30.697 +4.687 25 3 Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 1:51.229 1:30.928 +4.918 26 29 Yannick Dalmas Lola-Lamborghini 1:58.083 1:31.137 +5.127 27 4 Michele Alboreto Tyrrell-Ford 1:51.329 1:31.206 +5.196 28 25 René Arnoux Ligier-Ford 1:48.091 1:31.268 +5.258 29 38 Christian Danner Rial-Ford 1:47.967 1:31.341 +5.331 30 31 Roberto Moreno Coloni-Ford 1:50.947 1:31.775 +5.765
Race Start and lap 4 accident (red flag) At the start, Ayrton Senna got away well but behind him Alain Prost found himself just ahead of Nigel Mansell's Ferrari but the Englishman could not find his way around Prost's McLaren. Mansell fell off a little after that and found himself battling with Riccardo Patrese while on the second lap Ivan Capelli had a nasty accident in his March. On lap four, fifth-placed Gerhard Berger's Ferrari speared off the track at the fast Tamburello corner due to a mechanical failure. Berger hit the wall at an estimated 180 mph and when his car came to a rest it was covered in fuel and it immediately burst into flames. Three fire marshalls (Bruno Miniati, Paolo Verdi and Gabriele Violi) arrived on foot sixteen seconds after impact and the fire was put out ten seconds later; the fuel had also burned up in the inferno. The race was red-flagged and Berger escaped with broken ribs and second-degree burns.
Race restart and conclusion The race was restarted after half an hour and run a further 55 laps on aggregate timing. This time Prost got away much better and got past Senna while behind them Mansell made a poor start and fell behind Patrese and Alessandro Nannini. On the run-down to the Tosa hairpin Senna got alongside Prost into Villeneuve and out-braked him into Tosa. The McLarens proceeded to pull away from the competition while behind them there was more drama as Stefano Modena put his Brabham into the wall rather violently, escaping unhurt. Olivier Grouillard was disqualified on Lap 5 for his car being illegally worked on by his team during the one-hour delay.
As the McLarens pulled away Mansell, Patrese, and Nannini were busy fighting over third place. It was settled in the space of three laps as Patrese retired with a timing belt failure and Mansell followed shortly afterwards with a gearbox problem. This left Nannini in third while up front Senna cruised home to victory from Prost who, in his pursuit of Senna, had suffered a spin on lap 42 at Variante Bassa. Nannini led home Thierry Boutsen, Derek Warwick in the Arrows and Jonathan Palmer in the Tyrrell. Olivier Grouillard was disqualified because Ligier illegally repaired his car on the grid before the second start. Thierry Boutsen and Alex Caffi were initially disqualified after a protest from Ligier because they had changed tyres in the pitlane before the second start, but were reinstated following an appeal.
The Prost/Senna war began to build up speed after the Frenchman said that McLaren had a pre-race agreement that whoever led into the first turn should stay there, which was ironically suggested by Senna. In Prost's view, Senna had broken this agreement by passing him partway round the first lap after the restart.
Race classification Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 1 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 58 1:26:51.245 1 9 2 2 Alain Prost McLaren-Honda 58 + 40.225 2 6 3 19 Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Ford 57 + 1 lap 7 4 4 5 Thierry Boutsen Williams-Renault 57 + 1 lap 6 3 5 9 Derek Warwick Arrows-Ford 57 + 1 lap 12 2 6 3 Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 57 + 1 lap 25 1 7 21 Alex Caffi Dallara-Ford 57 + 1 lap 9 8 40 Gabriele Tarquini AGS-Ford 57 + 1 lap 18 9 10 Eddie Cheever Arrows-Ford 56 + 2 laps 21 10 22 Andrea de Cesaris Dallara-Ford 56 + 2 laps 16 11 20 Johnny Herbert Benetton-Ford 56 + 2 laps 23 12 17 Nicola Larini Osella-Ford 52 Spun off 14 7 Martin Brundle Brabham-Judd 51 Fuel system 22 12 Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Judd 46 + 12 laps 24 24 Luis Pérez-Sala Minardi-Ford 43 Spun off 15 15 Maurício Gugelmin March-Judd 39 Transmission 19 11 Nelson Piquet Lotus-Judd 29 Engine 8 27 Nigel Mansell Ferrari 23 Gearbox 3 6 Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault 21 Engine 4 8 Stefano Modena Brabham-Judd 19 Spun off 17 23 Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 6 Gearbox 11 26 Olivier Grouillard Ligier-Ford 4 Illegal car repairs 10 28 Gerhard Berger Ferrari 3 Accident 5 16 Ivan Capelli March-Judd 1 Spun off 13 30 Philippe Alliot Lola-Lamborghini 0 Electrical 20 29 Yannick Dalmas Lola-Lamborghini 0 Electrical 26 4 Michele Alboreto Tyrrell-Ford 25 René Arnoux Ligier-Ford 38 Christian Danner Rial-Ford 31 Roberto Moreno Coloni-Ford 37 Bertrand Gachot Onyx-Ford 33 Gregor Foitek EuroBrun-Judd 18 Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Ford 36 Stefan Johansson Onyx-Ford 41 Joachim Winkelhock AGS-Ford 32 Pierre-Henri Raphanel Coloni-Ford 35 Aguri Suzuki Zakspeed-Yamaha 34 Bernd Schneider Zakspeed-Yamaha 39 Volker Weidler Rial-Ford
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings PosDriverPoints 1 Alain Prost 12 2 Ayrton Senna 9 3 Nigel Mansell 9 4 Alessandro Nannini 5 5 Maurício Gugelmin 4Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 McLaren-Honda21 2 Ferrari9 3 Benetton-Ford8 4 March-Judd4 5 Arrows-Ford4Source:
Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
References