1989 Japanese Grand Prix

May 2022 F1 Japanese Japan 1947 Suzuka circuit map (1987-2002).svg XV Fuji Television Japanese Grand Prix 22 October 1989 15 16 Suzuka Circuit, Suzuka, Japan Permanent racing facility 3.641https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/database/races/1989-japanese-grand-prix/ 1989 Japanese Grand Prix | Motorsport Database 5.860 53 192.985 310.580 Dry, warm, cloudy 283,000https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/2022_japanesegp_mediakit_english.pdf Formula 1 Honda Japanese Grand Prix 2022 – Media Kit Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile 5 October 2022 5 October 2022 Ayrton Senna Brazil 1968 McLaren-Honda 1:38.041 Alain ProstAyrton Senna set the fastest lap of 1:43.025 on lap 38, but this was annulled due to his disqualification. France McLaren-Honda 1:43.506 43 Alessandro Nannini Italy Benetton-Ford Riccardo Patrese Italy Williams-Renault Thierry Boutsen Belgium Williams-Renault JPN The 1989 Japanese Grand Prix (formally the XV Fuji Television Japanese Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held on 22 October 1989 at Suzuka Circuit. 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. It was Nannini's only win. The race is one of the most famous in F1 history, as the culmination of Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna's tumultuous two-year rivalry as teammates at McLaren. With Prost leading the championship by 16 points, Senna had to win both races to possibly defend the championship, and with Prost leading the race, too, on lap 47 of 53 the Brazilian tried to pass at the inside of the chicane. Senna failed to get ahead, failed to turn in, and made both cars go straight, with his front wheels always behind Prost's wheels. Both cars came to a stop next to each other at the entry of the escape road, both had missed the entry to the chicane. Prost abandoned his stalled car, while Senna got his restarted by marshals, weaved through the barriers, rejoined the track after the chicane, made a pit stop to change his front wing, and overhauled Alessandro Nannini to take the checkered flag. Following the race Senna was disqualified for getting an advantage by missing the chicane, handing the win to Nannini and the title to Prost.https://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2023/09/24/more-sports/suzuka-drama-over-the-years/ The Japanese GP: Often the scene of title deciders – and controversy 24 September 2023 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. 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. 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.Walker Murray 1989 Murray Walker's Grand Prix Year First Formula Publishing 125–132 1-870066-22-7 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. Pre-qualifying classification Pos No Driver Constructor Time Gap 1 17 ITA Nicola Larini Osella-Ford 1:43.035 — 2 30 FRA Philippe Alliot Lola-Lamborghini 1:43.089 +0.054 3 34 FRG Bernd Schneider Zakspeed-Yamaha 1:44.053 +1.018 4 29 ITA Michele Alboreto Lola-Lamborghini 1:44.075 +1.040 5 18 ITA Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Ford 1:44.313 +1.278 6 31 BRA 1968 Roberto Moreno Coloni-Ford 1:44.498 +1.463 7 36 SWE Stefan Johansson Onyx-Ford 1:44.582 +1.547 8 35 JPN 1947 Aguri Suzuki Zakspeed-Yamaha 1:44.780 +1.745 9 33 ARG Oscar Larrauri EuroBrun-Judd 1:45.446 +2.411 10 37 FIN JJ Lehto Onyx-Ford 1:45.787 +2.752 11 40 ITA Gabriele Tarquini AGS-Ford 1:46.705 +3.670 12 41 FRA Yannick Dalmas AGS-Ford 1:48.306 +5.271 13 32 ITA 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 Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap 1 1 BRA 1968 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 1:39.493 1:38.041 — 2 2 FRA Alain Prost McLaren-Honda 1:40.875 1:39.771 +1.730 3 28 AUT Gerhard Berger Ferrari 1:41.253 1:40.187 +2.146 4 27 GBR Nigel Mansell Ferrari 1:40.608 1:40.406 +2.365 5 6 ITA Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault 1:42.397 1:40.936 +2.895 6 19 ITA Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Ford 1:41.601 1:41.103 +3.062 7 5 BEL Thierry Boutsen Williams-Renault 1:42.943 1:41.324 +3.283 8 30 FRA Philippe Alliot Lola-Lamborghini 1:42.534 1:41.336 +3.295 9 