1989 French motorcycle Grand Prix

The 1989 French motorcycle Grand Prix was the eleventh round of the 1989 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season. It took place on the weekend of 14–16 July 1989 at the Bugatti Circuit located in Le Mans.[4]

  1989 French Grand Prix

Race details
Race 11 of 15 races in the 1989 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season
Date	16 July 1989
Official name	Grand Prix de France[1][2][3]
Location	Bugatti Circuit
Course	Permanent racing facility 7.004 km (4.352 mi)
500 cc
Pole position Rider Eddie Lawson Time 1:42.330 Fastest lap Rider Kevin Schwantz Time 1:42.970 Podium First Eddie Lawson Second Kevin Schwantz Third Wayne Rainey
250 cc
Pole position Rider Jean-Philippe Ruggia Time 1:46.760 Fastest lap Rider Sito Pons Time 1:47.300 Podium First Carlos Cardús Second Jacques Cornu Third Sito Pons
125 cc
Pole position Rider Jorge Martínez Time 1:55.420 Fastest lap Rider Jorge Martínez Time 1:55.240 Podium First Jorge Martínez Second Àlex Crivillé Third Ezio Gianola

500 cc race report

Eddie Lawson on pole. At the start, Wayne Rainey gets around Lawson, with Freddie Spencer in third, followed by Pierfrancesco Chili and Christian Sarron. Soon it’s the California duo with a small gap, and Kevin Schwantz has made up for his bad start by moving into third, with Kevin Magee in fourth.

Wayne Gardner crashes out, and Schwantz joins the fight for first, with back-marker traffic making life difficult for Lawson and Rainey.

Schwantz is braking very late and making it stick, and he and Lawson start to drop Rainey. Lawson manages to get past Schwantz on the start-finish straight, and though very few win a last lap battle with Schwantz, Lawson manages it, putting Schwantz in a crucial second place to extract maximum points from Rainey in third.

500 cc classification

Pos.	Rider	Team	Manufacturer	Time/Retired	Points
1	Eddie Lawson	Rothmans Kanemoto Honda	Honda	50:16.940	20
2	Kevin Schwantz	Suzuki Pepsi Cola	Suzuki	+0.770	17
3	Wayne Rainey	Team Lucky Strike Roberts	Yamaha	+15.530	15
4	Christian Sarron	Sonauto Gauloises Blondes Yamaha Mobil 1	Yamaha	+23.590	13
5	Kevin Magee	Team Lucky Strike Roberts	Yamaha	+24.210	11
6	Pierfrancesco Chili	HB Honda Gallina Team	Honda	+37.000	10
7	Niall Mackenzie	Marlboro Yamaha Team Agostini	Yamaha	+53.540	9
8	Mick Doohan	Rothmans Honda Team	Honda	+59.120	8
9	Rob McElnea	Cabin Racing Team	Honda	+1:26.290	7
10	Adrien Morillas	Team ROC Elf Honda	Honda	+1:31.460	6
11	Randy Mamola	Cagiva Corse	Cagiva	+1 Lap	5
12	Thierry Crine	Minolta Suzuki Racing Team	Suzuki	+1 Lap	4
13	Alessandro Valesi	Team Iberia	Yamaha	+1 Lap	3
14	Simon Buckmaster	Racing Team Katayama	Honda	+1 Lap	2
15	Fabio Biliotti	Racing Team Katayama	Honda	+2 Laps	1
16	Eddie Laycock		Honda	+2 Laps
17	Bruno Kneubühler	Romer Racing Suisse	Honda	+2 Laps
18	Juan Lopez Mella	Club Motocross Pozuelo	Honda	+2 Laps
19	Claude Albert		Suzuki	+2 Laps
20	Jean Paul Lecointe	Motodepot	Suzuki	+2 Laps
21	Nicholas Schmassman	FMS	Honda	+2 Laps
22	Pascal Seguela		Honda	+2 Laps
23	Bernard Gitton	Byblos	Fior	+2 Laps
24	Francisco Gonzales	Club Motocross Pozuelo	Honda	+2 Laps
25	Cees Doorakkers	HRK Motors	Honda	+2 Laps
Ret	Freddie Spencer	Marlboro Yamaha Team Agostini	Yamaha	Retirement
Ret	Andreas Leuthe	Librenti Corse	Suzuki	Retirement
Ret	Marco Gentile	Fior Marlboro	Fior	Retirement
Ret	Wayne Gardner	Rothmans Honda Team	Honda	Retirement
Ret	Marco Papa	Team Greco	Paton	Retirement
Ret	Patrick Salles		Fior Honda	Retirement
Ret	Patrick Lerustre		Fior	Retirement
Ret	Bernard Andrault		Honda	Retirement
Ret	Fred Merkel	HB Honda Gallina Team	Honda	Retirement
Ret	Raymond Roche	Cagiva Corse	Cagiva	Retirement
DNS	Dominique Sarron	Team ROC Elf Honda	Honda	Did not start
DNQ	Vittorio Scatola		Honda	Did not qualify
Sources:[5][6]

References

1. "Alle Grand-Prix uitslagen en bijzonderheden, van 1973 (het jaar dat Jack begon met racen) tot heden". Archive.li. Archived from the original on 25 July 2015. Retrieved 14 September 2018.
2. Mitchell, Malcolm. "1989 500cc Class (FIM Grand Prix World Championship) Programmes - The Motor Racing Programme Covers Project". Progcovers.com. Retrieved 14 September 2018.
3. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2018-05-21. Retrieved 2018-05-21.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
4. "Moto GP statistics". Moto GP. Retrieved 2018-02-19.
5. "1989 French MotoGP - Motor Sport Magazine Database". Motorsportmagazine.com. 13 June 2017. Retrieved 14 September 2018.
6. "FRENCH GRAND PRIX · 500cc Race Classification 1989". Motogp.com. Retrieved 14 September 2018.

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