| 1989 British Grand Prix | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 8 of 16 in the1989 Formula One World Championship | |||
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| Race details | |||
| Date | 16 July 1989 | ||
| Official name | XLII Shell British Grand Prix | ||
| Location | Silverstone Circuit Silverstone,Northamptonshire, England | ||
| Course | Permanent racing facility | ||
| Course length | 4.778 km (2.969 miles) | ||
| Distance | 64 laps, 305.904 km (190.080 miles) | ||
| Weather | Warm, dry, sunny | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | McLaren-Honda | ||
| Time | 1:09.099 | ||
| Fastest lap | |||
| Driver |  Nigel Mansell | Ferrari | |
| Time | 1:12.017 on lap 57 | ||
| Podium | |||
| First | McLaren-Honda | ||
| Second | Ferrari | ||
| Third | Benetton-Ford | ||
Lap leaders | |||
The1989 British Grand Prix (formally theXLII Shell British Grand Prix) was aFormula One motor race held atSilverstone on 16 July 1989. It was the eighth race of the1989 Formula One World Championship.
The 64-lap race was won by FrenchmanAlain Prost, driving aMcLaren-Honda, after he started from second position. Prost's Brazilian teammate,Ayrton Senna, tookpole position and led until he spun off on lap 12. Local driverNigel Mansell finished second in aFerrari, with ItalianAlessandro Nannini third in aBenetton-Ford. This marked the last win for a Honda-powered car at Silverstone untilMax Verstappen won the70th Anniversary Grand Prix in 2020.
For the second Grand Prix in a row, theOnyx ofBertrand Gachot topped the time sheets in Friday morning's pre-qualifying session. It was Gachot's second pre-qualifying success. Two tenths of a second slower in second place wasNicola Larini in theOsella, pre-qualifying for the third time this season. The other two to go through to the main qualifying sessions were theBrabham pairing ofStefano Modena andMartin Brundle. This was the team's last pre-qualifying session of the season, as their five points inMonaco were enough to enable them to avoid having to pre-qualify for the rest of the season. Modena had pre-qualified at all eight events so far in 1989, and Brundle six, with both drivers qualifying for all of those races.[citation needed]
Brundle, who had failed to pre-qualify in bothCanada andFrance, told in a pit lane interview during qualifying proper that he was glad to make it through as he had been"Driving like an old tart quite frankly".[citation needed][clarification needed]
Stefan Johansson narrowly missed out in fifth place in the second Onyx, his fourth failure this season.Alex Caffi was sixth in theDallara, only his second failure, but Dallara were another team who would avoid pre-qualifying for the rest of the season, having scored eight points.[citation needed]
Gregor Foitek was seventh in the soleEuroBrun, still only able to pre-qualify once this season, which was once more thanPiercarlo Ghinzani, eighth in the second Osella. Ninth wasYannick Dalmas, who had replacedJoachim Winkelhock atAGS, and for the rest of the season, both AGS cars would have to take part in pre-qualifying sessions. TheZakspeed pairing ofBernd Schneider andAguri Suzuki were tenth and twelfth, with no success at this stage since the first race of the season.Pierre-Henri Raphanel was eleventh in hisColoni, and from here on, both Colonis would have to take part in pre-qualifying. At the bottom of the time sheets was theRial ofVolker Weidler, his eighth consecutive failure to pre-qualify, butChristian Danner's three points atPhoenix meant both cars would avoid pre-qualifying for the rest of the season.[1]
| Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 37 |  Bertrand Gachot | Onyx-Ford | 1:11.506 | — |
| 2 | 17 |  Nicola Larini | Osella-Ford | 1:11.766 | +0.260 |
| 3 | 8 | Stefano Modena | Brabham-Judd | 1:11.809 | +0.303 |
| 4 | 7 | Martin Brundle | Brabham-Judd | 1:12.021 | +0.515 |
| 5 | 36 |  Stefan Johansson | Onyx-Ford | 1:12.248 | +0.742 |
| 6 | 21 | Alex Caffi | Dallara-Ford | 1.12.501 | +0.995 |
| 7 | 33 |  Gregor Foitek | EuroBrun-Judd | 1:13.128 | +1.622 |
| 8 | 18 | Piercarlo Ghinzani | Osella-Ford | 1:13.429 | +1.923 |
| 9 | 41 |  Yannick Dalmas | AGS-Ford | 1:13.720 | +2.214 |
| 10 | 34 |  Bernd Schneider | Zakspeed-Yamaha | 1:14.124 | +2.618 |
| 11 | 32 | Pierre-Henri Raphanel | Coloni-Ford | 1:14.206 | +2.700 |
| 12 | 35 |  Aguri Suzuki | Zakspeed-Yamaha | 1:14.266 | +2.760 |
| 13 | 39 | Volker Weidler | Rial-Ford | 1:15.096 | +3.590 |
McLaren took control of qualifying withAyrton Senna ahead ofAlain Prost. Having announced before the previous race inFrance that he would be leaving McLaren at the end of the season, Prost now announced that he would be joiningFerrari in1990.[citation needed]
Derek Warwick returned after missing the French Grand Prix, qualifying 19th. Still in pain from his karting accident, he had a special seat fitted in hisArrows.Maurício Gugelmin qualified sixth, but hisMarch developed a water-related problem moments before the race, forcing him to start from the pit lane.[citation needed]
| Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Q1 | Q2 | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 |  Ayrton Senna | McLaren-Honda | 1:09.124 | 1:09.099 | — |
| 2 | 2 | Alain Prost | McLaren-Honda | 1:10.156 | 1:09.266 | +0.167 |
| 3 | 27 | Nigel Mansell | Ferrari | 1:09.488 | 1:10.279 | +0.389 |
| 4 | 28 |  Gerhard Berger | Ferrari | 1:09.855 | 1:10.130 | +0.756 |
| 5 | 6 | Riccardo Patrese | Williams-Renault | 1:09.865 | 1:09.963 | +0.766 |
| 6 | 15 | Maurício Gugelmin | March-Judd | 1:10.336 | 1:12.665 | +1.237 |
| 7 | 5 | Thierry Boutsen | Williams-Renault | 1:10.376 | 1:10.771 | +1.277 |
| 8 | 16 | Ivan Capelli | March-Judd | 1:10.650 | 1:11.544 | +1.551 |
| 9 | 19 | Alessandro Nannini | Benetton-Ford | 1:11.034 | 1:10.798 | +1.699 |
| 10 | 11 | Nelson Piquet | Lotus-Judd | 1:11.589 | 1:10.925 | +1.826 |
| 11 | 23 | Pierluigi Martini | Minardi-Ford | 1:11.368 | 1:11.582 | +2.269 |
| 12 | 30 | Philippe Alliot | Lola-Lamborghini | 1:11.541 | 1:12.408 | +2.442 |
| 13 | 29 | Éric Bernard | Lola-Lamborghini | 1:12.193 | 1:11.687 | +2.588 |
| 14 | 8 | Stefano Modena | Brabham-Judd | 1:12.262 | 1:11.755 | +2.656 |
| 15 | 24 |  Luis Pérez-Sala | Minardi-Ford | 1:11.955 | 1:11.826 | +2.727 |
| 16 | 12 | Satoru Nakajima | Lotus-Judd | 1:12.326 | 1:11.960 | +2.861 |
| 17 | 17 | Nicola Larini | Osella-Ford | 1:12.061 | 1:12.395 | +2.962 |
| 18 | 3 | Jonathan Palmer | Tyrrell-Ford | 1:12.070 | 1:12.157 | +2.971 |
| 19 | 9 | Derek Warwick | Arrows-Ford | 1:12.295 | 1:12.208 | +3.109 |
| 20 | 7 | Martin Brundle | Brabham-Judd | 1:12.616 | 1:12.327 | +3.228 |
| 21 | 37 | Bertrand Gachot | Onyx-Ford | 1:12.329 | 1:12.928 | +3.230 |
| 22 | 4 | Jean Alesi | Tyrrell-Ford | 1:12.994 | 1:12.341 | +3.242 |
| 23 | 31 | Roberto Moreno | Coloni-Ford | 1:12.680 | 1:12.412 | +3.313 |
