1989 German Grand Prix

1989 German Grand Prix
Race 9 of 16 in the 1989 Formula One World Championship
Race details
Date	30 July 1989
Official name	LI Grosser Mobil 1 Preis von Deutschland
Location	Hockenheimring near Heidelberg, West Germany
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	6.797 km (4.2234 mi)
Distance	45 laps, 305.865 km (190.055 mi)
Weather	Warm, cloudy
Pole position
Driver	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda
Time	1:42.300
Fastest lap
Driver	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda
Time	1:45.884 on lap 43
Podium
First	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda
Second	Alain Prost	McLaren-Honda
Third	Nigel Mansell	Ferrari
show Lap leaders

The 1989 German Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at the Hockenheimring on 30 July 1989.

Qualifying[]

Pre-qualifying report[]

Pre-qualifying had been reorganised going into the second half of the season, with several drivers and teams now being required to pre-qualify, or avoiding the need to do so. Brabham, Dallara and Rial had scored enough points in previous races to enable them to escape the Friday morning sessions entirely. Larrousse, with their Lamborghini V12-engined Lolas had scored no points thus far, so they were required now to pre-qualify for Grands Prix. Philippe Alliot was now partnered by Michele Alboreto who had left Tyrrell after a sponsorship dispute, replacing Éric Bernard, who had stood in at Larrousse for two races.

Also new to pre-qualifying was Roberto Moreno, joining his Coloni team-mate Pierre-Henri Raphanel; and Gabriele Tarquini, joining his AGS team-mate Yannick Dalmas in the Friday morning sessions. This was despite Tarquini's sixth-place finish at the Mexican Grand Prix, as Minardi had scored three points at Silverstone. Onyx had also only scored two points so were forced to continue to pre-qualify. Osella, EuroBrun and Zakspeed had scored no points thus far, so also had to continue to pre-qualify.

Bertrand Gachot topped the pre-qualifying session for the third time in a row, with his Onyx team-mate Stefan Johansson second. The two Larrousse-Lola drivers were third and fourth, with Alboreto edging out Dalmas in the AGS by a thousandth of a second. Nicola Larini was sixth in his Osella, with his team-mate Piercarlo Ghinzani again failing at this stage, down in eighth. Moreno and Raphanel were ninth and tenth, with Gregor Foitek eleventh in the new, untested EuroBrun ER189. The Zakspeeds were bottom of the time sheets, with Aguri Suzuki outpacing Bernd Schneider for only the second time this season.^[1]

Pre-qualifying classification[]

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Time	Gap
1	37	Bertrand Gachot	Onyx-Ford	1:47.283	—
2	36	Stefan Johansson	Onyx-Ford	1:47.700	+0.417
3	30	Philippe Alliot	Lola-Lamborghini	1:47.746	+0.463
4	29	Michele Alboreto	Lola-Lamborghini	1:47.919	+0.636
5	41	Yannick Dalmas	AGS-Ford	1:47.920	+0.637
6	17	Nicola Larini	Osella-Ford	1.48.301	+1.018
7	40	Gabriele Tarquini	AGS-Ford	1:48.558	+1.275
8	18	Piercarlo Ghinzani	Osella-Ford	1:48.564	+1.281
9	31	Roberto Moreno	Coloni-Ford	1:48.567	+1.284
10	32	Pierre-Henri Raphanel	Coloni-Ford	1:48.780	+1.457
11	33	Gregor Foitek	EuroBrun-Judd	1:49.458	+2.175
12	35	Aguri Suzuki	Zakspeed-Yamaha	1:49.527	+2.244
13	34	Bernd Schneider	Zakspeed-Yamaha	1:50.455	+3.172

Qualifying report[]

As expected, the McLaren-Honda's of Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost dominated qualifying on the ultra fast Hockenheim circuit, with Formula One's supreme qualifier Senna just under a second faster than Prost, who was himself almost eight-tenths faster than the Ferrari 640 of Nigel Mansell.

McLaren weren't without their problems in qualifying though. During the Friday session Senna ran over a stone which put a sizeable hole in his car's undertray and the resulting damage would require a complete change of car, the problem being that the team only had three of the new transverse gearbox cars in Germany. As a precaution, team manager Jo Ramírez instructed the team's secondary (test) crew, who were on their way to Imola for a week of testing with the new car, to stop in Dijon (France) in case the race team needed a replacement chassis. When Senna's car was deemed too badly damaged, the test crew made their way to Hockenheim and McLaren were back to having three full cars ready for use by Saturday's morning practice.

Prior to the race meeting there had been a major shakeup of management at Team Lotus. Long time Lotus man and team boss since Colin Chapman's untimely death in 1982 Peter Warr had been asked to leave the team and was replaced as team manager by Rupert Manwaring, while Lotus also had a new chairman in Tony Rudd.

