1990 Japanese motorcycle Grand Prix
| Race details | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 1 of 15 races in the 1990 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season | |||
 | |||
| Date | 25 March 1990 | ||
| Location | Suzuka | ||
| Course | Permanent racing facility 5.821 km (3.618 mi) | ||
| 500 cc | |||
| Pole position | |||
| Rider |  Wayne Rainey |
||
| Time | 2:09.589 | ||
| Fastest lap | |||
| Rider | Wayne Rainey |
||
| Time | 2:11.354 | ||
| Podium | |||
| First | Wayne Rainey |
||
| Second |  Wayne Gardner |
||
| Third | Kevin Schwantz |
||
| 250 cc | |||
| Pole position | |||
| Rider | John Kocinski |
||
| Time | 2:14.273 | ||
| Fastest lap | |||
| Rider |  Jacques Cornu |
||
| Time | 2:16.452 | ||
| Podium | |||
| First |  Luca Cadalora |
||
| Second |  Carlos Cardús |
||
| Third |  Wilco Zeelenberg |
||
| 125 cc | |||
| Pole position | |||
| Rider |  Kinya Wada |
||
| Time | 2:25.033 | ||
| Fastest lap | |||
| Rider |  Stefan Prein |
||
| Time | 2:25.045 | ||
| Podium | |||
| First | Hans Spaan |
||
| Second | Stefan Prein |
||
| Third | Koji Takada |
||
The 1990 Japanese motorcycle Grand Prix was the first round of the 1990 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season. It took place on the weekend of 23–25 March 1990 at the Suzuka Circuit.
500 cc race report
Wayne Rainey's pole of 2:09.589 is the first sub-2:10 lap at Suzuka. Rainey gets the start of the new 4-column grid, followed by Mick Doohan, Eddie Lawson and the field. Rainey goes through the chicane with a sub-second gap, followed by Lawson, Doohan, Kevin Schwantz and Wayne Gardner.
Rainey is opening a gap, but Schwantz moves into second and leads the chase. Entering the back straight, Schwantz looks behind him to see who’s back there, but Lawson’s proximity probably blocks the view.
Perhaps Schwantz had a feeling something bad was about to happen. Going into 130R, Gardner barely manages to pass on the brakes and move into second place, while Doohan brakes for all he’s worth, getting the back wheel in the air, and loses the front end as he leans it in. Unfortunately, he’s inside of Lawson when he falls, so Doohan’s bike hits Lawson’s rear wheel hard, taking him out too. Lawson, who came out of 1989 without a race crash, begins the season with a DNF and a broken left ankle.
Rainey has a large gap, and Gardner and Schwantz are scraping fairings for second. Last lap and Rainey has an untouchable lead, and Gardner goes slightly wide heading towards the chicane, but manages to hold Schwantz off; as they flick it right and then left, Schwantz touches Gardner’s back tire and drops his bike. Because it happened at such a low speed, Schwantz is able to get back on quickly and still cross the line in third place.
Schwantz: "I thought I had Gardner sorted out pretty good for the last lap going into the chicane, just as soon as I got up the inside and he saw my wheel he came in and I think he was still going in too fast. He went into the chicane real deep. I got turned quick because I knew he was going to be wide. He came back across and as I was coming down , we hit. I guess it all depends on how you look at it as to who's fault it was I'd say it was his."[1]500 cc classification
| Pos | No. | Rider | Manufacturer | Laps | Time/Retired | Grid | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | Wayne Rainey |
Yamaha | 22 | 48:52.475 | 1 | 20 |
| 2 | 10 | Wayne Gardner |
Honda | 22 | +3.237 | 3 | 17 |
| 3 | 34 | Kevin Schwantz |
Suzuki | 22 | +15.556 | 2 | 15 |
| 4 | 4 | Kevin Magee |
Suzuki | 22 | +40.689 | 7 | 13 |
| 5 | 6 | Sito Pons |
Honda | 22 | +41.008 | 9 | 11 |
| 6 | 21 | Tadahiko Taira |
Yamaha | 22 | +51.363 | 10 | 10 |
| 7 | 5 | Pierfrancesco Chili |
Honda | 22 | +51.536 | 6 | 9 |
| 8 | 14 |  Jean-Philippe Ruggia |
Yamaha | 22 | +53.739 | 15 | 8 |
| 9 | 39 | Shinichi Itoh |
Honda | 22 | +1:02.515 | 8 | 7 |
| 10 | 11 | Juan Garriga |
Yamaha | 22 | +1:25.526 | 18 | 6 |
| 11 | 37 | Hikaru Miyagi |
Honda | 22 | +1:29.184 | 20 | 5 |
| 12 | 41 | Shinji Katayama |
Yamaha | 22 | +1:42.002 | 21 | 4 |
| 13 | 38 | Osamu Hiwatashi |
Suzuki | 22 | +1:42.713 | 19 | 3 |
| Ret | 43 | Keiji Ohishi |
Yamaha | 18 | Retirement | 22 | |
| Ret | 18 | Randy Mamola |
Cagiva | 18 | Retirement | 17 | |
| Ret | 28 |  Alex Barros |
Cagiva | 12 | Retirement | 24 | |
| Ret | 40 | Satoshi Tsujimoto |
Suzuki | 9 | Retirement | 13 | |
| Ret | 3 | Christian Sarron |
Yamaha | 8 | Retirement | 11 | |
| Ret | 8 |  Ron Haslam |
Cagiva | 8 | Retirement | 23 | |
| Ret | 36 | Kunio Machii |
Yamaha | 7 | Retirement | 12 | |
| Ret | 1 | Eddie Lawson |
Yamaha | 4 | Retirement | 4 | |
| Ret | 9 | Mick Doohan |
Honda | 4 | Retirement | 5 | |
| Ret | 15 | Norihiko Fujiwara |
Yamaha | 2 | Retirement | 16 | |
| DNS | 35 | Shunji Yatsushiro |
Honda | 14 | |||
| DNQ | 26 | Niggi Schmassman |
Honda | ||||
| DNQ | 44 | Kenmei Matsumoto |
Honda | ||||
References
- ↑ Schwantz, Kevin: Blurred Past kevinschwantz.com 1994.
| Previous race: 1989 Brazilian Grand Prix |
FIM Grand Prix World Championship 1990 season |
Next race: 1990 United States Grand Prix |
| Previous race: 1989 Japanese Grand Prix |
Japanese motorcycle Grand Prix | Next race: 1991 Japanese Grand Prix |