San Marino GP 1989

San Marino GP, 1989

The field was as it had been in Rio de Janeiro except that Gabriele Tarquini had been signed to drive for AGS, replacing the injured Philippe Streiff. Tyrrell had completed the first of its new 018 chassis for Michele Alboreto while Jonathan Palmer remained at the wheel of a 017B.

After Nigel Mansell's unexpected win in Brazil there were hopes that the 1989 season would be rather more exciting than had been the case in 1988 but at Imola the McLaren-Honda challenge was dominant with Ayrton Senna ahead of Alain Prost in qualifying. Mansell was third fastest in his Ferrari with Riccardo Patrese fourth for Williams ahead of Gerhard Berger's Ferrari, Thierry Boutsen's Williams, Sandro Nannini's Benetton, Nelson Piquet's Lotus, Alex Caffi's Dallara and Olivier Grouillard's Ligier.

At the start Senna took the lead with Prost behind him followed by Mansell and Patrese with Berger fifth. At the start of the fourth lap, however, the Ferrari went into Tamburello and rather than turning as it should have done the car went straight on into the wall at around 160mph. The impact damaged the car considerably and it bounced down the wall from around 100m and then came to rest and burst into flames. The Imola fire crews reacted with impressive speed and efficiency and the fire was out in just over 20 seconds. Berger had a broken rib, chemical burns to his body (from the fuel) and second degree burns to his hands. The race was stopped while Berger was tended to.

The race would be restarted and the results declared on aggregate. Prost made the better start on this occasion and on the run down to Tosa Senna went ahead. Prost felt that the move violated a previous agreement they had had about not overtaking at Tosa on the first lap. It was the start of the breakdown of their relationship.

The end result was a McLaren 1-2 with Nannini third after Mansell went out with a gearbox failure after 23 laps. Patrese ran fourth early on but he went out with an engine belt problem and left the place to Piquet. he also retired with engine trouble and that left Boutsen to take fourth ahead of Derek Warwick's Arrows and Palmer's Tyrrell. Boutsen was later disqualified but then reinstated after a post-race dispute over the rules for the restart.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda  58 1h26m51.245s  
Alain Prost McLaren-Honda  58 1h27m31.470s  
19 Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Cosworth  57  
Thierry Boutsen Williams-Renault  57  
Derek Warwick Arrows-Cosworth  57  12 
Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Cosworth  57  25 
21 Alex Caffi Dallara-Cosworth  57  
40 Gabriele Tarquini AGS-Cosworth  57  18 
10 Eddie Cheever Arrows-Cosworth  56  21 
10 22 Andrea de Cesaris Dallara-Cosworth  56  16 
11 20 Johnny Herbert Benetton-Cosworth  56  23 
17 Nicola Larini Osella-Cosworth  52 Hub/accident 14 
Martin Brundle Brabham-Judd  51 Fuel Pressure 22 
nc 12 Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Judd  46  24 
24 Luis Sala Minardi-Cosworth  43 Accident 15 
15 Mauricio Gugelmin March-Judd  39` Clutch 19 
11 Nelson Piquet Lotus-Judd  29 Engine 
27 Nigel Mansell Ferrari  23 Gearbox 
Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault  21 Camshaft Belt 
Stefano Modena Brabham-Judd  19 Accident 17 
23 Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Cosworth  Gearbox 11 
dq 26 Olivier Grouillard Ligier-Cosworth  Car Worked On Between Starts 10 
28 Gerhard Berger Ferrari  Accident/fire 
16 Ivan Capelli March-Judd  Accident 13 
30 Philippe Alliot Lola-Lamborghini  Fuel Injection 20 
ns 29 Yannick Dalmas Lola-Lamborghini   Stalled On Dummy Grid 26 
nq Michele Alboreto Tyrrell-Cosworth    27 
nq 25 Rene Arnoux Ligier-Cosworth    28 
nq 38 Christian Danner Rial-Cosworth    29 
nq 31 Roberto Moreno Coloni-Cosworth    30 
npq 37 Bertrand Gachot Onyx-Cosworth    31 
npq 33 Gregor Foitek EuroBrun-Judd    32 
npq 18 Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Cosworth    33 
npq 36 Stefan Johansson Onyx-Cosworth    34 
npq 41 Joachim Winkelhock AGS-Cosworth    35 
npq 32 Pierre-Henri Raphanel Coloni-Cosworth    36 
npq 35 Aguri Suzuki Zakspeed-Yamaha    37 
npq 34 Bernd Schneider Zakspeed-Yamaha    38 
npq 39 Volker Weidler Rial-Cosworth    39