1989 Japanese Grand Prix

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1989 Japanese Grand Prix
Race 15 of 16 in the 1989 Formula One World Championship
Suzuka circuit map (1987-2002).svg
Race details
Date22 October 1989
Official name XV Fuji Television Japanese Grand Prix
Location Suzuka Circuit, Suzuka, Japan
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 5.860 km (3.641 [1] miles)
Distance 53 laps, 310.580 km (192.985 miles)
Weather Dry, warm, cloudy
Attendance 283,000 [2]
Pole position
Driver McLaren-Honda
Time 1:38.041
Fastest lap
Driver Flag of France.svg Alain Prost [note 1] McLaren-Honda
Time 1:43.506 on lap 43
Podium
First Benetton-Ford
Second Williams-Renault
Third Williams-Renault
Lap leaders
  • 1989 Japanese Grand Prix

The 1989 Japanese Grand Prix (formally the XV Fuji Television Japanese Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held at Suzuka Circuit, Japan, on 22 October 1989. It was the 15th and penultimate round of the 1989 Formula One season. The 53-lap race was won by Alessandro Nannini for the Benetton team, from a sixth position start. Riccardo Patrese finished second for the Williams team, with Thierry Boutsen third in the other Williams car. It was Nannini's only win.

Contents

The race is one of the most controversial in F1 history, as the culmination of Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna's tumultuous two-year rivalry as teammates at McLaren. The Japanese Grand Prix decided the 1989 Drivers' Championship in Prost's favour, after a collision on lap 47 at the final chicane between him and Senna put them both off the track. While Prost abandoned his stalled car, Senna restarted his, made a pit stop to change his front wing, and overhauled Alessandro Nannini to take victory. Following the race Senna was controversially disqualified for getting a push start from the marshals to rejoin the circuit, handing the title to Prost. [3]

Pre-race

As in 1988, the McLaren team had been dominant throughout 1989. Going into this race, Prost had a 16-point lead in the Drivers' Championship over Senna, 76 to 60. The Brazilian had won six races to the Frenchman's four, including the previous race in Spain, but had only finished in the points on one other occasion, while Prost had only finished out of the points once all season. Therefore, Senna had to win both this race and the final race in Australia to have any chance of retaining his World Drivers' Championship. However, if Senna did win the last two races, he would be champion regardless of where Prost finished, due to the dropped scores system.

Qualifying

Pre-qualifying report

Nicola Larini was fastest in the Friday morning pre-qualifying session for the second Grand Prix in a row, the Osella driver just edging out Philippe Alliot in his Larrousse-Lola. A surprising third place was the Zakspeed of Bernd Schneider, who had not pre-qualified since the first race of the season in Brazil. The car's underpowered Yamaha engine had undergone some testing and development work since the last race, with some clear improvement made. "Our season starts here," Schneider said. [4] The fourth pre-qualifying spot went to Michele Alboreto in the other Lola.

Larini's team-mate Piercarlo Ghinzani missed out this time in fifth place, with Roberto Moreno sixth in his Coloni. The Onyx team failed to get either car through to the main qualifying sessions for the first time since the third round at Monaco, as Stefan Johansson could only manage seventh after a fuel pump failure. Zakspeed's improvement could only help Aguri Suzuki to eighth place, his fifteenth straight failure to pre-qualify. Oscar Larrauri was ninth in the EuroBrun, ahead of the other Onyx of JJ Lehto. The AGS team had spent three days testing in France, but were both well off the pace in this session, with only Enrico Bertaggia's Coloni below them on the time sheets, as the Italian failed to post a time. [4]

