1989 Spanish motorcycle Grand Prix

The 1989 Spanish motorcycle Grand Prix was the fourth round of the 1989 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season. It took place on the weekend of 28–30 April 1989 at the Jerez circuit.

  1989 Spanish Grand Prix
Race details
Race 4 of 15 races in the
1989 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season
Date30 April 1989
Official nameMarlboro Gran Premio de España de Motociclismo[1]
LocationCircuito Permanente de Jerez
Course
  • Permanent racing facility
  • 4.428 km (2.751 mi)
500 cc
Pole position
Rider Wayne Rainey
Time 1:48.640
Fastest lap
Rider Kevin Schwantz
Time 1:48.790
Podium
First Eddie Lawson
Second Wayne Rainey
Third Niall Mackenzie
250 cc
Pole position
Rider Luca Cadalora
Time 1:50.520
Fastest lap
Rider Juan Garriga
Time 1:51.080
Podium
First Luca Cadalora
Second Sito Pons
Third Jean-Philippe Ruggia
125 cc
Pole position
Rider Àlex Crivillé
Time 1:56.330
Fastest lap
Rider Àlex Crivillé
Time 1:56.610
Podium
First Àlex Crivillé
Second Jorge Martínez
Third Koji Takada
80 cc
Pole position
Rider Stefan Dörflinger
Time 2:02.640
Fastest lap
Rider Unknown
Podium
First Herri Torrontegui
Second Stefan Dörflinger
Third Peter Öttl

500 cc race report

Wayne Rainey on pole goes into the first turn ahead of Pierfrancesco Chili, Eddie Lawson, and Kevin Schwantz. Schwantz wastes little time in catching and passing Rainey. As Schwantz pulls ahead, Rainey battles Lawson for the first time in the season, Lawson seeming to come to terms with the Honda. Rainey can only watch as Lawson passes and claws away at a gap.

Meanwhile, Chili tries passing Ron Haslam on the hairpin leading into the straight by braking late on the inside. Chili clumsily bumps Haslam, who’s in no mood to be shoved and decides to shove back, taking them both off-track, though Haslam’s detour end up being much longer than Chili’s.

Up ahead, Schwantz is enjoying a large lead with 5 laps to go when he throws it away, clutching his head in disbelief as he walks through the gravel. Lawson is handed the win, followed by Rainey and Mackenzie.

Schwantz:

"At Jerez there was four laps to go and I was almost six seconds in front of Eddie. I had watched the race the previous year after the bike broke and I remembered watching him haul in Rainey and keep Rainey from winning his first Grand Prix. I was thinking to myself, come on you've just got to keep above those five seconds. Get it down to less than five laps with more than five seconds and there's no way he can catch you.' "

"I had got there and done that. I went over the line and around the back of the big Kodak box that is a scoreboard with all the times on it. As I went past the back it changed to show four laps to go and more than five seconds, I thought, 'yeah I've got it,' and immediately fell off. It was just a loss of concentration, I thought I had it in the bag. I went into the corner, didn't have it down on my knee where I needed to be. The front end pushed and before I could even think, 'Oh shit', I was sitting on the haybales."[2]

The gap between Lawson and Rainey is now 10 points.

500 cc classification

Pos. Rider Team Manufacturer Time/Retired Points
1 Eddie Lawson Rothmans Kanemoto Honda Honda 55:11.260 20
2 Wayne Rainey Team Lucky Strike Roberts Yamaha +10.170 17
3 Niall Mackenzie Marlboro Yamaha Team Agostini Yamaha +17.480 15
4 Christian Sarron Sonauto Gauloises Blondes Yamaha Mobil 1 Yamaha +27.300 13
5 Freddie Spencer Marlboro Yamaha Team Agostini Yamaha +51.000 11
6 Pierfrancesco Chili HB Honda Gallina Team Honda +1:19.040 10
7 Ron Haslam Suzuki Pepsi Cola Suzuki +1:29.450 9
8 Tadahiko Taira Yamaha Motor Company Yamaha +1:43.440 8
9 Dominique Sarron Team ROC Elf Honda Honda +1:46.870 7
10 Alessandro Valesi Team Iberia Yamaha +1:53.860 6
11 Massimo Broccoli Cagiva Corse Cagiva +1 Lap 5
12 Marco Gentile Fior Marlboro Fior +1 Lap 4
13 Simon Buckmaster Racing Team Katayama Honda +1 Lap 3
14 Juan Lopez Mella Club Motocross Pozuelo Honda +1 Lap 2
15 Eddie Laycock Honda +1 Lap 1
16 Bruno Kneubuhler Romer Racing Suisse Honda +1 Lap
17 Claude Albert Suzuki +1 Lap
18 Josef Doppler Honda +1 Lap
19 Steve Williams Flower Motorcycles Honda +1 Lap
20 Michael Rudroff HRK Motors Honda +1 Lap
21 Ian Pratt Racing Team Katayama Honda +1 Lap
22 Fabian Pilloud Honda +1 Lap
Ret Nicholas Schmassman FMS Honda Retirement
Ret Andreas Leuthe Librenti Corse Suzuki Retirement
Ret Kevin Schwantz Suzuki Pepsi Cola Suzuki Retirement
Ret Randy Mamola Cagiva Corse Cagiva Retirement
Ret Francisco Gonzales Club Motocross Pozuelo Honda Retirement
Ret Marco Papa Team Greco Paton Retirement
Ret Mick Doohan Rothmans Honda Team Honda Retirement
DNQ Larry Moreno Vacondio Suzuki Did not qualify
Sources: [3][4]

References

  1. "Grand Prix uitslagen en bijzonderheden 1989". Archive.li. Archived from the original on 2015-07-25. Retrieved 2018-09-12.
  2. Schwantz, Kevin: Early GP Years Archived 2006-05-19 at the Wayback Machine kevinschwantz.com 1994.
  3. "1989 Spanish MotoGP - Motor Sport Magazine Database". 13 June 2017.
  4. "motogp.com · SPANISH GRAND PRIX · 500cc Race Classification 1989". www.motogp.com.
Previous race:
1989 United States Grand Prix
FIM Grand Prix World Championship
1989 season
Next race:
1989 Nations Grand Prix
Previous race:
1988 Spanish Grand Prix
Spanish motorcycle Grand Prix Next race:
1990 Spanish Grand Prix
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