1989 French Grand Prix

1989 French Grand Prix
Race 7 of 16 in the 1989 Formula One World Championship
Race details
Date	9 July 1989
Official name	LXXV Rhône-Poulenc Grand Prix de France
Location	Circuit Paul Ricard Le Castellet, Var, France
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	3.813 km (2.369 mi)
Distance	80 laps, 305.040 km (189.543 mi)
Weather	Hot, dry, sunny
Pole position
Driver	Alain Prost	McLaren-Honda
Time	1:07.203
Fastest lap
Driver	Maurício Gugelmin	March-Judd
Time	1:12.090 on lap 29
Podium
First	Alain Prost	McLaren-Honda
Second	Nigel Mansell	Ferrari
Third	Riccardo Patrese	Williams-Renault
Lap leaders

The 1989 French Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Paul Ricard on 9 July 1989. It was the seventh race of the 1989 Formula One World Championship.

The 80-lap race was won from pole position by local driver Alain Prost, driving a McLaren-Honda, with Englishman Nigel Mansell second in a Ferrari and Italian Riccardo Patrese third in a Williams-Renault.

Pre-race

In a press conference before the race, Alain Prost announced that he would be leaving McLaren at the end of the season, with the speculation being that he would join Ferrari in 1990.

Four drivers would make their F1 debuts at this race. Frenchman Jean Alesi, then contesting the Formula 3000 Championship, replaced Michele Alboreto at Tyrrell when the team took on Camel as its major sponsor, clashing with Alboreto's Marlboro sponsorship. Another Frenchman, Éric Bernard, replaced Yannick Dalmas at Larrousse, Dalmas still suffering the effects of Legionnaires' disease. Lotus test driver Martin Donnelly took the place of Derek Warwick at Arrows for this race after Warwick injured his back in a karting accident.

Finally, McLaren test driver Emanuele Pirro replaced Johnny Herbert at Benetton after it was decided that Herbert needed more time to recover from the leg and ankle injuries he had sustained in the Formula 3000 race at Brands Hatch in 1988. Benetton debuted their B189 car, with the new Ford HB engine, at Paul Ricard, Alessandro Nannini driving this car while Pirro drove the older, DFR-powered B188.

Qualifying

Pre-qualifying report

For the first time, both Onyx cars made it into the main qualifying sessions, as Bertrand Gachot and Stefan Johansson came first and second in pre-qualifying. It was Gachot's first pre-qualifying success in seven attempts. Alex Caffi in the Dallara was a few hundredths of a second back in third, and Stefano Modena in the Brabham was the fourth and last prequalifier, marginally faster than the Osella of Nicola Larini.

The other entrants who failed to pre-qualify on the Friday morning were Modena's Brabham team-mate Martin Brundle in sixth, the second time in a row the British driver had failed at this stage. Volker Weidler was seventh in the Rial, his seventh successive failure to pre-qualify. Both Zakspeeds again missed out, Bernd Schneider eighth, and Aguri Suzuki eleventh. Ninth was Piercarlo Ghinzani in the second Osella, the Italian's seventh consecutive pre-qualifying failure, and Pierre-Henri Raphanel was tenth in his Coloni. Gregor Foitek's EuroBrun and Joachim Winkelhock's AGS were bottom of the timesheets. Winkelhock left AGS after this weekend having failed to pre-qualify at any Grand Prix thus far, to be replaced by the recently-sacked Larrousse-Lola driver Yannick Dalmas. ^[1]

Pre-qualifying classification

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Time	Gap
1	37	Bertrand Gachot	Onyx-Ford	1:09.617
2	36	Stefan Johansson	Onyx-Ford	1:09.668	+0.051
3	21	Alex Caffi	Dallara-Ford	1:09.726	+0.109
4	8	Stefano Modena	Brabham-Judd	1:09.917	+0.300
5	17	Nicola Larini	Osella-Ford	1:09.989	+0.372
6	7	Martin Brundle	Brabham-Judd	1.10.181	+0.564
7	39	Volker Weidler	Rial-Ford	1:11.059	+1.442
8	34	Bernd Schneider	Zakspeed-Yamaha	1:11.098	+1.481
9	18	Piercarlo Ghinzani	Osella-Ford	1:11.528	+1.911
10	32	Pierre-Henri Raphanel	Coloni-Ford	1:11.953	+2.336
11	35	Aguri Suzuki	Zakspeed-Yamaha	1:12.031	+2.414
12	33	Gregor Foitek	EuroBrun-Judd	1:12.179	+2.562
13	41	Joachim Winkelhock	AGS-Ford	1:13.173	+3.556

Qualifying report

For the second successive race, Alain Prost narrowly beat McLaren teammate Ayrton Senna to pole position, this time by 0.025 seconds. On the second row were Nigel Mansell in the Ferrari and Nannini in the new Benetton, and on the third row were Thierry Boutsen in the Williams and Gerhard Berger in the second Ferrari. The Larrousse team had also sacked Philippe Alliot prior to the race only to then re-hire him; he responded by qualifying seventh, with the second Williams of Riccardo Patrese alongside him on the fourth row. The top ten was completed by Jonathan Palmer in the Tyrrell and Maurício Gugelmin in the March.