| 24 | 26 | Olivier Grouillard | Ligier-Ford | 1:12.853 | 1:12.605 | +3.506 |
| 25 | 22 | Andrea de Cesaris | Dallara-Ford | 1:13.335 | 1:12.904 | +3.805 |
| 26 | 20 | Emanuele Pirro | Benetton-Ford | 1:13.233 | 1:13.148 | +4.049 |
| 27 | 25 | René Arnoux | Ligier-Ford | 1:13.240 | 1:13.550 | +4.141 |
| 28 | 10 |  Eddie Cheever | Arrows-Ford | 1:13.655 | 1:13.386 | +4.287 |
| 29 | 40 | Gabriele Tarquini | AGS-Ford | 1:13.496 | 1:13.997 | +4.397 |
| 30 | 38 | Christian Danner | Rial-Ford | 1:15.387 | 1:15.394 | +6.288 |
Prost beat Senna off the line, but the Brazilian was later on the brakes. He re-took the lead going into Copse Corner by chopping across his team mate's nose, with both Prost and the followingNigel Mansell confirming it was "close". TheFerraris of Mansell andGerhard Berger were 3rd and 4th. At the end of lap 4, Berger pulled into the pits with electrical problems, rejoining the race some laps later. On lap 5 the race order was Senna, Prost, Mansell, theWilliams-Renault pair ofThierry Boutsen andRiccardo Patrese, andAlessandro Nannini in the newBenettonB189 and its equally new, and more powerful,Ford HBV8.[citation needed]
Senna spun out on lap 12 going into Becketts due to gear selection problems (Becketts was a 3rd gear corner at the time and coming down through the gears Senna could not get 3rd to engage) and spun, handing Prost the lead from Mansell. Patrese overtook teammate Boutsen for third, before suffering a huge accident on lap 20 when a burst radiator sprayed water onto his rear wheels, causing him to spin off into the tyre barrier at Club Corner. With Prost and Mansell pulling away,Nelson Piquet moved into third in hisLotus-Judd on lap 23, ahead of Boutsen,Philippe Alliot in theLarrousse-Lola andJean Alesi in theTyrrell. Boutsen dropped back with a rear puncture while Alesi spun off at Club Corner on lap 29, at which point Prost led Mansell by 3.2 seconds, followed by Piquet, Nannini, Gugelmin and Alliot.[citation needed]
Alliot retired with an engine failure on lap 40. On lap 42, Mansell developed a puncture on his right front tyre, forcing him to pit. Prost was then delayed during his own pit stop for fresh tyres, but retained a healthy lead over Mansell. Gugelmin retired from fifth with a gearbox failure on lap 55, before Nannini passed Piquet for third on lap 56, pulling away in the closing laps.[citation needed]
At the chequered flag, Prost was 19 seconds ahead of Mansell, with Nannini a further 29 seconds back and Piquet the last driver on the lead lap. From early on the overheating light had been on in the Lotus cockpit, so Piquet pushed as hard as he could in a make or break attitude and was rewarded with easily his best drive of the year. TheMinardis ofPierluigi Martini andLuis Pérez-Sala finished fifth and sixth, scoring three points which prevented the team from being relegated to the pre-qualifying sessions for the second half of 1989 (and kept theOnyx team in these sessions, despite their two points forStefan Johansson's fifth place at the previous race in France). This was Sala's only point in Formula One.[citation needed]
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| Previous race: 1989 French Grand Prix | FIA Formula One World Championship 1989 season | Next race: 1989 German Grand Prix |
| Previous race: 1988 British Grand Prix | British Grand Prix | Next race: 1990 British Grand Prix |
