1989 United States Grand Prix

1989 United States Grand Prix
Race details
	Race 5 of 16 in the 1989 Formula One season
	;
Date	June 4, 1989
Official name	XXVI Iceberg United States Grand Prix
Location	Phoenix street circuit; Phoenix, Arizona
Course	Temporary Street Course ; 3.800 km (2.361 mi)
Distance	75 laps, 285.00 km (177.075 mi)
Weather	Hot, sunny
Pole position
Time	1:30.108
Fastest lap
Time	1:33.969 on lap 38
Podium

The 1989 United States Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on June 4, 1989 in Phoenix, Arizona.

Summary[]

1989 was the year following the last Formula One race in Detroit, and choices for a new location for the United States Grand Prix came down to Laguna Seca, in California, and Phoenix, Arizona. Laguna Seca was thought to be too small for an F1 crowd and too remote, and Phoenix was said to be too hot in June. Phoenix it would be, however, with the course running through a massively redeveloped downtown area.

The drivers had long complained about the problems with racing on a temporary track in Detroit, and anticipated similar prospects in the new city. Unlike Detroit, however, the organizers managed to get the course ready and start the first sessions on time.

In qualifying on Friday, Ayrton Senna went progressively faster and faster, eventually posting a time 1.5 seconds ahead of McLaren teammate Alain Prost and the rest of the field.

During the morning practice on Saturday, Prost spun backward into a wall and damaged the monocoque and gearbox. It was the first monocoque Prost had broken in six years, since joining the team in 1984. Senna's time from Friday– 1:30.710– stood up through the second session and gave him his 34th career pole position, breaking Jim Clark's record of 33.

A crowd of 31,441 turned out for the race on Sunday in 100-degree heat. Prost got a jump on Senna at the start, but hit a bump in the straight, causing his wheels to spin and the engine to be cut momentarily by the rev limiter. Senna made it to the corner first, and led by .45 seconds after one lap, ahead of Prost, Alessandro Nannini, Nigel Mansell, Alex Caffi, Stefano Modena, Martin Brundle, Gerhard Berger, Andrea de Cesaris and Michele Alboreto.

After 16 laps, Senna's lead over Prost was 4.25 seconds. He suddenly doubled that on the next lap when Prost's engine began overheating. Prost backed off for a lap, and the water and oil temperatures returned to normal.

The gap between the two McLarens varied as they worked their way through traffic, but on lap 29, Prost closed the gap when Senna suffered a misfire. The problem disappeared momentarily– with Senna doing his fastest lap of the race– but then returned, worse than before. On lap 34, with Prost only one second back, Senna waved his teammate past and then pitted.

After two pit stops to change black box, battery and plugs– and successive fastest laps in between, Senna retired on lap 44. It was his first retirement ever because of a Honda engine failure.

Alex Caffi, who had started in sixth, was up to second with Senna's retirement. A stop for new tires, after being passed by Berger, dropped him back two more spots to fifth. As he tried to re-lap his teammate, de Cesaris, however, Caffi had a nose ahead when de Cesaris turned in and forced Caffi into the wall and out of the race. de Cesaris, having further enhanced his reputation, at the expense of his teammate, no less, continued.

Throughout the race, Riccardo Patrese, Ivan Capelli and Eddie Cheever had been in close contact. When Capelli retired on lap 21 with a gearbox failure, Patrese and Cheever carried on the battle alone. After lap 51, the fight was for second place, with Patrese ahead. Despite a fuel pickup problem with his engine, Cheever mounted a challenge in the waning laps until his front brakes and one rear brake failed! The American and Phoenix native was as thrilled as the crowd with his podium finish.

The two-hour time limit was reached after 75 of the scheduled 81 laps, as Prost coasted to his only United States win and increased his then all-time record victory total to 36, his first in a naturally aspirated car. He also took the lead, by two points over Senna, in the Driver's Championship which he eventually won. Patrese's runner-up placing was his second in a row. After struggling through practice, qualifying and warmup, and starting from 14th spot, Patrese and technical director Patrick Head had guessed at a setup and finally got it right for the race. Eddie Cheever's third place was the ninth and last podium finish of his F1 career. Christian Danner's fourth place for Rial was his best career finish and matched the best ever finish for the team.