Qualifying classification[]

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Gap
1	1	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda	1:42.300	1:42.790	—
2	2	Alain Prost	McLaren-Honda	1:43.306	1:43.295	+0.995
3	27	Nigel Mansell	Ferrari	1:44.020	1:44.076	+1.720
4	28	Gerhard Berger	Ferrari	1:44.467	1:44.509	+2.167
5	6	Riccardo Patrese	Williams-Renault	1:45.062	1:44.511	+2.211
6	5	Thierry Boutsen	Williams-Renault	1:45.520	1:44.702	+2.402
7	19	Alessandro Nannini	Benetton-Ford	1:45.033	1:45.040	+2.733
8	11	Nelson Piquet	Lotus-Judd	1:47.316	1:45.475	+3.175
9	20	Emanuele Pirro	Benetton-Ford	1:46.521	1:45.845	+3.545
10	4	Jean Alesi	Tyrrell-Ford	1:47.551	1:46.888	+4.588
11	26	Olivier Grouillard	Ligier-Ford	1:47.408	1:46.893	+4.593
12	7	Martin Brundle	Brabham-Judd	1:47.216	1:47.796	+4.916
13	23	Pierluigi Martini	Minardi-Ford	1:48.222	1:47.380	+5.080
14	15	Maurício Gugelmin	March-Judd	1:47.387	1:47.578	+5.087
15	30	Philippe Alliot	Lola-Lamborghini	1:47.486	1:47.566	+5.186
16	8	Stefano Modena	Brabham-Judd	1:47.511	1:47.552	+5.211
17	9	Derek Warwick	Arrows-Ford	1:47.756	1:47.533	+5.233
18	12	Satoru Nakajima	Lotus-Judd	1:48.782	1:47.663	+5.363
19	3	Jonathan Palmer	Tyrrell-Ford	1:47.836	1:47.676	+5.376
20	21	Alex Caffi	Dallara-Ford	1:48.671	1:47.679	+5.379
21	22	Andrea de Cesaris	Dallara-Ford	1:47.879	1:48.005	+5.579
22	16	Ivan Capelli	March-Judd	1:48.239	1:48.078	+5.778
23	25	René Arnoux	Ligier-Ford	1:48.266	1:48.598	+5.966
24	36	Stefan Johansson	Onyx-Ford	1:49.935	1:48.348	+6.048
25	10	Eddie Cheever	Arrows-Ford	1:48.396	1:48.553	+6.096
26	29	Michele Alboreto	Lola-Lamborghini	1:48.670	1:48.726	+6.370
27	24	Luis Pérez-Sala	Minardi-Ford	1:49.587	1:48.686	+6.386
28	37	Bertrand Gachot	Onyx-Ford	1:49.252	1:49.004	+6.704
29	38	Christian Danner	Rial-Ford	1:50.679	1:49.767	+7.467
EX	39	Volker Weidler	Rial-Ford	—	—	—

Race[]

Race report[]

The race started with Senna on pole position and Prost alongside him. At the start, Gerhard Berger in the semi-automatic Ferrari made a tremendous start from fourth, passing both Senna, Prost and his team mate Mansell and led the entire field into the first corner with Senna, Prost and Mansell following in succession. At the start Philippe Alliot went off the track at the start in spectacular fashion as he was touched from behind by the Minardi of Pierluigi Martini and lost control of his Lola, spinning off into the grass. He was able to rejoin but his race only lasted 20 laps after his V12 Lamborghini developed an oil leak. His new teammate Michele Alboreto was forced out of his first race with Larrousse just past turn 1 on the second lap after the Lamborghini's electrics failed. Alboreto had qualified 26th and last, only 0.016 ahead of the Minardi of Luis Pérez-Sala.

Berger's lead was to last about a quarter of a lap as a result of the greater power of the Honda V10 engines. Senna had Berger before the first chicane, and Prost outbraked him at the Ostkurve. At the start of the second lap, it was Senna leading from Prost, Berger, Mansell, Thierry Boutsen (Williams-Renault), Alessandro Nannini (Benetton-Ford), Emanuele Pirro (Benetton-Ford), Riccardo Patrese (Williams-Renault), and Nelson Piquet (Lotus-Judd).

The McLarens of Senna and Prost and the Ferraris of Mansell and Berger started to pull away from the field, with the Benettons of Pirro and Nannini, and the Williams of Patrese just barely clinging on (Boutsen retired on lap 5 after being punted off by Pirro at the Bremsschikane 2). On lap 14, Mansell had been hounding Berger for 2 laps, but Berger had a puncture right when approaching the first chicane, and he went up on the marker, launching his Ferrari in midair, landing on a grassy patch and went across the track, just barely avoiding Mansell and came to rest on the trackside grass.

