The 1989 Spanish Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Jerez on 1 October 1989. It was the fourteenth race of the 1989 Formula One World Championship. The 73-lap race was won from pole position by Ayrton Senna, driving a McLaren-Honda. Gerhard Berger was second in a Ferrari, while Senna's teammate and Drivers' Championship rival Alain Prost was third.
With Nigel Mansell banned from the race and fined $50,000 following his disqualification and collision with Senna in Portugal the previous week, Ferrari entered only one car for Berger. Senna's win kept the Drivers' Championship alive, but Prost's result meant that the Brazilian had to win both remaining races in order to beat the Frenchman to the title.
Qualifying Pre-qualifying report Osella topped a pre-qualifying session for the first time this season as Nicola Larini was fastest by four tenths of a second, ahead of Onyx driver JJ Lehto. Larini's team-mate Piercarlo Ghinzani was third, only the second time in 1989 he had progressed to the main qualifying sessions. The fourth pre-qualifier was the Larrousse-Lola of Philippe Alliot.
Gabriele Tarquini was fifth in his AGS, his sixth successive failure to pre-qualify. Stefan Johansson was down in sixth in the other Onyx after an engine failure, failing to pre-qualify after his podium achievement at the previous race. Roberto Moreno was seventh in the Coloni, with the other Larrousse-Lola of Michele Alboreto down in eighth, his lowest placing thus far. The usual suspects were in the lower positions, with ninth-placed Bernd Schneider notching up his thirteenth consecutive failure to pre-qualify in the Zakspeed, followed by Yannick Dalmas in the other AGS. Schneider's team-mate Aguri Suzuki was eleventh, his fourteenth failure, ahead of Oscar Larrauri's EuroBrun. Bottom of the timings was Enrico Bertaggia in the second Coloni, over two seconds behind his team-mate Moreno.
Pre-qualifying classification Pos No Driver Constructor Time Gap 1 17 Nicola Larini Osella-Ford 1:23.566 — 2 37 JJ Lehto Onyx-Ford 1:23.958 +0.392 3 18 Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Ford 1:24.586 +1.020 4 30 Philippe Alliot Lola-Lamborghini 1:24.610 +1.044 5 40 Gabriele Tarquini AGS-Ford 1:24.847 +1.281 6 36 Stefan Johansson Onyx-Ford 1:24.944 +1.378 7 31 Roberto Moreno Coloni-Ford 1:25.074 +1.508 8 29 Michele Alboreto Lola-Lamborghini 1:25.646 +2.080 9 34 Bernd Schneider Zakspeed-Yamaha 1:25.673 +2.107 10 41 Yannick Dalmas AGS-Ford 1:26.131 +2.565 11 35 Aguri Suzuki Zakspeed-Yamaha 1:26.609 +3.043 12 33 Oscar Larrauri EuroBrun-Judd 1:26.803 +3.237 13 32 Enrico Bertaggia Coloni-Ford 1:27.236 +3.670
Qualifying report Ayrton Senna blasted around the 4.218 km (2.6209 mi) Jerez circuit in 1:20.291 to take his pole position record to 40. Gerhard Berger was second in his Ferrari 640, only 0.274 seconds behind the man who would be his teammate at McLaren. Over a second behind Senna in third was world championship leader Alain Prost in his McLaren, with the surprise of late season qualifying, Pierluigi Martini, fourth in his Minardi, the Pirelli qualifying tyres once again coming to the fore. Martini had been an incredible second fastest after Friday qualifying, only 0.388 slower than Senna.
Philippe Alliot snared a career best fifth place on the grid in his Larrousse, proving that both the Lola chassis and the Lamborghini V12 designed by Mauro Forghieri was starting to come good. It also enhanced Alliot's reputation as a demon qualifier.
Williams-Renault entered two different model cars for their drivers Thierry Boutsen and Riccardo Patrese. Boutsen qualified 21st the new Williams FW13 that had debuted in Portugal, while Patrese with an eye on possibly finishing 3rd in the Drivers' Championship, reverted to the older model FW12C and ended up sixth on the grid ahead his former Brabham teammate Nelson Piquet in a surprisingly fast Lotus.
René Arnoux (Ligier) and the Rial pair of Pierre-Henri Raphanel and Gregor Foitek all failed to qualify for the race.