Pre-qualifying classification

PosNoDriverConstructorTimeGap
117 Flag of Italy.svg Nicola Larini Osella-Ford 1:43.035
230 Flag of France.svg Philippe Alliot Lola-Lamborghini 1:43.089+0.054
334 Flag of Germany.svg Bernd Schneider Zakspeed-Yamaha 1:44.053+1.018
429 Flag of Italy.svg Michele Alboreto Lola-Lamborghini 1:44.075+1.040
518 Flag of Italy.svg Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Ford 1:44.313+1.278
631 Flag of Brazil (1968-1992).svg Roberto Moreno Coloni-Ford 1:44.498+1.463
736 Flag of Sweden.svg Stefan Johansson Onyx-Ford 1:44.582+1.547
835 Flag of Japan (1870-1999).svg Aguri Suzuki Zakspeed-Yamaha 1:44.780+1.745
933 Flag of Argentina.svg Oscar Larrauri EuroBrun-Judd 1:45.446+2.411
1037 Flag of Finland.svg JJ Lehto Onyx-Ford 1:45.787+2.752
1140 Flag of Italy.svg Gabriele Tarquini AGS-Ford 1:46.705+3.670
1241 Flag of France.svg Yannick Dalmas AGS-Ford 1:48.306+5.271
1332 Flag of Italy.svg Enrico Bertaggia Coloni-Ford no time

Qualifying report

As expected, the two McLarens dominated qualifying. Even so, Senna was easily the class of the field, posting a time over a second and a half faster than teammate Prost. As would quickly become clear in the race though, Prost was aware early on in the event that the McLarens were sufficiently superior to all the other cars on the grid, that even with his car setup fully optimised for the race, he could qualify on the front row alongside Senna, but with a car setup far better suited to the demands of the race than his teammate – he would just need to beat the Brazilian off the line at the start and he would have a considerable advantage during the race, as would be seen. The Ferraris of Gerhard Berger and Nigel Mansell filled the second row, with Berger just edging his own teammate into fourth place by two-tenths of a second. The Williams of Riccardo Patrese was half a second behind Mansell in fifth place, and joining him on row three was fellow Italian Alessandro Nannini in his Benetton-Ford using the development HBA4 V8 engine. Behind Nannini positions were closely contested, with only six-tenths of a second covering the next six qualifying times, including that of former World Champion Nelson Piquet's Lotus-Judd in eleventh position. Jonathan Palmer's Tyrrell-Ford took the final grid slot in twenty-sixth place, while four failed to qualify (including former Ferrari drivers René Arnoux and Michele Alboreto who between them had won 12 Grands Prix), with nine drivers failing to pre-qualify.

Bernd Schneider qualified the Zakspeed-Yamaha for only its second race of the season (he also qualified for the season opener in Brazil). Schneider qualified 21st, only 4.851 seconds slower than Senna. Schneider's teammate Aguri Suzuki was not as successful in his home Grand Prix. After making his F1 debut for the Larrousse team at Suzuka in 1988, Suzuki recorded his 15th straight failure to pre-qualify the under-powered Zakspeed.

Qualifying classification

PosNoDriverConstructorQ1Q2Gap
11 Flag of Brazil (1968-1992).svg Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 1:39.4931:38.041
22 Flag of France.svg Alain Prost McLaren-Honda 1:40.8751:39.771+1.730
328 Flag of Austria.svg Gerhard Berger Ferrari 1:41.2531:40.187+2.146
427 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Nigel Mansell Ferrari 1:40.6081:40.406+2.365
56 Flag of Italy.svg Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault 1:42.3971:40.936+2.895
619 Flag of Italy.svg Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Ford 1:41.6011:41.103+3.062
75 Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Thierry Boutsen Williams-Renault 1:42.9431:41.324+3.283
830 Flag of France.svg Philippe Alliot Lola-Lamborghini 1:42.5341:41.336+3.295
98 Flag of Italy.svg Stefano Modena Brabham-Judd 1:42.9091:41.458+3.417
1017 Flag of Italy.svg Nicola Larini Osella-Ford 1:42.4831:41.519+3.478
1111 Flag of Brazil (1968-1992).svg Nelson Piquet Lotus-Judd 1:43.3861:41.802+3.761
1212 Flag of Japan (1870-1999).svg Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Judd 1:43.3701:41.988+3.947
137 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Martin Brundle Brabham-Judd 1:44.2361:42.182+4.141
1424 Flag of Spain.svg Luis Pérez-Sala Minardi-Ford 1:43.1071:42.283+4.242
1521 Flag of Italy.svg Alex Caffi Dallara-Ford 1:43.1711:42.488+4.447
1622 Flag of Italy.svg Andrea de Cesaris Dallara-Ford 1:43.9041:42.581+4.540
1716 Flag of Italy.svg Ivan Capelli March-Judd 1:43.8511:42.672+4.631
184 Flag of France.svg Jean Alesi Tyrrell-Ford 1:43.3061:42.709+4.668
1923 Flag of Italy.svg Paolo Barilla Minardi-Ford 1:46.0961:42.780+4.739
2015 Flag of Brazil (1968-1992).svg Maurício Gugelmin March-Judd 1:44.8051:42.880+4.839
2134 Flag of Germany.svg Bernd Schneider Zakspeed-Yamaha 1:44.3231:42.892+4.851
2220 Flag of Italy.svg Emanuele Pirro Benetton-Ford 1:43.2171:43.063+5.022
2326 Flag of France.svg Olivier Grouillard Ligier-Ford 1:45.8011:43.379+5.338
2410 Flag of the United States.svg Eddie Cheever Arrows-Ford 1:44.5011:43.511+5.470
259 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Derek Warwick Arrows-Ford 1:44.2881:43.599+5.558
263 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 1:43.9551:43.757+5.716
2725 Flag of France.svg René Arnoux Ligier-Ford 1:44.2211:44.030+5.989
2829 Flag of Italy.svg Michele Alboreto Lola-Lamborghini 1:44.0631:44.101+6.022
2938 Flag of France.svg Pierre-Henri Raphanel Rial-Ford 2:11.3281:47.160+9.119
3039 Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Bertrand Gachot Rial-Ford 1:50.8831:47.295+9.254

Race

Race report

To improve his straight-line speed, Prost had his Gurney flap removed before the race, without Senna's knowledge, as revealed by Formula One journalist Maurice Hamilton. [5] At the start, Prost got away much faster than Senna as he was hoping, instantly wiping out the Brazilian's pole position advantage. In fact, Senna's start was so poor that Gerhard Berger managed to get alongside him from his third place on the grid. But Senna's McLaren had the inside line into the first corner, and he managed to keep the Ferrari behind him. With a race-setup now clearly superior to his teammate's, over the first half of the race Prost steadily built his lead up to almost six seconds, and then Senna lost an additional two seconds due to a slow pitstop. However, with a new set of tyres on the balance of power shifted, and the reigning World Champion began to reel in the Frenchman's lead.

Behind the leading pair, after his initial charge, Gerhard Berger's Ferrari gearbox failed on lap 34, and the sister Ferrari of Nigel Mansell suffered engine failure nine laps later. With the Scuderia's cars gone, all real challenge to the McLaren charge had evaporated. The only opposition left for Senna and Prost was each other as they were drawing away from the new third placed man Alessandro Nannini. The Italian's Benetton used the less powerful, but more reliable, HBA1 engine in the race and not the development HBA4. His teammate Emanuele Pirro did use the development V8 in the race, and while he was not as quick as Nannini, he did use it to move up to 10th after starting 22nd. Pirro's race ended on lap 33 after a collision at the hairpin with Andrea de Cesaris where Pirro ran into the back of his fellow Italian's Dallara.

Senna finally caught Prost on lap 40, and for the next five laps the gap between the two remained at approximately one second as the two McLaren drivers tried to position themselves tactically. Prost had greater top speed on the straights, while Senna's high-downforce settings gave him the advantage through the corners. On lap 47 Senna used his greater cornering speed to make sure that he remained close behind Prost's car through the challenging, double-apex Spoon Corner. This put Senna's car directly in the aerodynamic tow from the leading McLaren, negating much of Prost's straight line advantage. Through the infamous 130R, ultra high-speed, left curve, Senna cut Prost's lead still further, putting his MP4/5 only two car lengths behind his rival.

The next corner after 130R is the chicane, the second-slowest corner on the circuit. As Prost began to brake for the corner Senna dived alongside, but Prost saw the move in his mirrors and moved his car across the track to block his path (Prost had told team boss Ron Dennis before the race that in the past he had left the door open if Senna challenged so as not to take both team cars out, but he would not be leaving the door open on this day). Neither driver was willing to back down and the two collided just before the apex of the turn. With their wheels locked and their engines stalled, the two cars slid to a halt in the mouth of the partially blocked chicane escape road. As the vehicles were directly in the line of any possible out of control cars, the marshals hurried to clear them. While Prost unbuckled his belts and left his car (thinking this race was over and the World Championship finally settled in his favour), Senna gestured to the marshals to push his down the escape road. As the McLaren was pushed forward, Senna used the forward motion to restart his engine, and after it fired he immediately accelerated down the escape road, weaving between the temporary chicane bollards arranged in the roadway.

