| 1989 Monaco Grand Prix | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 3 of 16 in the1989 Formula One World Championship | |||
 | |||
| Race details[1] | |||
| Date | 7 May 1989 | ||
| Official name | 47eGrand Prix de Monaco[2] | ||
| Location | Circuit de Monaco Monte Carlo | ||
| Course | Temporary street circuit | ||
| Course length | 3.328 km (2.068 miles) | ||
| Distance | 77 laps, 256.256 km (159.230 miles) | ||
| Scheduled distance | 78 laps, 259.584 km (161.298 miles) | ||
| Weather | Warm, dry, sunny | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | McLaren-Honda | ||
| Time | 1:22.308 | ||
| Fastest lap | |||
| Driver |  Alain Prost | McLaren-Honda | |
| Time | 1:25.501 on lap 59 | ||
| Podium | |||
| First | McLaren-Honda | ||
| Second | McLaren-Honda | ||
| Third | Brabham-Judd | ||
Lap leaders | |||
The1989 Monaco Grand Prix was aFormula One motor race held at theCircuit de Monaco,Monte Carlo on 7 May 1989. It was the third race of the1989 Formula One World Championship. The 77-lap race was won frompole position byAyrton Senna, driving aMcLaren-Honda, with teammateAlain Prost second andStefano Modena third in aBrabham-Judd.
The event, officially called theGrand Prix de Monaco, was the third round of the1989 Formula One World Championship and was held at theCircuit de Monaco inMonte Carlo,Monaco.[1] Free and qualifying practice sessions were held on Thursday 4 May and Saturday 6 May, with a morning warm-up session and the main Grand Prix race held on Sunday 7 May 1989.[1] Thirty-nine cars were entered by twentylist of Formula One constructors, althoughScuderia Ferrari withdrew one of their entries asGerhard Berger had been injured duringthe previous race.[1] Ferrari made changes toNigel Mansell's cars to try and avoid a repeat of the failure that had caused Berger's prior crash, but were unable to complete certain planned upgrades in time for this event as they had to replace the car destroyed in Imola.[1]Automobiles Gonfaronnaises Sportives (AGS),Arrows,Brabham,EuroBrun,Ligier,Larrousse,Team Lotus,McLaren,Onyx Grand Prix,Williams, andZakspeed all brought updates or modifications to their cars for this race.[1]March Engineering debutedAdrian Newey'sCG891 at this event.[1] Thirteen teams usedGoodyear tyres whilst the other seven teams usedPirelli tyres.[1]
The field was one fewer in Monaco as Ferrari had elected not to run a second car to replace Berger, who had been injured in an accident during the last race atImola (the Austrian was present in the pits at Monaco, but even with theFerrari 640's revolutionarysemi-automatic gearbox meaning he did not have to take his hands off the steering wheel, the burns on his hands were not sufficiently recovered to be able to take on the Circuit de Monaco). However, unlike the similar situation at the first race inBrazil, no extra pre-qualifier would be allowed through to the main qualifying sessions, and due to the much tighter confines of both the circuit and the pits, Monaco would only run with 29 cars.[1]
Brabham again topped the time sheets during the Thursday morning pre-qualifying session, withStefano Modena fastest, but theDallara ofAlex Caffi was only 0.141 seconds behind. Third wasPierre-Henri Raphanel, who put in a fine performance in hisColoni, pre-qualifying for the first, and ultimately, only time. The fourth pre-qualifier was the other Brabham, driven byMartin Brundle, who edged out theOsella ofPiercarlo Ghinzani by just two-hundredths of a second.
