1989 Spanish motorcycle Grand Prix

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