1989 Australian Grand Prix - The Race

The Race

Come Sunday, the paddock was woken up rather early with a heavy rainstorm which hit Adelaide. At the drivers meeting before the race Ligier driver René Arnoux announced his retirement from Formula One racing at the age of 41. He qualified 26th and last for what would be his 149th start in Grand Prix racing having begun his career back in 1978 with the Automobiles Martini team and a career that included teams such as Surtees, Renault, Ferrari and Ligier with 7 wins, 22 podiums 18 pole positions and 12 fastest laps.

Come the warm-up session, the conditions had not improved, and a lot of drivers aquaplaned off the circuit, some on their out lap, notably Prost and Berger. Both drivers along with Nelson Piquet, Thierry Boutsen, Riccardo Patrese and Alessandro Nannini discussed not racing over safety concerns with Prost, Berger and Piquet in particular telling a world wide television audience that the conditions were too bad to race in.

An hour before the race the conditions significantly worsened, and Prost and Berger's proposal was being seriously considered by a lot of drivers. One driver who remained silent throughout all the impromptu drivers meetings on the grid was World Champion Ayrton Senna who had other reasons for wanting to start despite the appalling conditions (Senna was one driver who actually remained in his car the whole time). With McLaren's court action over his disqualification in Japan still pending the championship was technically not yet settled and to keep any chance of retaining his World Drivers' Championship he simply had to win the race. Senna later privately confessed to a friend that even he thought it was too dangerous to race but that he was a contracted driver and racing was what he was paid to do. Prost and Berger's arguments failed and it was agreed the race would go ahead.

The lights went out before the grid had even properly lined up causing some confusion at the back. Prost got the jump on Senna at the start, but into the first corner, Senna braked significantly later, and regrabbed the lead, nearly hitting the Frenchman. Further back, Martini fishtailed and Nannini overtook him for third. Other drivers who made a good start were de Cesaris and Brundle.

However on the first lap, Olivier Grouillard spun off at turn 4, nearly collecting teammate Arnoux. As the field drove round, clinging on to the road as much as possible, a lot of drivers made mistakes including Nelson Piquet and Modena. But JJ Lehto's accident just after the first chicane partially blocked the road, causing the race to be stopped. While that was happening, Prost had pulled into the pits, withdrawing because of safety, before going on to criticise the race organisers for allowing the race to have been started in the first place.

As the cars waited on the grid, drivers argued whether the race should be restarted. The main drivers arguing for the race to be abandoned were Berger, Patrese, Piquet, Mansell and Nannini. Those arguing for the race to restart were Senna, Martini, Brundle, Jean Alesi (despite suffering from bronchitis) de Cesaris and Caffi. Bernie Ecclestone also pressed the race organisers to restart the race. He would get his way.

The restart was minus Prost; Ron Dennis' persuasion techniques failing this time.

At the 2nd start, Larini stalled before he even made his grid slot, while Alesi started from the pit lane for stalling on the grid. At the front, Martini made a great a start to get level with Senna, but the Brazilian kept the lead by cutting across him. Everyone else kept order behind.

While Senna pulled away at impressive speed, the race became more of a guessing game as to who would go off. The Williamses both passed Nannini and Martini and started to match Senna's pace. The first retirement was Arnoux after he was pushed into a spin by Eddie Cheever and was beached on a high curb, ending his career on a low. Arnoux had actually been 2nd fastest in the wet pre-race warmup behind Senna. Berger and Alliot then collided at the East Terrace bend, Berger taking out Alliot and Derek Warwick spinning down the road. Then in the space of two laps, six cars retired. Both Dallaras spun out at the same place at Brewery Bend, while Mansell, Nannini, Piquet and Cheever all had off track excursions. However, the major accident was Ayrton Senna running into the back of Brundle while lapping him and Piquet, in a famous incident recorded by a rear view camera in the back of the Brabham which commentator Murray Walker described as a scene like Jaws. Senna was out and the Williamses were one-two. Ivan Capelli also retired.

Five laps later, Mansell spun out and then there was a major collision involving Piquet and Ghinzani. Piquet ran into the back of the Osella and one of Ghinzani's rear tires hit Piquet on the head, in a scary accident. Ghinzani was very lucky not to hit Martini.

Following these incidents the race was a gingerly affair, with drivers not driving to win but to stay on the circuit. The only major action was Satoru Nakajima setting the fastest lap making his way through the field, while Martini went backwards.

After two hours 70 laps had been completed out of 81, and Boutsen won his second race of the season followed by Nannini. Patrese finished third with Nakajima fourth having a good last race for Lotus. Emanuele Pirro came home fifth and Martini eventually came sixth, 3 laps down. The remaining survivors were Mauricio Gugelmin and Stefano Modena.

Everyone was relieved the race went without any significant incident in such treacherous conditions.