1989 French Grand Prix

Formula One motor race held in 1989 March 2019 F1 French France LXXV Rhône-Poulenc Grand Prix de France Paul Ricard 1986.png 9 July 1989 7 16 Circuit Paul RicardLe Castellet, Var, France Permanent racing facility 3.813 km mi on 80 305.040 km mi on Hot, dry, sunny Alain Prost France McLaren-Honda 1:07.203 Maurício Gugelmin Brazil 1968 March-Judd 1:12.090 29 Alain Prost France McLaren-Honda Nigel Mansell UK Ferrari Riccardo Patrese Italy Williams-Renault Autocourse 1989-90 Hazleton Publishing 1989 0-905138-62-7 Henry Alan Rosinski José Kirby Gordon Hamilton Maurice Tremayne David Roebuck Nigel Nye Doug Piola Giorgio Taylor John Dodgins Tony Spurring Quentin Jones Bruce Skewis Mark Richmond, Surrey, United Kingdom 156–165 FRA 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. Background The event, officially called the Rhône-Poulenc Grand Prix de France, was held at the 3.813 km mi on Circuit Paul Ricard in Le Castellet, Var, near the French city of Marseille. Free and qualifying practice sessions were held on Friday 7 July and Saturday 8 July, while a morning warmup session and the main Grand Prix race were held on Sunday 9 July 1989. 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 Scuderia 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.Walker Murray 1989 Murray Walker's Grand Prix Year First Formula Publishing 61–68 1-870066-22-7 Pre-qualifying classification Pos No Driver Constructor Time Gap 1 37 BEL Bertrand Gachot Onyx-Ford 1:09.617 2 36 SWE Stefan Johansson Onyx-Ford 1:09.668 +0.051 3 21 ITA Alex Caffi Dallara-Ford 1:09.726 +0.109 4 8 ITA Stefano Modena Brabham-Judd 1:09.917 +0.300 5 17 ITA Nicola Larini Osella-Ford 1:09.989 +0.372 6 7 GBR Martin Brundle Brabham-Judd 1.10.181 +0.564 7 39 DEU Volker Weidler Rial-Ford 1:11.059 +1.442 8 34 DEU Bernd Schneider Zakspeed-Yamaha 1:11.098 +1.481 9 18 ITA Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Ford 1:11.528 +1.911 10 32 FRA Pierre-Henri Raphanel Coloni-Ford 1:11.953 +2.336 11 35 JPN 1947 Aguri Suzuki Zakspeed-Yamaha 1:12.031 +2.414 12 33 CHE Gregor Foitek EuroBrun-Judd 1:12.179 +2.562 13 41 DEU 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 FRA Alain Prost McLaren-Honda 1:08.285 1:07.203 2 1 BRA 1968 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 1:07.920 1:07.228 +0.025 3 27 GBR Nigel Mansell Ferrari 1:09.030 1:07.455 +0.252 4 19 ITA Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Ford 1:09.615 1:08.137 +0.934 5 5 BEL Thierry Boutsen Williams-Renault 1:08.299 1:08.211 +1.008 6 28 AUT Gerhard Berger Ferrari 1:09.011 1:08.233 +1.030 7 30 FRA Philippe Alliot Lola-Lamborghini 1:09.478 1:08.561 +1.358 8 6 ITA Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault 1:09.326 1:08.993 +1.790 9 3 GBR Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 1:10.238 1:09.026 +1.823 10 15 BRA 1968 Maurício Gugelmin March-Judd 1:10.122 1:09.036 +1.833 11 37 BEL Bertrand Gachot Onyx-Ford 1:10.564 1:09.122 +1.919 12 16 ITA Ivan Capelli March-Judd 1:09.569 1:09.283 +2.080 13 36 SWE Stefan Johansson Onyx-Ford 1:10.600 1:09.299 +2.096 14 9 GBR Martin Donnelly Arrows-Ford 1:11.223 1:09.524 +2.321 15 29 FRA Éric Bernard Lola-Lamborghini 1:25.401 1:09.596 +2.393 16 4 FRA Jean Alesi Tyrrell-Ford 1:09.668 1:09.909 +2.465 17 26 FRA Olivier Grouillard Ligier-Ford 1:10.410 1:09.717 +2.514 18 25 FRA René Arnoux Ligier-Ford 1:10.725 1:10.077 +2.874 19 12 JPN 1947 Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Judd 1:12.125 1:10.119 +2.916 20 11 BRA 1968 Nelson Piquet Lotus-Judd 1:10.473 1:10.135 +2.932 21 40 ITA Gabriele Tarquini AGS-Ford 1:11.136 1:10.216 +3.013 22 8 ITA Stefano Modena Brabham-Judd 1:10.910 1:10.254 +3.051 23 23 ITA Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 1:10.640 1:10.267 +3.064 24 20 ITA Emanuele Pirro Benetton-Ford 1:11.566 1:10.292 +3.089 25 10 USA Eddie Cheever