Qualifying classification Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap 1 1 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 1:21.855 1:20.291 — 2 28 Gerhard Berger Ferrari 1:22.276 1:20.565 +0.274 3 2 Alain Prost McLaren-Honda 1:23.113 1:21.368 +1.077 4 23 Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 1:22.243 1:21.479 +1.188 5 30 Philippe Alliot Lola-Lamborghini 1:23.597 1:21.708 +1.417 6 6 Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault 1:24.033 1:21.777 +1.486 7 11 Nelson Piquet Lotus-Judd 1:23.235 1:21.922 +1.631 8 7 Martin Brundle Brabham-Judd 1:23.761 1:22.133 +1.842 9 4 Jean Alesi Tyrrell-Ford 1:24.615 1:22.363 +2.072 10 20 Emanuele Pirro Benetton-Ford 1:24.647 1:22.567 +2.276 11 17 Nicola Larini Osella-Ford 1:23.538 1:22.620 +2.329 12 8 Stefano Modena Brabham-Judd 1:23.679 1:22.826 +2.535 13 3 Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 1:23.494 1:23.052 +2.761 14 19 Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Ford 1:24.233 1:23.105 +2.814 15 22 Andrea de Cesaris Dallara-Ford 1:24.900 1:23.186 +2.895 16 9 Derek Warwick Arrows-Ford 1:24.161 1:23.222 +2.931 17 37 JJ Lehto Onyx-Ford 1:24.322 1:23.243 +2.952 18 12 Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Judd — 1:23.309 +3.018 19 16 Ivan Capelli March-Judd 1:23.401 — +3.110 20 24 Luis Pérez-Sala Minardi-Ford 1:23.908 1:23.443 +3.152 21 5 Thierry Boutsen Williams-Renault 1:24.839 1:23.657 +3.366 22 10 Eddie Cheever Arrows-Ford 1:24.222 1:23.729 +3.438 23 21 Alex Caffi Dallara-Ford 1:24.658 1:23.763 +3.472 24 26 Olivier Grouillard Ligier-Ford 1:24.991 1:23.931 +3.640 25 18 Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Ford 1:26.147 1:24.003 +3.712 26 15 Maurício Gugelmin March-Judd 1:28.311 1:24.707 +4.416 27 25 René Arnoux Ligier-Ford 1:26.767 1:25.190 +4.899 28 39 Pierre-Henri Raphanel Rial-Ford 1:28.311 1:25.443 +5.152 29 38 Gregor Foitek Rial-Ford — 1:29.226 +8.935
Race Race report McLaren's reigning World Champion Ayrton Senna took the pole, set the fastest race lap and kept the world championship alive with his sixth win of the season. Second with his third podium finish in a row following his second in Italy and his win in the previous race in Portugal was the Ferrari 640 of Gerhard Berger. World Championship leader Alain Prost finished third in his McLaren-Honda in what was his last race finish for the team with whom he won the and World Drivers' Championships.
Rounding out the points were the 'find of the season' Jean Alesi in his Tyrrell in fourth, the older model Williams-Renault of Patrese in fifth in what would be the FW12C's final race, and giving the Lamborghini V12 its first ever points finish in Formula One was Alliot in what would be the best drive of his Grand Prix career.
Prost's third place gave him a 16-point lead over Senna with only two races to go. If he was to retain his title, the Brazilian would need to win in both Japan and Australia.
Race classification Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 1 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 73 1:47:48.264 1 9 2 28 Gerhard Berger Ferrari 73 + 27.051 2 6 3 2 Alain Prost McLaren-Honda 73 + 53.788 3 4 4 4 Jean Alesi Tyrrell-Ford 72 + 1 Lap 9 3 5 6 Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault 72 + 1 Lap 6 2 6 30 Philippe Alliot Lola-Lamborghini 72 + 1 Lap 5 1 7 22 Andrea de Cesaris Dallara-Ford 72 + 1 Lap 15 8 11 Nelson Piquet Lotus-Judd 71 + 2 Laps 7 9 9 Derek Warwick Arrows-Ford 71 + 2 Laps 16 10 3 Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 71 + 2 Laps 13 10 Eddie Cheever Arrows-Ford 61 Engine 22 20 Emanuele Pirro Benetton-Ford 59 Spun Off 10 21 Alex Caffi Dallara-Ford 55 Engine 23 7 Martin Brundle Brabham-Judd 51 Spun Off 8 15 Maurício Gugelmin March-Judd 47 Collision 26 24 Luis Pérez-Sala Minardi-Ford 47 Spun Off 20 5 Thierry Boutsen Williams-Renault 40 Fuel Pump 21 26 Olivier Grouillard Ligier-Ford 34 Engine 24 23 Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 27 Spun Off 4 16 Ivan Capelli March-Judd 23 Transmission 19 37 JJ Lehto Onyx-Ford 20 Gearbox 17 18 Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Ford 17 Gearbox 25 19 Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Ford 14 Spun Off 14 8 Stefano Modena Brabham-Judd 11 Electrical 12 17 Nicola Larini Osella-Ford 6 Suspension 11 12 Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Judd 0 Collision 18 25 René Arnoux Ligier-Ford 39 Pierre-Henri Raphanel Rial-Ford 38 Gregor Foitek Rial-Ford 40 Gabriele Tarquini AGS-Ford 36 Stefan Johansson Onyx-Ford 31 Roberto Moreno Coloni-Ford 29 Michele Alboreto Lola-Lamborghini 35 Aguri Suzuki Zakspeed-Yamaha 41 Yannick Dalmas AGS-Ford 34 Bernd Schneider Zakspeed-Yamaha 33 Oscar Larrauri EuroBrun-Judd 32 Enrico Bertaggia Coloni-Ford
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings PosDriverPoints 1 Alain Prost 76 (81) 2 Ayrton Senna 60 3 Nigel Mansell 38 4 Riccardo Patrese 30 5 Thierry Boutsen 24Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 McLaren-Honda141 2 Ferrari59 3 Williams-Renault54 4 Benetton-Ford22 5 Tyrrell-Ford16Source:
Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
References