8 ITA Stefano Modena Brabham-Judd 1:42.909 1:41.458 +3.417 10 17 ITA Nicola Larini Osella-Ford 1:42.483 1:41.519 +3.478 11 11 BRA 1968 Nelson Piquet Lotus-Judd 1:43.386 1:41.802 +3.761 12 12 JPN 1947 Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Judd 1:43.370 1:41.988 +3.947 13 7 GBR Martin Brundle Brabham-Judd 1:44.236 1:42.182 +4.141 14 24 ESP Luis Pérez-Sala Minardi-Ford 1:43.107 1:42.283 +4.242 15 21 ITA Alex Caffi Dallara-Ford 1:43.171 1:42.488 +4.447 16 22 ITA Andrea de Cesaris Dallara-Ford 1:43.904 1:42.581 +4.540 17 16 ITA Ivan Capelli March-Judd 1:43.851 1:42.672 +4.631 18 4 FRA Jean Alesi Tyrrell-Ford 1:43.306 1:42.709 +4.668 19 23 ITA Paolo Barilla Minardi-Ford 1:46.096 1:42.780 +4.739 20 15 BRA 1968 Maurício Gugelmin March-Judd 1:44.805 1:42.880 +4.839 21 34 FRG Bernd Schneider Zakspeed-Yamaha 1:44.323 1:42.892 +4.851 22 20 ITA Emanuele Pirro Benetton-Ford 1:43.217 1:43.063 +5.022 23 26 FRA Olivier Grouillard Ligier-Ford 1:45.801 1:43.379 +5.338 24 10 USA Eddie Cheever Arrows-Ford 1:44.501 1:43.511 +5.470 25 9 GBR Derek Warwick Arrows-Ford 1:44.288 1:43.599 +5.558 26 3 GBR Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 1:43.955 1:43.757 +5.716 27 25 FRA René Arnoux Ligier-Ford 1:44.221 1:44.030 +5.989 28 29 ITA Michele Alboreto Lola-Lamborghini 1:44.063 1:44.101 +6.022 29 38 FRA Pierre-Henri Raphanel Rial-Ford 2:11.328 1:47.160 +9.119 30 39 BEL Bertrand Gachot Rial-Ford 1:50.883 1:47.295 +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.Senna Journalists Special http://www1.skysports.com/f1/news/22058/9291619/the-world-saw-him-as-a-mclaren-man-maurice-hamilton-on-his-new-senna-book SpySportsF1 1 May 2014 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 French double World Champion. 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 dove to the inside but never came fully alongside, his front wheels remaining just behind those of Prost. Prost then turned towards the apex to take the normal racing line, but with Senna there on the inside line, the two cars made contact. With their wheels locked and their engines stalled, the two cars came to a halt at the mouth of the partially blocked chicane escape road, thus having missed the chicane entry. 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 in neutral to be removed, Senna gestured to the marshals to push him 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-Honda'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-Ford. 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 had a different car, different engine, thus didn't put up a significant fight, a locked wheel 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 podium was Nelson Piquet in 4th; almost a lap down, but still far better placed than the eleventh position he started his Lotus-Judd 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 25th at 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.Roebuck Nigel Nigel Roebuck Henry Alan Alan Henry 1989 Grand Prix 5 142 Round 15:Japan The Door Slams Shut Glen Waverly, Victoria Garry Sparke & Associates Barry Naismith 0-908081-99-5 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 was not 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 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 Pos No Driver Constructor Tyre Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 19 ITA Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Ford Goodyear 53 1:35:06.277 6 9 2 6 ITA Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault Goodyear 53 + 11.904 5 6 3 5 BEL Thierry Boutsen Williams-Renault Goodyear 53 + 13.446 7 4 4 11 BRA 1968 Nelson Piquet Lotus-Judd Goodyear 53 + 1:44.225 11 3 5 7 GBR Martin Brundle Brabham-Judd Pirelli 52 + 1 Lap 13 2 6 9 GBR Derek Warwick Arrows-Ford Goodyear 52 + 1 Lap 25 1 7 15 BRA 1968 Maurício Gugelmin March-Judd Goodyear 52 + 1 Lap 20   8 10 USA Eddie Cheever Arrows-Ford Goodyear 52 + 1 Lap 24   9 21 ITA Alex Caffi Dallara-Ford Pirelli 52 + 1 Lap 15   10 22 ITA Andrea de Cesaris Dallara-Ford Pirelli 51 + 2 Laps 16   Ret Retired 2 FRA Alain Prost McLaren-Honda Goodyear 47 Collision 2   Ret Retired 8 ITA Stefano Modena Brabham-Judd Pirelli 46 Engine 9   Ret Retired 27 GBR Nigel Mansell Ferrari