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
Date 13 August 1989
Official name Pop 84 Magyar Nagydíj
Location Hungaroring
Mogyoród, Pest, Hungary[1]
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 3.968 km (2.466 miles)
Distance 77 laps, 305.536 km (189.850 miles)
Weather Cloudy
Pole position
Driver Williams-Renault
Time 1:19.726
Fastest lap
Driver United Kingdom Nigel Mansell Ferrari
Time 1:22.637 on lap 66
Podium
First Ferrari
Second McLaren-Honda
Third Williams-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

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Pre-qualifying report

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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

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Pos No Driver Constructor Time Gap
1 36   Stefan Johansson Onyx-Ford 1:22.836
2 18   Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Ford 1:24.086 +1.250
3 29   Michele Alboreto Lola-Lamborghini 1:24.323 +1.487
4 37   Bertrand Gachot Onyx-Ford 1:24.412 +1.576
5 17   Nicola Larini Osella-Ford 1:24.601 +1.765
6 30   Philippe Alliot Lola-Lamborghini 1:24.928 +2.092
7 41   Yannick Dalmas AGS-Ford 1:25.571 +2.735
8 34   Bernd Schneider Zakspeed-Yamaha 1:25.613 +2.777
9 40   Gabriele Tarquini AGS-Ford 1:25.685 +2.849
10 31   Roberto Moreno Coloni-Ford 1:26.903 +4.067
11 33   Gregor Foitek EuroBrun-Judd 1:27.478 +4.642
12 35   Aguri Suzuki Zakspeed-Yamaha 1:28.113 +5.277
13 32   Pierre-Henri Raphanel Coloni-Ford 1:45.971 +22.135

Qualifying report

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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

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Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap
1 6   Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault 1:19.726 1:20.644
2 1   Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 1:21.576 1:20.039 +0.313
3 21   Alex Caffi Dallara-Ford 1:21.040 1:20.704 +0.978
4 5   Thierry Boutsen Williams-Renault 1:23.492 1:21.001 +1.275
5 2   Alain Prost McLaren-Honda 1:21.076 1:22.267 +1.350
6 28   Gerhard Berger Ferrari 1:21.304 1:21.270 +1.544
7 19   Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Ford 1:21.448 1:21.301 +1.575
8 8   Stefano Modena Brabham-Judd 1:23.090 1:21.472 +1.746
9 9   Derek Warwick Arrows-Ford 1:23.111 1:21.617 +1.891
10 23   Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 1:21.746 1:32.546 +2.020
11 4   Jean Alesi Tyrrell-Ford 1:23.853 1:21.799 +2.073
12 27   Nigel Mansell Ferrari 1:22.544 1:21.951 +2.225
13 15   Maurício Gugelmin March-Judd 1:22.949 1:22.083 +2.357
14 16   Ivan Capelli March-Judd 1:22.445 1:22.088 +2.362
15 7   Martin Brundle Brabham-Judd 1:22.970 1:22.296 +2.570
16 10   Eddie Cheever Arrows-Ford 1:23.251 1:22.374 +2.648
17 11   Nelson Piquet Lotus-Judd 1:22.837 1:22.406 +2.680
18 22   Andrea de Cesaris Dallara-Ford 1:23.463 1:22.410 +2.684
19 3   Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 1:24.670 1:22.578 +2.852
20 12   Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Judd 1:23.996 1:22.630 +2.904
21 37   Bertrand Gachot Onyx-Ford 1:22.634 1:23.720 +2.908
22 18   Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Ford 1:23.091 1:22.763 +3.037
23 24   Luis Pérez-Sala Minardi-Ford 1:23.017 1:24.188 +3.291
24 36   Stefan Johansson Onyx-Ford 1:23.372 1:23.148 +3.422
25 20   Emanuele Pirro Benetton-Ford 1:23.772 1:23.399 +3.673
26 29   Michele Alboreto Lola-Lamborghini 1:23.733 1:25.660 +4.007
27 25   René Arnoux Ligier-Ford 1:25.862 1:24.003 +4.277
28 26   Olivier Grouillard Ligier-Ford 1:24.702 1:25.169 +4.976
29 38   Christian Danner Rial-Ford 1:26.485 1:25.017 +5.291
30 39   Volker Weidler Rial-Ford 1:28.112 1:26.320 +6.594

Race

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Race report

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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

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Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 27   Nigel Mansell Ferrari 77 1:49:38.650 12 9
2 1   Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 77 + 25.967 2 6
3 5   Thierry Boutsen Williams-Renault 77 + 38.354 4 4
4 2   Alain Prost McLaren-Honda 77 + 44.177 5 3
5 10   Eddie Cheever Arrows-Ford 77 + 45.106 16 2
6 11   Nelson Piquet Lotus-Judd 77 + 1:12.039 17 1
7 21   Alex Caffi Dallara-Ford 77 + 1:24.225 3  
8 20   Emanuele Pirro Benetton-Ford 76 + 1 Lap 25  
9 4   Jean Alesi Tyrrell-Ford 76 + 1 Lap 11  
10 9   Derek Warwick Arrows-Ford 76 + 1 Lap 9  
11 8   Stefano Modena Brabham-Judd 76 + 1 Lap 8  
12 7   Martin Brundle Brabham-Judd 75 + 2 Laps 15  
13 3   Jonathan Palmer Tyrrell-Ford 73 + 4 Laps 19  
Ret 24   Luis Pérez-Sala Minardi-Ford 57 Collision 23  
Ret 28   Gerhard Berger Ferrari 56 Gearbox 6  
Ret 6   Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault 54 Radiator 1  
Ret 36   Stefan Johansson Onyx-Ford 48 Gearbox 24  
Ret 19   Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Ford 46 Gearbox 7  
Ret 37   Bertrand Gachot Onyx-Ford 38 Gearbox 21  
Ret 12   Satoru Nakajima Lotus-Judd 33 Collision 20  
Ret 15   Maurício Gugelmin March-Judd 27 Electrical 13  
Ret 16   Ivan Capelli March-Judd 26 Wheel 14  
Ret 29   Michele Alboreto Lola-Lamborghini 26 Engine 26  
Ret 18   Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Ford 20 Electrical 22  
Ret 23   Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 19 Wheel 10  
Ret 22   Andrea de Cesaris Dallara-Ford 0 Clutch 18  
DNQ 25   René Arnoux Ligier-Ford    
DNQ 26   Olivier Grouillard Ligier-Ford    
DNQ 38   Christian Danner Rial-Ford    
DNQ 39   Volker Weidler Rial-Ford    
DNPQ 17   Nicola Larini Osella-Ford    
DNPQ 30   Philippe Alliot Lola-Lamborghini    
DNPQ 41   Yannick Dalmas AGS-Ford    
DNPQ 34   Bernd Schneider Zakspeed-Yamaha    
DNPQ 40   Gabriele Tarquini AGS-Ford    
DNPQ 31   Roberto Moreno Coloni-Ford    
DNPQ 33   Gregor Foitek EuroBrun-Judd    
DNPQ 35   Aguri Suzuki Zakspeed-Yamaha    
DNPQ 32   Pierre-Henri Raphanel Coloni-Ford    
Source:[5]

Championship standings after the race

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

References

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  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.


Previous race:
1989 German Grand Prix
FIA Formula One World Championship
1989 season
Next race:
1989 Belgian Grand Prix
Previous race:
1988 Hungarian Grand Prix
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1990 Hungarian Grand Prix