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
Official name	Marlboro Gran Premio de España de Motociclismo
Location	Circuito Permanente de Jerez
Course	Permanent racing facility 4.428 km (2.751 mi)
500cc
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
250cc
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
125cc
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
80cc
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."

The gap between Lawson and Rainey is now 10 points.

500 cc classification

Pos.	Rider	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	Eddie Lawson	Rothmans Kanemoto Honda	Honda	30	55:11.260	4	20
2	Wayne Rainey	Team Lucky Strike Roberts	Yamaha	30	+10.170	1	17
3	Niall Mackenzie	Marlboro Yamaha Team Agostini	Yamaha	30	+17.480	3	15
4	Christian Sarron	Sonauto Gauloises Blondes Yamaha Mobil 1	Yamaha	30	+27.300	5	13
5	Freddie Spencer	Marlboro Yamaha Team Agostini	Yamaha	30	+51.000	6	11
6	Pierfrancesco Chili	HB Honda Gallina Team	Honda	30	+1:19.040	8	10
7	Ron Haslam	Suzuki Pepsi Cola	Suzuki	30	+1:29.450	10	9
8	Tadahiko Taira	Yamaha Motor Company	Yamaha	30	+1:43.440	7	8
9	Dominique Sarron	Team ROC Elf Honda	Honda	30	+1:46.870	12	7
10	Alessandro Valesi	Team Iberia	Yamaha	30	+1:53.860	13	6
11	Massimo Broccoli	Cagiva Corse	Cagiva	29	+1 Lap	16	5
12	Marco Gentile	Fior Marlboro	Fior	29	+1 Lap	14	4
13	Simon Buckmaster	Racing Team Katayama	Honda	29	+1 Lap	15	3
14	Juan Lopez Mella	Club Motocross Pozuelo	Honda	29	+1 Lap	17	2
15	Eddie Laycock		Honda	29	+1 Lap	21	1
16	Bruno Kneubuhler	Romer Racing Suisse	Honda	29	+1 Lap	18
17	Claude Albert		Suzuki	29	+1 Lap	24
18	Josef Doppler		Honda	29	+1 Lap	25
19	Steve Williams	Flower Motorcycles	Honda	29	+1 Lap	22
20	Michael Rudroff	HRK Motors	Honda	29	+1 Lap	23
21	Ian Pratt	Racing Team Katayama	Honda	29	+1 Lap	27
22	Fabian Pilloud		Honda	29	+1 Lap	29
Ret	Nicholas Schmassman	FMS	Honda		Retirement	20
Ret	Andreas Leuthe	Librenti Corse	Suzuki		Retirement	26
Ret	Kevin Schwantz	Suzuki Pepsi Cola	Suzuki		Retirement	2
Ret	Randy Mamola	Cagiva Corse	Cagiva		Retirement	9
Ret	Francisco Gonzales	Club Motocross Pozuelo	Honda		Retirement	28
Ret	Marco Papa	Team Greco	Paton		Retirement	19
Ret	Mick Doohan	Rothmans Honda Team	Honda		Retirement	11
DNQ	Larry Moreno Vacondio		Suzuki		Did not qualify
Sources: