The 1989 Monaco Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at the Circuit de Monaco, Monte Carlo on 7 May 1989. It was the third race of the 1989 Formula One World Championship. The 77-lap race was won from pole position by Ayrton Senna, driving a McLaren-Honda, with teammate Alain Prost second and Stefano Modena third in a Brabham-Judd.
Background
The event, officially called the Grand Prix de Monaco, was the third round of the 1989 Formula One World Championship and was held at the Circuit de Monaco in Monte Carlo, Monaco. Free and qualifying practice sessions were held on Thursday 4 May and Saturday 6 May, with a morning warm-up session and the main Grand Prix race held on Sunday 7 May 1989. Thirty-nine cars were entered by twenty list of Formula One constructors, although Scuderia Ferrari withdrew one of their entries as Gerhard Berger had been injured during the previous race. Ferrari made changes to Nigel Mansell's cars to try and avoid a repeat of the failure that had caused Berger's prior crash, but were unable to complete certain planned upgrades in time for this event as they had to replace the car destroyed in Imola. Automobiles Gonfaronnaises Sportives (AGS), Arrows, Brabham, EuroBrun, Ligier, Larrousse, Team Lotus, McLaren, Onyx Grand Prix, Williams, and Zakspeed all brought updates or modifications to their cars for this race. March Engineering debuted Adrian Newey's CG891 at this event. Thirteen teams used Goodyear tyres whilst the other seven teams used Pirelli tyres.
Qualifying Pre-qualifying report The field was one fewer in Monaco as Ferrari had elected not to run a second car to replace Berger, who had been injured in an accident during the last race at Imola (the Austrian was present in the pits at Monaco, but even with the Ferrari 640's revolutionary semi-automatic gearbox meaning he did not have to take his hands off the steering wheel, the burns on his hands were not sufficiently recovered to be able to take on the Circuit de Monaco). However, unlike the similar situation at the first race in Brazil, no extra pre-qualifier would be allowed through to the main qualifying sessions, and due to the much tighter confines of both the circuit and the pits, Monaco would only run with 29 cars.
Brabham again topped the time sheets during the Thursday morning pre-qualifying session, with Stefano Modena fastest, but the Dallara of Alex Caffi was only 0.141 seconds behind. Third was Pierre-Henri Raphanel, who put in a fine performance in his Coloni, pre-qualifying for the first, and ultimately, only time. The fourth pre-qualifier was the other Brabham, driven by Martin Brundle, who edged out the Osella of Piercarlo Ghinzani by just two-hundredths of a second.
Joining Ghinzani on the sidelines were Stefan Johansson in the Onyx, then Nicola Larini in the other Osella, followed by Bernd Schneider in the Zakspeed. Ninth was the other Onyx of Bertrand Gachot, ahead of the sole EuroBrun driven by Gregor Foitek. The Rial of Volker Weidler was eleventh, followed by Aguri Suzuki in the other Zakspeed. Slowest on this occasion was Joachim Winkelhock in the AGS.
Pre-qualifying classification Pos No Driver Constructor Time Gap 1 8 Stefano Modena Brabham-Judd 1:26.957 2 21 Alex Caffi Dallara-Ford 1:27.098 +0.141 3 32 Pierre-Henri Raphanel Coloni-Ford 1:27.590 +0.633 4 7 Martin Brundle Brabham-Judd 1:27.774 +0.817 5 18 Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Ford 1:27.795 +0.838 6 36 Stefan Johansson Onyx-Ford 1.27.821 +0.864 7 17 Nicola Larini Osella-Ford 1:28.555 +1.598 8 34 Bernd Schneider Zakspeed-Yamaha 1:28.610 +1.653 9 37 Bertrand Gachot Onyx-Ford 1:28.897 +1.940 10 33 Gregor Foitek EuroBrun-Judd 1:29.423 +2.466 11 39 Volker Weidler Rial-Ford 1:29.498 +2.541 12 35 Aguri Suzuki Zakspeed-Yamaha 1:30.528 +2.571 13 41 Joachim Winkelhock AGS-Ford 1:32.274 +4.317
Qualifying report Tyrrell had a new car that looked promising, but only Jonathan Palmer competed with it on the first day of practice and qualifying. Michele Alboreto's car was not finished until the second day, and he refused to drive the older car. Ayrton Senna was on pole by a full second over teammate Alain Prost with Thierry Boutsen sharing row two with the surprisingly competitive Brabham of Martin Brundle. Nigel Mansell was fifth followed by Derek Warwick, Riccardo Patrese, Stefano Modena, Alex Caffi, and Andrea de Cesaris.