The Onyxes continued their good form from pre-qualifying, with Gachot taking 11th on the grid and Johansson 13th. Debutants Donnelly, Bernard and Alesi were 14th, 15th and 16th respectively, with Pirro 24th in the older Benetton. The other two pre-qualifiers, Modena and Caffi, were 22nd and 26th respectively, Caffi edging out teammate Andrea de Cesaris for the last grid spot.

During the season, the Pirelli qualifying tyres were regularly seen to be faster than their Goodyear counterparts, often allowing the usual lower grid teams to qualify higher up the grid than they might otherwise have been. In France however on the abrasive Paul Ricard surface, this was virtually reversed with Pirelli runners reporting little grip from their usually "demon" qualifiers while the Goodyear runners reported no such issues.

Qualifying classification

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Gap
1	2	Alain Prost	McLaren-Honda	1:08.285	1:07.203
2	1	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda	1:07.920	1:07.228	+0.025
3	27	Nigel Mansell	Ferrari	1:09.030	1:07.455	+0.252
4	19	Alessandro Nannini	Benetton-Ford	1:09.615	1:08.137	+0.934
5	5	Thierry Boutsen	Williams-Renault	1:08.299	1:08.211	+1.008
6	28	Gerhard Berger	Ferrari	1:09.011	1:08.233	+1.030
7	30	Philippe Alliot	Lola-Lamborghini	1:09.478	1:08.561	+1.358
8	6	Riccardo Patrese	Williams-Renault	1:09.326	1:08.993	+1.790
9	3	Jonathan Palmer	Tyrrell-Ford	1:10.238	1:09.026	+1.823
10	15	Maurício Gugelmin	March-Judd	1:10.122	1:09.036	+1.833
11	37	Bertrand Gachot	Onyx-Ford	1:10.564	1:09.122	+1.919
12	16	Ivan Capelli	March-Judd	1:09.569	1:09.283	+2.080
13	36	Stefan Johansson	Onyx-Ford	1:10.600	1:09.299	+2.096
14	9	Martin Donnelly	Arrows-Ford	1:11.223	1:09.524	+2.321
15	29	Éric Bernard	Lola-Lamborghini	1:25.401	1:09.596	+2.393
16	4	Jean Alesi	Tyrrell-Ford	1:09.668	1:09.909	+2.465
17	26	Olivier Grouillard	Ligier-Ford	1:10.410	1:09.717	+2.514
18	25	René Arnoux	Ligier-Ford	1:10.725	1:10.077	+2.874
19	12	Satoru Nakajima	Lotus-Judd	1:12.125	1:10.119	+2.916
20	11	Nelson Piquet	Lotus-Judd	1:10.473	1:10.135	+2.932
21	40	Gabriele Tarquini	AGS-Ford	1:11.136	1:10.216	+3.013
22	8	Stefano Modena	Brabham-Judd	1:10.910	1:10.254	+3.051
23	23	Pierluigi Martini	Minardi-Ford	1:10.640	1:10.267	+3.064
24	20	Emanuele Pirro	Benetton-Ford	1:11.566	1:10.292	+3.089
25	10	Eddie Cheever	Arrows-Ford	1:10.372	—	+3.169
26	21	Alex Caffi	Dallara-Ford	1:11.409	1:10.468	+3.265
27	22	Andrea de Cesaris	Dallara-Ford	1:12.078	1:10.591	+3.388
28	24	Luis Pérez-Sala	Minardi-Ford	1:11.539	1:11.079	+3.876
29	38	Christian Danner	Rial-Ford	1:12.569	1:11.178	+3.975
30	31	Roberto Moreno	Coloni-Ford	1:14.746	1:11.372	+4.169

Race

Race report

At the first start, Senna led into the first corner from Prost, while behind them, Gugelmin locked his brakes and veered into Boutsen's Williams and Berger's Ferrari. The March launched into the air and flipped upside down, also knocking off Mansell's rear wing. The race was immediately red-flagged, a shaken Gugelmin taking the restart from the pit lane along with Mansell and Donnelly.

At the restart, Senna suffered a differential failure, leaving Prost to lead every lap of the race. Berger ran second in the early stages, ahead of Nannini, Boutsen and Ivan Capelli in the second March, before spinning on lap 12 and eventually retiring with a clutch failure. Boutsen developed gearbox problems while Nannini suffered a suspension failure on lap 41, promoting Capelli to second for three laps before his engine failed. This left Alesi second on his debut, ahead of Patrese and Mansell, before he pitted for tyres. Alliot and Gachot also ran in the top six before Alliot suffered an engine failure and Gachot pitted with a flat battery. On lap 61, Patrese spun under pressure from Mansell, allowing the Englishman through into second.

Prost took the chequered flag 44 seconds ahead of Mansell, with Patrese a further 22 seconds back. Alesi was fourth, seven seconds behind Patrese and the last driver on the lead lap, with Johansson scoring Onyx's first points in fifth and Olivier Grouillard in the Ligier scoring his only point for sixth. Pirro was ninth, Bernard 11th and Donnelly 12th, while Gugelmin recovered from his accident by setting the fastest race lap.

With the win, Prost extended his lead over Senna in the Drivers' Championship to 11 points.

Race classification

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	2	Alain Prost	McLaren-Honda	80	1:38:29.411	1	9
2	27	Nigel Mansell	Ferrari	80	+ 44.017	3	6
3	6	Riccardo Patrese	Williams-Renault	80	+ 1:06.921	8	4
4	4	Jean Alesi	Tyrrell-Ford	80	+ 1:13.232	16	3
5	36	Stefan Johansson	Onyx-Ford	79	+ 1 Lap	13	2
6	26	Olivier Grouillard	Ligier-Ford	79	+ 1 Lap	17	1
7	10	Eddie Cheever	Arrows-Ford	79	+ 1 Lap	25
8	11	Nelson Piquet	Lotus-Judd	78	+ 2 Laps	20
9	20	Emanuele Pirro	Benetton-Ford	78	+ 2 Laps	24
10	3	Jonathan Palmer	Tyrrell-Ford	78	+ 2 Laps	9
11	29	Éric Bernard	Lola-Lamborghini	77	+ 3 Laps	15
12	9	Martin Donnelly	Arrows-Ford	77	+ 3 Laps	14
13	37	Bertrand Gachot	Onyx-Ford	76	Engine	11
NC	15	Maurício Gugelmin	March-Judd	71	+ 9 Laps	10
Ret	8	Stefano Modena	Brabham-Judd	67	Engine	22
Ret	5	Thierry Boutsen	Williams-Renault	50	Gearbox	5
Ret	12	Satoru Nakajima	Lotus-Judd	49	Engine	19
Ret	16	Ivan Capelli	March-Judd	43	Engine	12
Ret	19	Alessandro Nannini	Benetton-Ford	40	Suspension	4
Ret	23	Pierluigi Martini	Minardi-Ford	31	Engine	23
Ret	30	Philippe Alliot	Lola-Lamborghini	30	Engine	7
Ret	40	Gabriele Tarquini	AGS-Ford	30	Engine	21
Ret	28	Gerhard Berger	Ferrari	29	Clutch	6
Ret	21	Alex Caffi	Dallara-Ford	27	Clutch	26
Ret	25	René Arnoux	Ligier-Ford	14	Gearbox	18
Ret	1	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda	0	Differential	2
DNQ	22	Andrea de Cesaris	Dallara-Ford
DNQ	24	Luis Pérez-Sala	Minardi-Ford
DNQ	38	Christian Danner	Rial-Ford
DNQ	31	Roberto Moreno	Coloni-Ford
DNPQ	17	Nicola Larini	Osella-Ford
DNPQ	7	Martin Brundle	Brabham-Judd
DNPQ	39	Volker Weidler	Rial-Ford
DNPQ	34	Bernd Schneider	Zakspeed-Yamaha
DNPQ	18	Piercarlo Ghinzani	Osella-Ford
DNPQ	32	Pierre-Henri Raphanel	Coloni-Ford
DNPQ	35	Aguri Suzuki	Zakspeed-Yamaha
DNPQ	33	Gregor Foitek	EuroBrun-Judd
DNPQ	41	Joachim Winkelhock	AGS-Ford
Source: [2]

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Alain Prost 38 2 Ayrton Senna 27 3 Riccardo Patrese 22 4 Nigel Mansell 15 5 Thierry Boutsen 13 Source: [3]

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 McLaren-Honda 65 2 Williams-Renault 35 3 Ferrari 15 4 Benetton-Ford 13 5 Tyrrell-Ford 10 Source: [3]

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

1. Walker, Murray (1989). Murray Walker's Grand Prix Year. First Formula Publishing. pp. 61–68. ISBN   1-870066-22-7.
2. "1989 French Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 18 January 2015. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
3. "France 1988 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 17 March 2019.

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