1989 French Grand Prix

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.

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 McLaren-Honda
Time 1:07.203
Fastest lap
Driver Brazil Maurício Gugelmin March-Judd
Time 1:12.090 on lap 29
Podium
First McLaren-Honda
Second Ferrari
Third Williams-Renault
Lap leaders

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

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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

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Pre-qualifying report

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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

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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

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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.

Qualifying classification

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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

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Race report

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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

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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

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

References

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  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. ^ a b "France 1988 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 17 March 2019.


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1989 Canadian Grand Prix
FIA Formula One World Championship
1989 season
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1989 British Grand Prix
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1988 French Grand Prix
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1990 French Grand Prix