Joining Ghinzani on the sidelines wereStefan Johansson in the Onyx, thenNicola Larini in the other Osella, followed byBernd Schneider in the Zakspeed. Ninth was the other Onyx ofBertrand Gachot, ahead of the sole EuroBrun driven byGregor Foitek. TheRial ofVolker Weidler was eleventh, followed byAguri Suzuki in the other Zakspeed. Slowest on this occasion wasJoachim Winkelhock in the AGS.[3]
| Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 8 |  Stefano Modena | Brabham-Judd | 1:26.957 | |
| 2 | 21 | Alex Caffi | Dallara-Ford | 1:27.098 | +0.141 |
| 3 | 32 | Pierre-Henri Raphanel | Coloni-Ford | 1:27.590 | +0.633 |
| 4 | 7 |  Martin Brundle | Brabham-Judd | 1:27.774 | +0.817 |
| 5 | 18 | Piercarlo Ghinzani | Osella-Ford | 1:27.795 | +0.838 |
| 6 | 36 |  Stefan Johansson | Onyx-Ford | 1.27.821 | +0.864 |
| 7 | 17 | Nicola Larini | Osella-Ford | 1:28.555 | +1.598 |
| 8 | 34 |  Bernd Schneider | Zakspeed-Yamaha | 1:28.610 | +1.653 |
| 9 | 37 |  Bertrand Gachot | Onyx-Ford | 1:28.897 | +1.940 |
| 10 | 33 |  Gregor Foitek | EuroBrun-Judd | 1:29.423 | +2.466 |
| 11 | 39 | Volker Weidler | Rial-Ford | 1:29.498 | +2.541 |
| 12 | 35 |  Aguri Suzuki | Zakspeed-Yamaha | 1:30.528 | +2.571 |
| 13 | 41 | Joachim Winkelhock | AGS-Ford | 1:32.274 | +4.317 |
Tyrrell had anew car that looked sleek and promising, but onlyJonathan Palmer hit the track with it on the first day of practice and qualifying.Michele Alboreto's car wasn't finished yet (it would be by Saturday practice and qualifying) and he point blank refused to drive theolder car. Ayrton Senna was on pole by a full second over teammate Alain Prost withThierry Boutsen sharing row two with the surprisingly competitiveBrabham ofMartin Brundle.Nigel Mansell was fifth followed byDerek Warwick (who's all-out driving in the under-poweredArrows-Ford had found a new fan in the spectating Gerhard Berger),Riccardo Patrese,Stefano Modena,Alex Caffi, andAndrea de Cesaris.
It was at this race that many in the paddock started noticing that thePirelli qualifying tyres were superior toGoodyear's (the Brabhams and Caffi'sDallara ran on Pirelli rubber).
For the second Monaco in a row,Team Lotus, previous winners in the Principality on 7 different occasions (1960,1961,1968,1969,1970,1974 and1987), would start the Monaco Grand Prix with only one car in the field. As he had done in1988, Japanese driverSatoru Nakajima failed to qualify. Triple World ChampionNelson Piquet, never at ease on the Monaco streets, qualified 19th, 4.738 seconds behind hisreigning World Championcountryman.
| Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Q1 | Q2 | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 |  Ayrton Senna | McLaren-Honda | 1:24.126 | 1:22.308 | |
| 2 | 2 | Alain Prost | McLaren-Honda | 1:24.671 | 1:23.456 | +1.148 |
| 3 | 5 | Thierry Boutsen | Williams-Renault | 1:25.540 | 1:24.332 | +2.024 |
| 4 | 7 | Martin Brundle | Brabham-Judd | 1:26.970 | 1:24.580 | +2.272 |
| 5 | 27 | Nigel Mansell | Ferrari | 1:25.363 | 1:24.735 | +2.427 |
| 6 | 9 | Derek Warwick | Arrows-Ford | 1:26.606 | 1:24.791 | +2.483 |
| 7 | 6 | Riccardo Patrese | Williams-Renault | 1:27.138 | 1:25.021 | +2.713 |
| 8 | 8 | Stefano Modena | Brabham-Judd | 1:27.598 | 1:25.086 | +2.778 |
| 9 | 21 | Alex Caffi | Dallara-Ford | 1:27.894 | 1:25.481 | +3.173 |
| 10 | 22 | Andrea de Cesaris | Dallara-Ford | 1:26.617 | 1:25.515 | +3.207 |
| 11 | 23 | Pierluigi Martini | Minardi-Ford | 1:28.469 | 1:26.288 | +3.980 |
| 12 | 4 | Michele Alboreto | Tyrrell-Ford | No time | 1:26.388 | +4.080 |
| 13 | 40 | Gabriele Tarquini | AGS-Ford | 1:26.603 | 1:26.422 | +4.114 |
| 14 | 15 | Maurício Gugelmin | March-Judd | 1:28.917 | 1:26.522 | +4.214 |
