1989 Hungarian Grand Prix

The 1989 Hungarian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Hungaroring on 13 August 1989. It was the tenth race of the 1989 Formula One World Championship.

1989 Hungarian Grand Prix
Race 10 of 16 in the 1989 Formula One World Championship
Race details
Date13 August 1989
Official namePop 84 Magyar Nagydíj
LocationHungaroring
Mogyoród, Pest, Hungary[1]
CoursePermanent racing facility
Course length3.968 km (2.466 miles)
Distance77 laps, 305.536 km (189.850 miles)
WeatherCloudy
Pole position
DriverWilliams-Renault
Time1:19.726
Fastest lap
DriverUnited Kingdom Nigel MansellFerrari
Time1:22.637 on lap 66
Podium
FirstFerrari
SecondMcLaren-Honda
ThirdWilliams-Renault
Lap leaders

The 77-lap race was won by Nigel Mansell, driving a Ferrari. After qualifying only 12th, Mansell charged through the field and took the lead with an opportunistic overtaking manoeuvre on Ayrton Senna in the McLaren-Honda as the two were lapping Stefan Johansson in the Onyx-Ford. Senna finished 26 seconds behind Mansell, with Thierry Boutsen third in a Williams-Renault.

Senna's teammate and Drivers' Championship rival, Alain Prost, finished fourth, meaning that his lead over Senna in the championship was reduced to 14 points.

Qualifying edit

Pre-qualifying report edit

The Hungaroring had been changed from the year before; the tight, slow S-bends after Turn 4 had been bypassed, extending the straight into Turns 5 and 6; raising the circuit's average speed by 10 percent.

In the Friday morning pre-qualifying session, an Onyx topped the time sheets for the fourth Grand Prix in succession. Stefan Johansson was comfortably fastest, and his team-mate Bertrand Gachot also pre-qualified in fourth. Both drivers had re-signed with Onyx for 1990. For the first time this season, Piercarlo Ghinzani went through to the main qualifying sessions, in second place. For the third time this season, and for the first time since the US Grand Prix, he outpaced his Osella team-mate Nicola Larini, who missed out in fifth position. The Larrousse-Lola of Michele Alboreto was the other pre-qualifier in third, the Italian suffering from a cracked rib. His team-mate Philippe Alliot was down in sixth, the first time either he or a Larrousse had failed to pre-qualify.[2]

The AGS cars of Yannick Dalmas and Gabriele Tarquini were seventh and ninth respectively, while Zakspeed drivers Bernd Schneider and Aguri Suzuki, still hampered by their underpowered Yamaha engines, were eighth and twelfth. Roberto Moreno was tenth in the Coloni, while his team-mate Pierre-Henri Raphanel was unable to post a representative time and was bottom of the time sheets in his last appearance for the team. Gregor Foitek was still unable to pre-qualify the new EuroBrun car, and was eleventh fastest.[2]

Pre-qualifying classification edit

PosNoDriverConstructorTimeGap
136 Stefan JohanssonOnyx-Ford1:22.836
218 Piercarlo GhinzaniOsella-Ford1:24.086+1.250
329 Michele AlboretoLola-Lamborghini1:24.323+1.487
437 Bertrand GachotOnyx-Ford1:24.412+1.576
517 Nicola LariniOsella-Ford1:24.601+1.765
630 Philippe AlliotLola-Lamborghini1:24.928+2.092
741 Yannick DalmasAGS-Ford1:25.571+2.735
834 Bernd SchneiderZakspeed-Yamaha1:25.613+2.777
940 Gabriele TarquiniAGS-Ford1:25.685+2.849
1031 Roberto MorenoColoni-Ford1:26.903+4.067
1133 Gregor FoitekEuroBrun-Judd1:27.478+4.642
1235 Aguri SuzukiZakspeed-Yamaha1:28.113+5.277
1332 Pierre-Henri RaphanelColoni-Ford1:45.971+22.135

Qualifying report edit

Riccardo Patrese took a surprise pole position in his Williams-Renault, the first and only non-McLaren pole of the season, beating Ayrton Senna by three-tenths of a second. In another surprise, Alex Caffi took third in his Dallara, just six-tenths behind Senna, with Thierry Boutsen fourth in the second Williams. Drivers' Championship leader Alain Prost was fifth in the second McLaren, with Gerhard Berger sixth in the Ferrari. The top ten was completed by Alessandro Nannini in the Benetton, Stefano Modena in the Brabham, Derek Warwick in the Arrows and Pierluigi Martini in the Minardi.

