1989 San Marino Grand Prix

The 1989 San Marino Grand Prix (formally the IX Gran Premio Kronenbourg di San Marino ) was a Formula One motor race held at the Imola circuit on 23 April 1989. It was the second race of the 1989 Formula One season . The race was overshadowed by Gerhard Berger 's massive accident at Tamburello corner. The race was stopped for one hour and restarted. The race was won by Ayrton Senna who started from pole position.

The Grand Prix had a total of 39 entrants, the largest amount in Formula One history. This record was equalled in the following 14 races of the season but, as of 2024, it has not been broken.

Onyx improved on their showing in Brazil, with Bertrand Gachot just missing out on pre-qualification in fifth place. The EuroBrun of Gregor Foitek was sixth, ahead of the second Osella of Piercarlo Ghinzani . The other Onyx of Stefan Johansson was eighth, followed by the second AGS of Joachim Winkelhock . Tenth was the Coloni of Pierre-Henri Raphanel , just ahead of the two Zakspeeds of Aguri Suzuki and Bernd Schneider , the Japanese driver outpacing his more experienced team-mate. Nearly four s...

The only change to the entry list for the San Marino Grand Prix was the arrival of Gabriele Tarquini in the second car of the small AGS team, which had only run one car in Brazil after Philippe Streiff had suffered career ending injuries in pre-season testing. A record 39 cars were entered for the Grand Prix, [ citation needed ] although only 26 were allowed to start the race.

After their defeat in Brazil , McLaren spent eight days testing at Imola prior to the San Marino Grand Prix. According to Ayrton Senna , they tested everything on the McLaren MP4/5 , including aerodynamics, suspension, brakes and fuel consumption. It worked for Senna and Alain Prost , as they locked out the front row and were over 1.5 seconds faster than the Ferrari of Nigel Mansell . Riccardo Patrese showed his and Williams ' revival with fourth on the grid followed by Gerhard Berger (Ferrari) ...

At the start, Ayrton Senna got away well but behind him Alain Prost found himself just ahead of Nigel Mansell 's Ferrari but the Englishman could not find his way around Prost's McLaren . Mansell fell off a little after that and found himself battling with Riccardo Patrese while on the second lap Ivan Capelli had a nasty accident in his March . On lap four, fifth-placed Gerhard Berger 's Ferrari speared off the track at the fast Tamburello corner due to a mechanical failure. Berger hit the wall ...

As the McLarens pulled away Mansell, Patrese, and Nannini were busy fighting over third place. It was settled in the space of three laps as Patrese retired with a timing belt failure and Mansell followed shortly afterwards with a gearbox problem. This left Nannini in third while up front Senna cruised home to victory from Prost who, in his pursuit of Senna, had suffered a spin on lap 42 at Variante Bassa. Nannini led home Thierry Boutsen , Derek Warwick in the Arrows and Jonathan Palmer in the T...