Arrows-Ford 1:10.372 — +3.169 26 21 ITA Alex Caffi Dallara-Ford 1:11.409 1:10.468 +3.265 27 22 ITA Andrea de Cesaris Dallara-Ford 1:12.078 1:10.591 +3.388 28 24 ESP Luis Pérez-Sala Minardi-Ford 1:11.539 1:11.079 +3.876 29 38 DEU Christian Danner Rial-Ford 1:12.569 1:11.178 +3.975 30 31 BRA 1968 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 FRA Alain Prost McLaren-Honda 80 1:38:29.411 1 9 2 27 GBR Nigel Mansell Ferrari 80 + 44.017 3 6 3 6 ITA Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault 80 + 1:06.921 8 4 4 4 FRA Jean Alesi Tyrrell-Ford 80 + 1:13.232 16 3 5 36 SWE Stefan Johansson Onyx-Ford 79 + 1 Lap 13 2 6 26 FRA Olivier Grouillard Ligier-Ford 79 + 1 Lap 17 1 7 10 USA Eddie Cheever Arrows-Ford 79 + 1 Lap 25   8 11 BRA 1968 Nelson Piquet Lotus-Judd 78 + 2 Laps 20   9 20 ITA Emanuele Pirro Benetton-Ford 78 + 2 Laps 24   10 3 GBR Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 78 + 2 Laps 9   11 29 FRA Éric Bernard Lola-Lamborghini 77 + 3 Laps 15   12 9 GBR Martin Donnelly Arrows-Ford 77 + 3 Laps 14   13 37 BEL Bertrand Gachot Onyx-Ford 76 Engine 11   NC Not classified 15 BRA 1968 Maurício Gugelmin March-Judd 71 + 9 Laps 10   Ret Retired 8 ITA Stefano Modena Brabham-Judd 67 Engine 22   Ret Retired 5 BEL Thierry Boutsen Williams-Renault 50 Gearbox 5   Ret Retired 12 JPN 1947 Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Judd 49 Engine 19   Ret Retired 16 ITA Ivan Capelli March-Judd 43 Engine 12   Ret Retired 19 ITA Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Ford 40 Suspension 4   Ret Retired 23 ITA Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 31 Engine 23   Ret Retired 30 FRA Philippe Alliot Lola-Lamborghini 30 Engine 7   Ret Retired 40 ITA Gabriele Tarquini AGS-Ford 30 Engine 21   Ret Retired 28 AUT Gerhard Berger Ferrari 29 Clutch 6   Ret Retired 21 ITA Alex Caffi Dallara-Ford 27 Clutch 26   Ret Retired 25 FRA René Arnoux Ligier-Ford 14 Gearbox 18   Ret Retired 1 BRA 1968 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 0 Differential 2   DNQ Did not qualify 22 ITA Andrea de Cesaris Dallara-Ford     DNQ Did not qualify 24 ESP Luis Pérez-Sala Minardi-Ford     DNQ Did not qualify 38 DEU Christian Danner Rial-Ford     DNQ Did not qualify 31 BRA 1968 Roberto Moreno Coloni-Ford     DNPQ Did not pre-qualify 17 ITA Nicola Larini Osella-Ford     DNPQ Did not pre-qualify 7 GBR Martin Brundle Brabham-Judd     DNPQ Did not pre-qualify 39 DEU Volker Weidler Rial-Ford     DNPQ Did not pre-qualify 34 DEU Bernd Schneider Zakspeed-Yamaha     DNPQ Did not pre-qualify 18 ITA Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Ford     DNPQ Did not pre-qualify 32 FRA Pierre-Henri Raphanel Coloni-Ford     DNPQ Did not pre-qualify 35 JPN 1947 Aguri Suzuki Zakspeed-Yamaha     DNPQ Did not pre-qualify 33 CHE Gregor Foitek EuroBrun-Judd     DNPQ Did not pre-qualify 41 DEU Joachim Winkelhock AGS-Ford    Source:http://www.formula1.com/results/season/1989/237/ 1989 French Grand Prix formula1.com 23 December 2015 https://web.archive.org/web/20150118225449/http://www.formula1.com/results/season/1989/237/ 18 January 2015 Championship standings after the race Drivers' Championship standings PosDriverPoints 1 FRA Alain Prost 38 2 BRA 1968 Ayrton Senna 27 3 ITA Riccardo Patrese 22 4 GBR Nigel Mansell 15 5 BEL Thierry Boutsen 13Source:https://www.statsf1.com/en/1988/france/championnat.aspx France 1988 - Championship • STATS F1 www.statsf1.com 17 March 2019 Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 GBR McLaren-Honda65 2 GBR Williams-Renault35 3 ITA Ferrari15 4 GBR Benetton-Ford13 5 GBR Tyrrell-Ford10Source: Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. References French Grand Prix 1989 1989 Canadian Grand Prix 1989 British Grand Prix 1988 French Grand Prix 1990 French Grand Prix French Grand Prix Category:French Grand Prix Grand Prix French Grand Prix