1989 Japanese Grand Prix

The 1989 Japanese Grand Prix (formally the XV Fuji Television Japanese Grand Prix ) was a Formula One motor race held on 22 October 1989 at Suzuka Circuit . It was the 15th and penultimate round of the 1989 Formula One season . The 53-lap race was won by Alessandro Nannini for the Benetton team, from a sixth position start. Riccardo Patrese finished second for the Williams team, with Thierry Boutsen third. It was Nannini's only win.

Larini's team-mate Piercarlo Ghinzani missed out this time in fifth place, with Roberto Moreno sixth in his Coloni . The Onyx team failed to get either car through to the main qualifying sessions for the first time since the third round at Monaco , as Stefan Johansson could only manage seventh after a fuel pump failure. Zakspeed's improvement could only help Aguri Suzuki to eighth place, his fifteenth straight failure to pre-qualify. Oscar Larrauri was ninth in the EuroBrun , ahead of the other ...

Behind the leading pair, after his initial charge, Gerhard Berger's Ferrari gearbox failed on lap 34, and the sister Ferrari of Nigel Mansell suffered engine failure nine laps later. With the Scuderia's cars gone, all real challenge to the McLaren charge had evaporated. The only opposition left for Senna and Prost was each other as they were drawing away from the new third placed man Alessandro Nannini. The Italian's Benetton used the less powerful, but more reliable, HBA1 engine in the race and...

Senna finally caught Prost on lap 40, and for the next five laps the gap between the two remained at approximately one second as the two McLaren drivers tried to position themselves tactically. Prost had greater top speed on the straights, while Senna's high-downforce settings gave him the advantage through the corners. On lap 47 Senna used his greater cornering speed to make sure that he remained close behind Prost's car through the challenging, double-apex Spoon Corner. This put Senna's car di...

The next corner after 130R is the chicane, the second-slowest corner on the circuit. As Prost began to brake for the corner Senna tried to dive inside but never came alongside, his front wheels always remaining behind those of Prost. Prost's car even helped to stop Senna, or Senna pushed Prost. With their wheels locked and their engines stalled, the two cars came to a halt at the mouth of the partially blocked chicane escape road, thus having missed the chicane entry. As the vehicles were direct...

Although his car was running, Senna's MP4/5 had suffered damage to its front wing during the collision, and while Prost slowly wandered back to the nearby pit lane, Senna had to complete almost an entire lap of the circuit before pitting for a repair. Once his nosecone had been replaced Senna continued the race. Some indication of McLaren-Honda's dominance is shown by the fact that – despite the collision, the subsequent period spent stalled, the slow in-lap, and the pit stop delay while his car...

Senna did not take long to catch Nannini's Benetton-Ford. He passed the Italian only two laps after having his nosecone replaced, in exactly the same place as the collision with Prost had occurred. Unlike Prost, Nannini had a different car, different engine, thus didn't put up a significant fight, a locked wheel the only indication of how hard he tried to keep Senna behind.

As he had gained no competitive advantage by missing the chicane, Senna and McLaren attempted to appeal the disqualification ruling. McLaren boss Ron Dennis explained that it had nothing to do with stopping Prost (who was leaving McLaren for Ferrari) winning the championship, it was that the team strongly felt they had a win taken away from them by an incorrect ruling, and that resulted in a loss of prize money and bonus sponsorship money. At the FISA hearing in Paris later the same week, Senna'...

[2] Reali Júnior, Elpídio (6 November 1996). "Balestre admite ter ajudado Prost contra Senna". O Estado de S. Paulo. Retrieved 11 July 2017.