1989 Spanish motorcycle Grand Prix

  1989 Spanish Grand Prix

Race details
Race 4 of 15 races in the 1989 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season
Date	30 April 1989
Location	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

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.

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."^[1]

The gap between Lawson and Rainey is now 10 points.

500 cc classification

Pos	Rider	Manufacturer	Time/Retired	Points
1	Eddie Lawson	Honda	55:11.260	20
2	Wayne Rainey	Yamaha	+10.170	17
3	Niall Mackenzie	Yamaha	+17.480	15
4	Christian Sarron	Yamaha	+27.300	13
5	Freddie Spencer	Yamaha	+51.000	11
6	Pierfrancesco Chili	Honda	+1:19.040	10
7	Ron Haslam	Suzuki	+1:29.450	9
8	Tadahiko Taira	Yamaha	+1:43.440	8
9	Dominique Sarron	Honda	+1:46.870	7
10	Alessandro Valesi	Yamaha	+1:53.860	6
11	Massimo Broccoli	Cagiva	+1 Lap	5
12	Marco Gentile	Fior	+1 Lap	4
13	Damon Buckmaster	Honda	+1 Lap	3
14	Juan Lopez Mella	Honda	+1 Lap	2
15	Eddie Laycock	Honda	+1 Lap	1
16	Bruno Kneubuhler	Honda	+1 Lap
17	Claude Albert	Suzuki	+1 Lap
18	Josef Doppler	Honda	+1 Lap
19	Steve Williams	Honda	+1 Lap
20	Michael Rudroff	Honda	+1 Lap
21	Ian Pratt	Honda	+1 Lap
22	Fabian Pilloud	Honda	+1 Lap
Ret	Nicholas Schmassman	Honda	Retirement
Ret	Andreas Leuthe	Suzuki	Retirement
Ret	Kevin Schwantz	Suzuki	Retirement
Ret	Randy Mamola	Cagiva	Retirement
Ret	Francisco Gonzales	Honda	Retirement
Ret	Marco Papa	Paton	Retirement
Ret	Mick Doohan	Honda	Retirement

References

1. ↑ Schwantz, Kevin: Early GP Years kevinschwantz.com 1994.