Classification[]

Pre Qualifying[]

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Time	Gap
1	7	Martin Brundle	Brabham-Judd	1:32.293	—
2	21	Alex Caffi	Dallara-Ford	1:32.992	+0.699
3	36	Stefan Johansson	Onyx-Ford	1:33.768	+1.475
4	8	Stefano Modena	Brabham-Judd	1:33.924	+1.631
5	18	Piercarlo Ghinzani	Osella-Ford	1:34.281	+1.988
6	32	Pierre-Henri Raphanel	Coloni-Ford	1.35.110	+2.817
7	33	Gregor Foitek	Euro Brun-Judd	1:35.805	+3.512
8	17	Nicola Larini	Osella-Ford	1:36.470	+4.177
9	41	Joachim Winkelhock	AGS-Ford	1:36.498	+4.205
10	39	Volker Weidler	Rial-Ford	1:36.583	+4.290
11	34	Bernd Schneider	Zakspeed-Yamaha	1:36.610	+4.317
12	35	Aguri Suzuki	Zakspeed-Yamaha	1:37.776	+5.483
13	37	Bertrand Gachot	Onyx-Ford	1:45.530	+13.237

Qualifying[]

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Gap
1	1	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda	1:30.108	1:30.710	—
2	2	Alain Prost	McLaren-Honda	1:31.620	1:31.517	+1.409
3	19	Alessandro Nannini	Benetton-Ford	1:32.924	1:31.799	+1.691
4	27	Nigel Mansell	Ferrari	1:31.927	1:33.383	+1.819
5	7	Martin Brundle	Brabham-Judd	1:32.750	1:31.960	+1.852
6	21	Alex Caffi	Dallara-Ford	1:32.819	1:32.160	+2.052
7	8	Stefano Modena	Brabham-Judd	1:34.267	1:32.286	+2.178
8	28	Gerhard Berger	Ferrari	1:33.697	1:32.364	+2.256
9	4	Michele Alboreto	Tyrrell-Ford	1:33.377	1:32.491	+2.383
10	9	Derek Warwick	Arrows-Ford	1:32.640	1:32.492	+2.384
11	16	Ivan Capelli	March-Judd	1:36.136	1:32.493	+2.385
12	30	Philippe Alliot	Lola-Lamborghini	1:34.721	1:32.562	+2.454
13	22	Andrea de Cesaris	Dallara-Ford	1:33.061	1:32.649	+2.541
14	6	Riccardo Patrese	Williams-Renault	1:34.523	1:32.795	+2.687
15	23	Pierluigi Martini	Minardi-Ford	1:34.794	1:33.031	+2.923
16	5	Thierry Boutsen	Williams-Renault	1:35.227	1:33.044	+2.936
17	10	Eddie Cheever	Arrows-Ford	1:33.214	1:33.361	+3.106
18	15	Maurício Gugelmin	March-Judd	1:35.236	1:33.324	+3.216
19	36	Stefan Johansson	Onyx-Ford	1:34.637	1:33.370	+3.262
20	24	Luis Pérez-Sala	Minardi-Ford	1:34.636	1:33.724	+3.616
21	3	Jonathan Palmer	Tyrrell-Ford	1:34.748	1:33.741	+3.633
22	11	Nelson Piquet	Lotus-Judd	1:33.745	1:33.804	+3.637
23	12	Satoru Nakajima	Lotus-Judd	1:35.188	1:33.782	+3.674
24	40	Gabriele Tarquini	AGS-Ford	1:34.455	1:33.790	+3.682
25	20	Johnny Herbert	Benetton-Ford	1:35.377	1:33.806	+3.698
26	38	Christian Danner	Rial-Ford	1:35.453	1:33.848	+3.740
27	26	Olivier Grouillard	Ligier-Ford	1:35.124	1:34.153	+4.045
28	31	Roberto Moreno	Coloni-Ford	2:10.795	1:34.352	+4.244
29	25	René Arnoux	Ligier-Ford	1:35.823	1:34.798	+4.715
30	29	Yannick Dalmas	Lola-Lamborghini	1:35.771	1:35.496	+5.388