Although his car was running, Senna's MP4/5 had suffered damage to its front wing during the collision, and while Prost slowly wandered back to the nearby pit lane, Senna had to complete almost an entire lap of the circuit before pitting for a repair. Once his nosecone had been replaced Senna continued the race. Some indication of McLaren's dominance is shown by the fact that – despite the collision, the subsequent period spent stalled, the slow in-lap, and the pit stop delay while his car was repaired – when Senna rejoined the race he was only five seconds behind the new race leader, Alessandro Nannini.

Senna did not take long to catch Nannini's Benetton. He passed the Italian only two laps after having his nosecone replaced, in exactly the same place as the collision with Prost had occurred (unlike Prost, Nannini didn't put up a significant fight, a locked wheel and not an aggressively positioned car the only indication of how hard he tried to keep Senna behind). Two laps later Senna took the chequered flag. Nannini finished in second place, followed by the two Williams-Renaults of Riccardo Patrese and Thierry Boutsen who had driven in tandem and off the pace throughout the race. The only other driver on the same lap as the winner was Nelson Piquet; almost a lap down, but still far better placed than the eleventh position he started in, mostly due to the race's high attrition rate. Only eleven of the twenty-six starters were still running at the finish. Behind Piquet were two British drivers who also benefited from the misfortune of others, and while Martin Brundle's sixth-place finish was remarkable enough, Derek Warwick had come from the back row of the grid in his Arrows to take a seventh place. In a ploy that worked a treat for him, before the race Warwick had taken the extraordinary step of removing virtually all downforce from his car in the hopes that the extra straight line speed would give him an advantage. [6]

Post-race

Immediately after the race, Senna was disqualified by race stewards for missing the chicane following his collision with Prost. Senna personally alleged that the decision had been made by FISA President Jean-Marie Balestre to give the championship to his fellow countryman Prost (the race stewards and Balestre both denied this was the case, stating that the FISA boss wasn't even present at the stewards meeting when the decision to disqualify Senna was made). Nannini was awarded the victory as a result, and he took the podium ceremony with Patrese and Boutsen. This would prove to be Alessandro Nannini's only victory in a Formula One career that was cut short by a helicopter crash almost exactly a year later, which severed his right forearm. Senna's disqualification also meant that it was mathematically impossible for him to overhaul Prost's points total, and so the 1989 Drivers' Championship went to the Frenchman.

As he had gained no competitive advantage by missing the chicane, Senna and McLaren attempted to appeal the disqualification ruling. McLaren boss Ron Dennis explained that it had nothing to do with stopping Prost (who was leaving McLaren for Ferrari) winning the championship, it was that the team strongly felt they had a win taken away from them by an incorrect ruling, and that resulted in a loss of prize money and bonus sponsorship money. At the FISA hearing in Paris later the same week, Senna's disqualification was not only upheld, but an additional US$100,000 fine and suspended six-month ban were imposed on the driver (FISA also labeled Senna as a "Dangerous driver"). Ever since the incident, there has been much debate as to whether Prost intentionally ran into Senna, whether Senna was overambitious in his overtaking move, or whether the collision was simply a racing incident between two embittered teammates.

Race classification

PosNoDriverConstructorTyreLapsTime/RetiredGridPoints
119 Flag of Italy.svg Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Ford G 531:35:06.27769
26 Flag of Italy.svg Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault G 53+ 11.90456
35 Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Thierry Boutsen Williams-Renault G 53+ 13.44674
411 Flag of Brazil (1968-1992).svg Nelson Piquet Lotus-Judd G 53+ 1:44.225113
57 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Martin Brundle Brabham-Judd P 52+ 1 Lap132
69 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Derek Warwick Arrows-Ford G 52+ 1 Lap251
715 Flag of Brazil (1968-1992).svg Maurício Gugelmin March-Judd G 52+ 1 Lap20 
810 Flag of the United States.svg Eddie Cheever Arrows-Ford G 52+ 1 Lap24 
921 Flag of Italy.svg Alex Caffi Dallara-Ford P 52+ 1 Lap15 
1022 Flag of Italy.svg Andrea de Cesaris Dallara-Ford P 51+ 2 Laps16 
Ret2 Flag of France.svg Alain Prost McLaren-Honda G 47Collision2 
Ret8 Flag of Italy.svg Stefano Modena Brabham-Judd P 46Engine9 
Ret27 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Nigel Mansell Ferrari G 43Engine4 
Ret12 Flag of Japan (1870-1999).svg Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Judd G 41Engine12 
Ret4 Flag of France.svg Jean Alesi Tyrrell-Ford G 37Gearbox18 
Ret30 Flag of France.svg Philippe Alliot Lola-Lamborghini G 36Engine8 
Ret28 Flag of Austria.svg Gerhard Berger Ferrari G 34Gearbox3 
Ret20 Flag of Italy.svg Emanuele Pirro Benetton-Ford G 33Collision22 
Ret26 Flag of France.svg Olivier Grouillard Ligier-Ford G 31Engine23 
Ret16 Flag of Italy.svg Ivan Capelli March-Judd G 27Suspension17 
Ret17 Flag of Italy.svg Nicola Larini Osella-Ford P 21Brakes10 
Ret3 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford G 20Fuel Leak26 
Ret34 Flag of Germany.svg Bernd Schneider Zakspeed-Yamaha P 1Gearbox21 
Ret24 Flag of Spain.svg Luis Pérez-Sala Minardi-Ford P 0Collision14 
Ret23 Flag of Italy.svg Paolo Barilla Minardi-Ford P 0Clutch19 
DSQ1 Flag of Brazil (1968-1992).svg Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda G 53Rejoined Track Illegally 1 1 
DNQ25 Flag of France.svg René Arnoux LigierFord G
DNQ29 Flag of Italy.svg Michele Alboreto LolaLamborghini G
DNQ38 Flag of France.svg Pierre-Henri Raphanel RialFord G
DNQ39 Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Bertrand Gachot RialFord G
DNPQ18 Flag of Italy.svg Piercarlo Ghinzani OsellaFord P
DNPQ31 Flag of Brazil.svg Roberto Moreno ColoniFord P
DNPQ36 Flag of Sweden.svg Stefan Johansson OnyxFord G
DNPQ35 Flag of Japan.svg Aguri Suzuki ZakspeedYamaha P
DNPQ33 Flag of Argentina.svg Oscar Larrauri EuroBrunJudd P
DNPQ37 Flag of Finland.svg JJ Lehto OnyxFord G
DNPQ40 Flag of Italy.svg Gabriele Tarquini AGSFord G
DNPQ41 Flag of France.svg Yannick Dalmas AGSFord G
DNPQ32 Flag of Italy.svg Enrico Bertaggia ColoniFord P
Source: [7] [8]
Notes

Championship standings after the race

Footnotes

  1. Ayrton Senna set the fastest lap of 1:43.025 on lap 38, but this was annulled due to his disqualification.

[2] Reali Júnior, Elpídio (6 November 1996). "Balestre admite ter ajudado Prost contra Senna". O Estado de S. Paulo. Retrieved 11 July 2017.

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References

  1. "1989 Japanese Grand Prix | Motorsport Database".
  2. "Formula 1 Honda Japanese Grand Prix 2022 – Media Kit" (PDF). Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. 5 October 2022. Retrieved 5 October 2022.
  3. "The Japanese GP: Often the scene of title deciders — and controversy". 24 September 2023.
  4. 1 2 Walker, Murray (1989). Murray Walker's Grand Prix Year. First Formula Publishing. pp. 125–132. ISBN   1-870066-22-7.
  5. "Senna Journalists Special". SpySportsF1. Retrieved 1 May 2014.
  6. Roebuck, Nigel; Henry, Alan (1989). Naismith, Barry (ed.). "Round 15:Japan The Door Slams Shut". Grand Prix. 5. Glen Waverly, Victoria: Garry Sparke & Associates: 142. ISBN   0-908081-99-5.
  7. "1989 Japanese Grand Prix". Formula One. Archived from the original on 18 January 2015. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  8. "1989 Japanese Grand Prix – Race Results & History – GP Archive". GPArchive.com. 22 October 1989. Retrieved 27 November 2021.
  9. 1 2 "Japan 1989 – Championship • STATS F1". statsf1.com. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
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1989 Spanish Grand Prix
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