It was at this race that many in the paddock started noticing that the Pirelli qualifying tyres were superior to Goodyear's (the Brabhams and Caffi's Dallara ran on Pirelli rubber).
For the second Monaco in a row, Team Lotus, previous winners in the Principality on seven different occasions (1960, 1961, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1974 and 1987), started the race with only one car in the field. As he had done in 1988, Japanese driver Satoru Nakajima failed to qualify. Triple World Champion Nelson Piquet, never at ease on the Monaco streets, qualified 19th, 4.738 seconds behind Senna.
Qualifying classification Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap 1 1 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 1:24.126 1:22.308 2 2 Alain Prost McLaren-Honda 1:24.671 1:23.456 +1.148 3 5 Thierry Boutsen Williams-Renault 1:25.540 1:24.332 +2.024 4 7 Martin Brundle Brabham-Judd 1:26.970 1:24.580 +2.272 5 27 Nigel Mansell Ferrari 1:25.363 1:24.735 +2.427 6 9 Derek Warwick Arrows-Ford 1:26.606 1:24.791 +2.483 7 6 Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault 1:27.138 1:25.021 +2.713 8 8 Stefano Modena Brabham-Judd 1:27.598 1:25.086 +2.778 9 21 Alex Caffi Dallara-Ford 1:27.894 1:25.481 +3.173 10 22 Andrea de Cesaris Dallara-Ford 1:26.617 1:25.515 +3.207 11 23 Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 1:28.469 1:26.288 +3.980 12 4 Michele Alboreto Tyrrell-Ford No time 1:26.388 +4.080 13 40 Gabriele Tarquini AGS-Ford 1:26.603 1:26.422 +4.114 14 15 Maurício Gugelmin March-Judd 1:28.917 1:26.522 +4.214 15 19 Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Ford 1:28.608 1:26.599 +4.291 16 26 Olivier Grouillard Ligier-Ford 1:27.040 1:26.792 +4.484 17 30 Philippe Alliot Lola-Lamborghini 1:26.975 1:26.857 +4.549 18 32 Pierre-Henri Raphanel Coloni-Ford 1:30.264 1:27.011 +4.703 19 11 Nelson Piquet Lotus-Judd 1:29.047 1:27.046 +4.738 20 10 Eddie Cheever Arrows-Ford 1:28.461 1:27.117 +4.809 21 25 René Arnoux Ligier-Ford 1:30.003 1:27.182 +4.874 22 16 Ivan Capelli March-Judd 1:29.800 1:27.302 +4.994 23 3 Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 1:29.151 1:27.452 +5.144 24 20 Johnny Herbert Benetton-Ford 1:29.661 1:27.706 +5.398 25 31 Roberto Moreno Coloni-Ford 1:30.209 1:27.721 +5.413 26 24 Luis Pérez-Sala Minardi-Ford 1:28.886 1:27.786 +5.478 27 38 Christian Danner Rial-Ford 1:28.737 1:27.910 +5.602 28 29 Yannick Dalmas Lola-Lamborghini 1:29.794 1:27.946 +5.638 29 12 Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Judd 1:28.568 1:28.419 +6.111
Race Race report
The first start was aborted when Patrese stalled his Williams. At the second start, for which Patrese was relegated to the back of the grid, Senna was first into Sainte-Dévote and Prost could do nothing but slot in behind him. The McLarens proceeded to pull away from the field, while behind them Williams were in all sorts of trouble, as both Boutsen and Patrese had to stop for new rear wings. Nigel Mansell went out on lap 20 with more gearbox issues for Ferrari and one of the talking points of the race came on lap 33 when de Cesaris attempted to pass Nelson Piquet at Loews Hairpin. The predictable accident occurred and some choice words were exchanged between the two drivers (while still in their respective cars) and a huge traffic jam was caused. Brundle was looking good in 3rd place in the Brabham, until he had to pit for a new battery and dropped back to seventh (the car's battery was located under the driver's legs forcing Brundle to evacuate the car to allow it to be changed. The problem ultimately cost him a podium finish).