Nigel Mansell could only manage 12th in the second Ferrari, nearly seven-tenths behind teammate Berger and over two seconds behind Patrese, and later complained of traffic.

Qualifying classification edit

PosNoDriverConstructorQ1Q2Gap
16 Riccardo PatreseWilliams-Renault1:19.7261:20.644
21 Ayrton SennaMcLaren-Honda1:21.5761:20.039+0.313
321 Alex CaffiDallara-Ford1:21.0401:20.704+0.978
45 Thierry BoutsenWilliams-Renault1:23.4921:21.001+1.275
52 Alain ProstMcLaren-Honda1:21.0761:22.267+1.350
628 Gerhard BergerFerrari1:21.3041:21.270+1.544
719 Alessandro NanniniBenetton-Ford1:21.4481:21.301+1.575
88 Stefano ModenaBrabham-Judd1:23.0901:21.472+1.746
99 Derek WarwickArrows-Ford1:23.1111:21.617+1.891
1023 Pierluigi MartiniMinardi-Ford1:21.7461:32.546+2.020
114 Jean AlesiTyrrell-Ford1:23.8531:21.799+2.073
1227 Nigel MansellFerrari1:22.5441:21.951+2.225
1315 Maurício GugelminMarch-Judd1:22.9491:22.083+2.357
1416 Ivan CapelliMarch-Judd1:22.4451:22.088+2.362
157 Martin BrundleBrabham-Judd1:22.9701:22.296+2.570
1610 Eddie CheeverArrows-Ford1:23.2511:22.374+2.648
1711 Nelson PiquetLotus-Judd1:22.8371:22.406+2.680
1822 Andrea de CesarisDallara-Ford1:23.4631:22.410+2.684
193 Jonathan PalmerTyrrell-Ford1:24.6701:22.578+2.852
2012 Satoru NakajimaLotus-Judd1:23.9961:22.630+2.904
2137 Bertrand GachotOnyx-Ford1:22.6341:23.720+2.908
2218 Piercarlo GhinzaniOsella-Ford1:23.0911:22.763+3.037
2324 Luis Pérez-SalaMinardi-Ford1:23.0171:24.188+3.291
2436 Stefan JohanssonOnyx-Ford1:23.3721:23.148+3.422
2520 Emanuele PirroBenetton-Ford1:23.7721:23.399+3.673
2629 Michele AlboretoLola-Lamborghini1:23.7331:25.660+4.007
2725 René ArnouxLigier-Ford1:25.8621:24.003+4.277
2826 Olivier GrouillardLigier-Ford1:24.7021:25.169+4.976
2938 Christian DannerRial-Ford1:26.4851:25.017+5.291
3039 Volker WeidlerRial-Ford1:28.1121:26.320+6.594

Race edit

Race report edit

At the start of the race, Patrese, Senna and Caffi maintained their grid order into turn 1, while Boutsen lost out to Prost as Berger passed both of them. Further back, Mansell made a good start, rising to 8th at the first corner. It soon became clear, however, that Caffi was struggling, the Dallara unable to replicate the speed it had shown in qualifying. Before long he had been passed by both Berger and Prost, and was holding up a train of cars consisting of Boutsen, Nannini, Mansell and Warwick.

Nannini exited the train when he pulled in to change tyres. This promoted Mansell to 7th, which he quickly turned into 5th by passing Boutsen and Caffi in quick succession. He then set about closing the 17-second gap to the leaders, and was promoted to 4th when Berger pitted for tyres. Having caught up to the leading group, Mansell passed Prost for 3rd. Patrese's Williams then began to develop a problem with a holed radiator, which slowed him and bunched up the leading group. Eventually, Patrese's holed radiator became so bad that both Senna and Mansell were able to pass him in the space of a few corners. Patrese retired from the race shortly afterwards.

Mansell now began to pressure Senna, clearly faster but unable to pass due to the extra power of the McLaren's Honda engine. Meanwhile, Prost pitted for tyres and rejoined 6th, while Berger only inherited 3rd briefly before he retired with gearbox problems, leaving Senna and Mansell on their own. Eventually, the pair came up to lap Stefan Johansson's Onyx. Senna caught him at an awkward moment, just at the accelerating zone out of turn 3. The Brazilian uncharacteristically hesitated, briefly lifting off, and this allowed Mansell to draw alongside as they went past Johansson and then use the Ferrari's greater momentum to surge past Senna and take the lead. After that, Mansell had an unchallenged run to the flag, beating Senna by nearly 26 seconds, with Boutsen completing the podium. Prost overtook Eddie Cheever's Arrows for 4th on the final lap, while Nelson Piquet's Lotus rounded off the points scorers.[3]

Many of the leading cars had problems with tyre vibrations - both Senna and Mansell complained about this, whilst Prost also had difficulties after picking up debris whilst going offline to avoid Patrese's oil.[4]

Race classification edit

PosNoDriverConstructorLapsTime/RetiredGridPoints
127 Nigel MansellFerrari771:49:38.650129
21 Ayrton SennaMcLaren-Honda77+ 25.96726
35 Thierry BoutsenWilliams-Renault77+ 38.35444
42 Alain ProstMcLaren-Honda77+ 44.17753
510 Eddie CheeverArrows-Ford77+ 45.106162
611 Nelson PiquetLotus-Judd77+ 1:12.039171
721 Alex CaffiDallara-Ford77+ 1:24.2253 
820 Emanuele PirroBenetton-Ford76+ 1 Lap25 
94 Jean AlesiTyrrell-Ford76+ 1 Lap11 
109 Derek WarwickArrows-Ford76+ 1 Lap9 
118 Stefano ModenaBrabham-Judd76+ 1 Lap8 
127 Martin BrundleBrabham-Judd75+ 2 Laps15 
133 Jonathan PalmerTyrrell-Ford73+ 4 Laps19 
Ret24 Luis Pérez-SalaMinardi-Ford57Collision23 
Ret28 Gerhard BergerFerrari56Gearbox6 
Ret6 Riccardo PatreseWilliams-Renault54Radiator1 
Ret36 Stefan JohanssonOnyx-Ford48Gearbox24 
Ret19 Alessandro NanniniBenetton-Ford46Gearbox7 
Ret37 Bertrand GachotOnyx-Ford38Gearbox21 
Ret12 Satoru NakajimaLotus-Judd33Collision20 
Ret15 Maurício GugelminMarch-Judd27Electrical13 
Ret16 Ivan CapelliMarch-Judd26Wheel14 
Ret29 Michele AlboretoLola-Lamborghini26Engine26 
Ret18 Piercarlo GhinzaniOsella-Ford20Electrical22 
Ret23 Pierluigi MartiniMinardi-Ford19Wheel10 
Ret22 Andrea de CesarisDallara-Ford0Clutch18 
DNQ25 René ArnouxLigier-Ford  
DNQ26 Olivier GrouillardLigier-Ford  
DNQ38 Christian DannerRial-Ford  
DNQ39 Volker WeidlerRial-Ford  
DNPQ17 Nicola LariniOsella-Ford  
DNPQ30 Philippe AlliotLola-Lamborghini  
DNPQ41 Yannick DalmasAGS-Ford  
DNPQ34 Bernd SchneiderZakspeed-Yamaha  
DNPQ40 Gabriele TarquiniAGS-Ford  
DNPQ31 Roberto MorenoColoni-Ford  
DNPQ33 Gregor FoitekEuroBrun-Judd  
DNPQ35 Aguri SuzukiZakspeed-Yamaha  
DNPQ32 Pierre-Henri RaphanelColoni-Ford  
Source:[5]

Championship standings after the race edit

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

References edit

  1. ^ "1989 Hungarian Grand Prix". Motor Sport. Retrieved 8 June 2022.
  2. ^ a b Walker, Murray (1989). Murray Walker's Grand Prix Year. First Formula Publishing. pp. 85–92. ISBN 1-870066-22-7.
  3. ^ "Mansell the magician" by Innes Ireland Road & Track December 1989
  4. ^ Murray's Walker 1989 Grand Prix Year, First Frost 1989, p.92
  5. ^ "1989 Hungarian Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 18 January 2015. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  6. ^ a b "Hungary 1989 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 18 March 2019.


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1989 German Grand Prix
FIA Formula One World Championship
1989 season
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1989 Belgian Grand Prix
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1988 Hungarian Grand Prix
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1990 Hungarian Grand Prix