1989 Portuguese Grand Prix

The 1989 Portuguese Grand Prix (formally the XXIII Grande Prémio de Portugal ) was a Formula One motor race held at the Autódromo do Estoril in Estoril , Portugal on 24 September 1989. It was the thirteenth race of the 1989 Formula One World Championship .

Onyx returned to the top of the Friday morning time sheets as Stefan Johansson was fastest by half a second. His new team-mate was Finnish driver JJ Lehto , who had replaced Bertrand Gachot since the last race, after Gachot openly criticised the team and was fired. In his first Formula One event, Lehto just missed out on pre-qualification after a suspension failure during the session, leaving him fifth. The Larrousse - Lola cars both pre-qualified again, with Philippe Alliot second and Michele A...

Yannick Dalmas had originally pre-qualified in third place in his AGS , but was excluded from the session and his times were deleted, after mistakenly using the wrong tyres. Also excluded was Osella driver Nicola Larini , for missing a weight check, although he had already failed to pre-qualify, being only ninth fastest. [ 1 ]

The other drivers who failed to proceed any further included the other Osella of Piercarlo Ghinzani , who outpaced his team-mate in sixth, and Oscar Larrauri , despite an improvement to seventh in the EuroBrun . Eighth was Gabriele Tarquini in the other AGS, ahead of the Zakspeeds of Aguri Suzuki and Bernd Schneider . Slowest by nearly four seconds was the second Coloni of Enrico Bertaggia , the third time in a row the Italian had been bottom of the time sheets. [ 1 ]

The Minardi, Dallara, Brabham and Coloni teams all had their tyres supplied by Pirelli , whose special qualifying tyres were generally regarded as being superior to those of Goodyear . However, Goodyear's race tyres were still acknowledged as being superior to Pirelli's. [ 3 ]

Berger had a great start and managed to overtake Senna. Mansell was in third followed by Prost, Martini and Patrese. Berger quickly opened a lead while Senna was trying to keep Mansell behind. Then Mansell finally managed to overtake Senna and started to catch Berger. As the two Ferraris caught up with the slower cars and were starting to lap them, Mansell managed to overtake Berger. Positions at lap 24 were: Mansell, Berger, Senna and Prost. Prost was the first of the leaders to pit for new tyr...

As of 2024, Johansson's podium remains the last for a Swede driver in Formula One.