| 15 | 19 | Alessandro Nannini | Benetton-Ford | 1:28.608 | 1:26.599 | +4.291 |
| 16 | 26 | Olivier Grouillard | Ligier-Ford | 1:27.040 | 1:26.792 | +4.484 |
| 17 | 30 | Philippe Alliot | Lola-Lamborghini | 1:26.975 | 1:26.857 | +4.549 |
| 18 | 32 | Pierre-Henri Raphanel | Coloni-Ford | 1:30.264 | 1:27.011 | +4.703 |
| 19 | 11 | Nelson Piquet | Lotus-Judd | 1:29.047 | 1:27.046 | +4.738 |
| 20 | 10 |  Eddie Cheever | Arrows-Ford | 1:28.461 | 1:27.117 | +4.809 |
| 21 | 25 | René Arnoux | Ligier-Ford | 1:30.003 | 1:27.182 | +4.874 |
| 22 | 16 | Ivan Capelli | March-Judd | 1:29.800 | 1:27.302 | +4.994 |
| 23 | 3 | Jonathan Palmer | Tyrrell-Ford | 1:29.151 | 1:27.452 | +5.144 |
| 24 | 20 | Johnny Herbert | Benetton-Ford | 1:29.661 | 1:27.706 | +5.398 |
| 25 | 31 | Roberto Moreno | Coloni-Ford | 1:30.209 | 1:27.721 | +5.413 |
| 26 | 24 |  Luis Pérez-Sala | Minardi-Ford | 1:28.886 | 1:27.786 | +5.478 |
| 27 | 38 | Christian Danner | Rial-Ford | 1:28.737 | 1:27.910 | +5.602 |
| 28 | 29 | Yannick Dalmas | Lola-Lamborghini | 1:29.794 | 1:27.946 | +5.638 |
| 29 | 12 | Satoru Nakajima | Lotus-Judd | 1:28.568 | 1:28.419 | +6.111 |
The first start was aborted when Patrese stalled his Williams. At the second start, for which Patrese was relegated to the back of the grid, Senna was first into Sainte-Dévote and Prost could do nothing but slot in behind him. The McLarens proceeded to pull away from the field, while behind them Williams were in all sorts of trouble, as both Boutsen and Patrese had to stop for new rear wings. Nigel Mansell went out on lap 20 with more gearbox issues for Ferrari and one of the talking points of the race came on lap 33 when de Cesaris attempted to passNelson Piquet at Loews Hairpin. The predictable accident occurred and some choice words were exchanged between the two drivers (while still in their respective cars) and a huge traffic jam was caused. Brundle was looking good in 3rd place in the Brabham, until he had to pit for a new battery and dropped back to seventh (thecar's battery was located under the driver's legs forcing Brundle to evacuate the car to allow it to be changed. The problem ultimately cost him a podium finish).
Senna, continued to dominate the race while Prost, including having been slowed by the Piquet-de Cesaris incident (he lost over 20 seconds to Senna in one lap having to wait for clear road to get moving again), could not recover and finished second behind his team mate. He was also held up for many laps trying to lap theLigier of formerRenault team mateRené Arnoux who ignored both his mirrors and the blue flags promptingBBC commentatorJames Hunt to describe Arnoux's explanation of why he was so slow these days compared to his race winning days as "Bullshit" on live television. It was Senna's second win at Monaco and he did it the hard way, his McLaren losing first and second gear later in the race and disguising it to his best so Prost wouldn't react and push for the lead. Modena benefited from Brundle's stop and finished third, scoring his first points in Formula One and Brabham's last podium finish.Alex Caffi,Michele Alboreto, and Brundle, who was promoted to sixth on the final lap as a result of the retirement ofIvan Capelli, completed the point scoring positions. Caffi achieved both his and Dallara's first points while Alboreto scored Tyrrell's first points with their impressive new car.
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| Previous race: 1989 San Marino Grand Prix | FIA Formula One World Championship 1989 season | Next race: 1989 Mexican Grand Prix |
| Previous race: 1988 Monaco Grand Prix | Monaco Grand Prix | Next race: 1990 Monaco Grand Prix |
43°44′4.74″N7°25′16.8″E / 43.7346500°N 7.421333°E /43.7346500; 7.421333