Senna, continued to dominate the race while Prost, including having been slowed by the Piquet-de Cesaris incident (he lost over 20 seconds to Senna in one lap having to wait for clear road to get moving again), could not recover and finished second behind his team mate. He was also held up for many laps trying to lap the Ligier of former Renault team mate René Arnoux who ignored both his mirrors and the blue flags, prompting BBC commentator James Hunt to describe Arnoux's explanation of why he was off the pace compared to his race winning days as "bullshit" on live television. Senna took his second win at Monaco despite his McLaren losing first and second gear later in the race. Modena benefited from Brundle's stop and finished third, scoring his first points in Formula One and Brabham's last podium finish. Alex Caffi, Michele Alboreto, and Brundle, who was promoted to sixth on the final lap as a result of the retirement of Ivan Capelli, completed the point scoring positions. Caffi achieved both his and Dallara's first points while Alboreto scored Tyrrell's first points with their new car.
Race classification Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 1 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 77 1:53:33.251 1 9 2 2 Alain Prost McLaren-Honda 77 + 52.529 2 6 3 8 Stefano Modena Brabham-Judd 76 + 1 lap 8 4 4 21 Alex Caffi Dallara-Ford 75 + 2 laps 9 3 5 4 Michele Alboreto Tyrrell-Ford 75 + 2 laps 12 2 6 7 Martin Brundle Brabham-Judd 75 + 2 laps 4 1 7 10 Eddie Cheever Arrows-Ford 75 + 2 laps 20 8 19 Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Ford 74 + 3 laps 15 9 3 Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 74 + 3 laps 23 10 5 Thierry Boutsen Williams-Renault 74 + 3 laps 3 11 16 Ivan Capelli March-Judd 73 Engine 22 12 25 René Arnoux Ligier-Ford 73 + 4 laps 21 13 22 Andrea de Cesaris Dallara-Ford 73 + 4 laps 10 14 20 Johnny Herbert Benetton-Ford 73 + 4 laps 24 15 6 Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault 73 + 4 laps 7 24 Luis Pérez-Sala Minardi-Ford 48 Overheating 26 40 Gabriele Tarquini AGS-Ford 46 Electrical 13 31 Roberto Moreno Coloni-Ford 44 Gearbox 25 30 Philippe Alliot Lola-Lamborghini 38 Engine 17 15 Maurício Gugelmin March-Judd 36 Engine 14 11 Nelson Piquet Lotus-Judd 32 Collision 19 27 Nigel Mansell Ferrari 30 Gearbox 5 32 Pierre-Henri Raphanel Coloni-Ford 19 Gearbox 18 26 Olivier Grouillard Ligier-Ford 4 Gearbox 16 23 Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 3 Clutch 11 9 Derek Warwick Arrows-Ford 2 Electrical 6 38 Christian Danner Rial-Ford 29 Yannick Dalmas Lola-Lamborghini 12 Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Judd 18 Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Ford 36 Stefan Johansson Onyx-Ford 17 Nicola Larini Osella-Ford 34 Bernd Schneider Zakspeed-Yamaha 37 Bertrand Gachot Onyx-Ford 33 Gregor Foitek EuroBrun-Judd 39 Volker Weidler Rial-Ford 35 Aguri Suzuki Zakspeed-Yamaha 41 Joachim Winkelhock AGS-Ford
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings PosDriverPoints 1 Ayrton Senna 18 2 Alain Prost 18 3 Nigel Mansell 9 4 Alessandro Nannini 5 5 Maurício Gugelmin 4Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 McLaren-Honda36 2 Ferrari9 3 Benetton-Ford8 4 Brabham-Judd5 5 March-Judd4Source:
References