Race[]

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	2	Alain Prost	McLaren-Honda	75	2:01:33.133	2	9
2	6	Riccardo Patrese	Williams-Renault	75	+ 39.696	14	6
3	10	Eddie Cheever	Arrows-Ford	75	+ 43.210	17	4
4	38	Christian Danner	Rial-Ford	74	+ 1 Lap	26	3
5	20	Johnny Herbert	Benetton-Ford	74	+ 1 Lap	25	2
6	5	Thierry Boutsen	Williams-Renault	74	+ 1 Lap	16	1
7	40	Gabriele Tarquini	AGS-Ford	73	Engine	24
8	22	Andrea de Cesaris	Dallara-Ford	70	+ 5 Laps	13
9	3	Jonathan Palmer	Tyrrell-Ford	69	Fuel System	21
Ret	28	Gerhard Berger	Ferrari	61	Alternator	8
Ret	21	Alex Caffi	Dallara-Ford	52	Collision	6
Ret	11	Nelson Piquet	Lotus-Judd	52	Spun Off	22
Ret	36	Stefan Johansson	Onyx-Ford	50	Suspension	19
Ret	24	Luis Pérez-Sala	Minardi-Ford	46	Engine	20
Ret	1	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda	44	Electrical	1
Ret	7	Martin Brundle	Brabham-Judd	43	Brakes	5
Ret	8	Stefano Modena	Brabham-Judd	37	Brakes	7
Ret	27	Nigel Mansell	Ferrari	31	Alternator	4
Ret	23	Pierluigi Martini	Minardi-Ford	26	Engine	15
Ret	12	Satoru Nakajima	Lotus-Judd	24	Throttle	23
Ret	16	Ivan Capelli	March-Judd	22	Transmission	11
Ret	15	Maurício Gugelmin	March-Judd	20	Brakes	18
Ret	4	Michele Alboreto	Tyrrell-Ford	17	Gearbox	9
Ret	19	Alessandro Nannini	Benetton-Ford	10	Physical	3
Ret	9	Derek Warwick	Arrows-Ford	7	Collision	10
Ret	30	Philippe Alliot	Lola-Lamborghini	3	Spun Off	12
DNQ	26	Olivier Grouillard	Ligier-Ford
DNQ	31	Roberto Moreno	Coloni-Ford
DNQ	25	René Arnoux	Ligier-Ford
DNQ	29	Yannick Dalmas	Lola-Lamborghini
DNPQ	18	Piercarlo Ghinzani	Osella-Ford
DNPQ	32	Pierre-Henri Raphanel	Coloni-Ford
DNPQ	33	Gregor Foitek	Euro Brun-Judd
DNPQ	17	Nicola Larini	Osella-Ford
DNPQ	41	Joachim Winkelhock	AGS-Ford
DNPQ	39	Volker Weidler	Rial-Ford
DNPQ	35	Aguri Suzuki	Zakspeed-Yamaha
DNPQ	34	Bernd Schneider	Zakspeed-Yamaha
DNPQ	37	Bertrand Gachot	Onyx-Ford

Standings after the race[]

Drivers' Championship standings

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Alain Prost	29
2	Ayrton Senna	27
3	Riccardo Patrese	12
4	Nigel Mansell	9
5	Alessandro Nannini	8

Constructors' Championship standings

Pos	Constructor	Points
1	McLaren-Honda	56
2	Williams-Renault	16
3	Benetton-Ford	13
4	Ferrari	9
5	Arrows-Ford	8

References[]

Rob Walker (September, 1989). "United States Grand Prix at Phoenix: Just Desert". Road & Track, 82-85.

Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

Previous race: 1989 Mexican Grand Prix	FIA Formula One World Championship 1989 season	Next race: 1989 Canadian Grand Prix
Previous race: 1980 United States Grand Prix	United States Grand Prix	Next race: 1990 United States Grand Prix

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