Goodyear 43 Engine 4   Ret Retired 12 JPN 1947 Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Judd Goodyear 41 Engine 12   Ret Retired 4 FRA Jean Alesi Tyrrell-Ford Goodyear 37 Gearbox 18   Ret Retired 30 FRA Philippe Alliot Lola-Lamborghini Goodyear 36 Engine 8   Ret Retired 28 AUT Gerhard Berger Ferrari Goodyear 34 Gearbox 3   Ret Retired 20 ITA Emanuele Pirro Benetton-Ford Goodyear 33 Collision 22   Ret Retired 26 FRA Olivier Grouillard Ligier-Ford Goodyear 31 Engine 23   Ret Retired 16 ITA Ivan Capelli March-Judd Goodyear 27 Suspension 17   Ret Retired 17 ITA Nicola Larini Osella-Ford Pirelli 21 Brakes 10   Ret Retired 3 GBR Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford Goodyear 20 Fuel Leak 26   Ret Retired 34 FRG Bernd Schneider Zakspeed-Yamaha Pirelli 1 Gearbox 21   Ret Retired 24 ESP Luis Pérez-Sala Minardi-Ford Pirelli 0 Collision 14   Ret Retired 23 ITA Paolo Barilla Minardi-Ford Pirelli 0 Clutch 19   DSQ Disqualified 1 BRA 1968 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda Goodyear 53 Rejoined Track Illegally3 1 1   DNQ Did not qualify 25 FRA René Arnoux Ligier–Ford Goodyear DNQ Did not qualify 29 ITA Michele Alboreto Lola–Lamborghini Goodyear DNQ Did not qualify 38 FRA Pierre-Henri Raphanel Rial–Ford Goodyear DNQ Did not qualify 39 BEL Bertrand Gachot Rial–Ford Goodyear DNPQ Did not pre-qualify 18 ITA Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella–Ford Pirelli DNPQ Did not pre-qualify 31 BRA Roberto Moreno Coloni–Ford Pirelli DNPQ Did not pre-qualify 36 SWE Stefan Johansson Onyx–Ford Goodyear DNPQ Did not pre-qualify 35 JPN Aguri Suzuki Zakspeed–Yamaha Pirelli DNPQ Did not pre-qualify 33 ARG Oscar Larrauri EuroBrun–Judd Pirelli DNPQ Did not pre-qualify 37 FIN JJ Lehto Onyx–Ford Goodyear DNPQ Did not pre-qualify 40 ITA Gabriele Tarquini AGS–Ford Goodyear DNPQ Did not pre-qualify 41 FRA Yannick Dalmas AGS–Ford Goodyear DNPQ Did not pre-qualify 32 ITA Enrico Bertaggia Coloni–Ford Pirelli Source:http://www.formula1.com/results/season/1989/245/ 1989 Japanese Grand Prix Formula One 23 December 2015 https://web.archive.org/web/20150118225633/http://www.formula1.com/results/season/1989/245/ 18 January 2015https://gparchive.com/formula-1/1989-japanese-grand-prix/ 1989 Japanese Grand Prix – Race Results & History – GP Archive GPArchive.com 22 October 1989 27 November 2021 Notes 3 1 – Ayrton Senna originally finished 1st, but was disqualified for rejoining the track illegally following his collision with Alain Prost. Championship standings after the race Bold text indicates World Champions. Drivers' Championship standings PosDriverPoints 1 FRA Alain Prost 76 (81) 2 BRA 1968 Ayrton Senna 60 3 GBR Nigel Mansell 38 4 ITA Riccardo Patrese 36 5 BEL Thierry Boutsen 28Source:https://www.statsf1.com/en/1989/japon/championnat.aspx Japan 1989 – Championship • STATS F1 statsf1.com 18 March 2019 Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 GBR McLaren-Honda141 2 GBR Williams-Renault64 3 ITA Ferrari59 4 GBR Benetton-Ford31 5 GBR Tyrrell-Ford16Source: Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. Footnotes note [2] Reali Júnior, Elpídio (6 November 1996). "Balestre admite ter ajudado Prost contra Senna". O Estado de S. Paulo. Retrieved 11 July 2017. References Henry Alan Alan Henry Autocourse 50 Years of World Championship Grand Prix Motor Racing 2000 Hazleton Publishing 978-1-874557-78-4 Rendall Ivan Ivan Rendall The Power Game: 50 Years of Formula One 1999 Weidenfeld Nicolson Illustrated 978-0-297-82500-5 Rendall Ivan Ivan Rendall Chequered Flag: 100 Years of Motor Racing 1998 Weidenfeld Nicolson Illustrated 978-0-297-82402-2 Cimarosti Adriano Adriano Cimarosti The Complete History of Grand Prix Motor Racing 1997 Aurum Press Ltd 978-1-85410-500-4 Henry Alan Alan Henry Remembering Ayrton Senna 1994 Weidenfeld & Nicolson 978-0-297-83450-2 External links Race summary at GrandPrix.com Japanese Grand Prix 1989 1989 Spanish Grand Prix 1989 Australian Grand Prix 1988 Japanese Grand Prix 1990 Japanese Grand Prix 1988 British Grand Prix 1990 Australian Grand Prix Japanese Grand Prix Category:Japanese Grand Prix Grand Prix Category:Formula One controversies Category:October 1989 sports events in Japan