Prost and Senna were on the limit the entire race and Prost hounded Senna for 16 laps, until he went in for his pit stop for tyres, which was a terribly slow one of 18 seconds, which put Mansell in second place and Senna even further away. The next lap, Mansell came into the pits for his tyre change and his pit stop was faster than Prost's but still a poor stop of 11 seconds, which dropped him down back to fourth behind, Senna, Pirro and Prost. Then Senna decided to take advantage of his huge lead and came into the pits for his tyre change, but his stop was even worse than Prost's, lasting 23 seconds. This dropped him down to second behind Prost and Pirro had come into the pits for a tyre change and dropped to fourth.

Pirro crashed into the styrofoam barriers at the stadium entrance on lap 26 and had to be taken to the hospital after one of the barriers had hit his helmet. With Mansell having problems with his Ferrari, Senna and Prost battled for the entire race, as both drivers were driving on the limit. They started trading off fastest laps^{[citation needed]} and Prost held off Senna for almost the entire race, but on lap 43, Prost's gearbox malfunctioned, lost sixth (top) gear and Senna passed him coming into the stadium. Prost limped around the track for the next 2 laps and Senna cruised around the track to grab his fourth victory of the season, followed by Prost second, Mansell third, Patrese fourth, Piquet fifth and Derek Warwick (Arrows-Ford) sixth.

In the post race press conference, Senna refused to speculate on whether he would have been able to pass Prost if the Frenchman hadn't lost top gear, instead stating that winning after suffering four straight DNFs was all he was concerned about. For his part, Prost was of the firm belief that he would have had no trouble holding on for the win had he not had a gearbox problem.

Race classification[]

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	1	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda	45	1:21:43.302	1	9
2	2	Alain Prost	McLaren-Honda	45	+ 18.151	2	6
3	27	Nigel Mansell	Ferrari	45	+ 1:23.254	3	4
4	6	Riccardo Patrese	Williams-Renault	44	+ 1 Lap	5	3
5	11	Nelson Piquet	Lotus-Judd	44	+ 1 Lap	8	2
6	9	Derek Warwick	Arrows-Ford	44	+ 1 Lap	17	1
7	22	Andrea de Cesaris	Dallara-Ford	44	+ 1 Lap	21
8	7	Martin Brundle	Brabham-Judd	44	+ 1 Lap	12
9	23	Pierluigi Martini	Minardi-Ford	44	+ 1 Lap	13
10	4	Jean Alesi	Tyrrell-Ford	43	+ 2 Laps	10
11	25	René Arnoux	Ligier-Ford	42	+ 3 Laps	23
12	10	Eddie Cheever	Arrows-Ford	40	Fuel System	25
Ret	8	Stefano Modena	Brabham-Judd	37	Engine	16
Ret	12	Satoru Nakajima	Lotus-Judd	36	Spun Off	18
Ret	16	Ivan Capelli	March-Judd	32	Electrical	22
Ret	15	Maurício Gugelmin	March-Judd	28	Gearbox	14
Ret	20	Emanuele Pirro	Benetton-Ford	26	Spun Off	9
Ret	30	Philippe Alliot	Lola-Lamborghini	20	Oil Leak	15
Ret	3	Jonathan Palmer	Tyrrell-Ford	16	Engine	19
Ret	28	Gerhard Berger	Ferrari	13	Puncture	4
Ret	36	Stefan Johansson	Onyx-Ford	8	Overheating	24
Ret	19	Alessandro Nannini	Benetton-Ford	6	Electrical	7
Ret	5	Thierry Boutsen	Williams-Renault	4	Collision	6
Ret	21	Alex Caffi	Dallara-Ford	2	Engine	20
Ret	29	Michele Alboreto	Lola-Lamborghini	1	Electrical	26
Ret	26	Olivier Grouillard	Ligier-Ford	0	Gearbox	11
DNQ	24	Luis Pérez-Sala	Minardi-Ford
DNQ	37	Bertrand Gachot	Onyx-Ford
DNQ	38	Christian Danner	Rial-Ford
EX	39	Volker Weidler	Rial-Ford		Push-start
DNPQ	41	Yannick Dalmas	AGS-Ford
DNPQ	17	Nicola Larini	Osella-Ford
DNPQ	40	Gabriele Tarquini	AGS-Ford
DNPQ	18	Piercarlo Ghinzani	Osella-Ford
DNPQ	31	Roberto Moreno	Coloni-Ford
DNPQ	32	Pierre-Henri Raphanel	Coloni-Ford
DNPQ	33	Gregor Foitek	Euro Brun-Judd
DNPQ	35	Aguri Suzuki	Zakspeed-Yamaha
DNPQ	34	Bernd Schneider	Zakspeed-Yamaha
Source:[2]

Championship standings after the race[]

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Alain Prost 53 2 Ayrton Senna 36 3 Nigel Mansell 25 4 Riccardo Patrese 25 5 Thierry Boutsen 13 Source: [3]

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 McLaren-Honda 89 2 Williams-Renault 38 3 Ferrari 25 4 Benetton-Ford 17 5 Tyrrell-Ford 10 Source: [3]

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

References[]