1989 Spanish Grand Prix

Championship standings

Prost leads Senna by 24 points with three races remaining after Portugal, where Senna retired following a collision with Mansell. Prost has now scored points in twelve races and will continue dropping results, but Senna’s championship hopes are fading fast.

Previous race

At Estoril, Berger won for Ferrari. Prost was second. Stefan Johansson took a surprise third for the underfunded Onyx — running without a pit stop and rising to the podium when both Williams-Renaults were withdrawn with overheating failures. Senna led until Mansell, who had been shown the black flag for reversing his car in the pit lane — expressly forbidden under the regulations — continued anyway and collided with Senna approaching Turn 1, ending both their races. Mansell’s disqualification was rendered academic.

Pierluigi Martini led for one lap in the Minardi during the pit-stop cycle — the only time in the team’s 21-year history that a Minardi led a Formula One race. The new Williams FW13 suffered near-simultaneous engine failures for both Boutsen and Patrese, who had been looking competitive until then.

Between-race developments

Mansell has been banned from the Spanish Grand Prix and fined $50,000 following his disqualification and collision with Senna in Portugal. Ferrari enters only one car at Jerez, for Berger.

Christian Danner has been fired by Rial after failing to qualify at Portugal. The remaining Rial entries at Jerez are for Raphanel and Gregor Foitek, who has replaced Larrauri at EuroBrun.