1989 French motorcycle Grand Prix

  1989 French Grand Prix

Race details
Race 11 of 15 races in the 1989 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season
File:Bugatti Circuit 1991-1996.png
Date	16 July 1989
Official name	Grand Prix de France
Location	Bugatti Circuit
Course	Permanent racing facility 7.004 km (4.352 mi)
500cc
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
250cc
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
125cc
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

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.

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	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	Eddie Lawson	Rothmans Kanemoto Honda	Honda	29	50:16.940	1	20
2	Kevin Schwantz	Suzuki Pepsi Cola	Suzuki	29	+0.770	2	17
3	Wayne Rainey	Team Lucky Strike Roberts	Yamaha	29	+15.530	3	15
4	Christian Sarron	Sonauto Gauloises Blondes Yamaha Mobil 1	Yamaha	29	+23.590	5	13
5	Kevin Magee	Team Lucky Strike Roberts	Yamaha	29	+24.210	4	11
6	Pierfrancesco Chili	HB Honda Gallina Team	Honda	29	+37.000	7	10
7	Niall Mackenzie	Marlboro Yamaha Team Agostini	Yamaha	29	+53.540	6	9
8	Mick Doohan	Rothmans Honda Team	Honda	29	+59.120	8	8
9	Rob McElnea	Cabin Racing Team	Honda	29	+1:26.290	11	7
10	Adrien Morillas	Team ROC Elf Honda	Honda	29	+1:31.460	15	6
11	Randy Mamola	Cagiva Corse	Cagiva	28	+1 Lap	13	5
12	Thierry Crine	Minolta Suzuki Racing Team	Suzuki	28	+1 Lap	16	4
13	Alessandro Valesi	Team Iberia	Yamaha	28	+1 Lap	19	3
14	Simon Buckmaster	Racing Team Katayama	Honda	28	+1 Lap	21	2
15	Fabio Biliotti	Racing Team Katayama	Honda	27	+2 Laps	27	1
16	Eddie Laycock		Honda	27	+2 Laps	20
17	Bruno Kneubühler	Romer Racing Suisse	Honda	27	+2 Laps	22
18	Juan Lopez Mella	Club Motocross Pozuelo	Honda	27	+2 Laps	26
19	Claude Albert		Suzuki	27	+2 Laps	23
20	Jean Paul Lecointe	Motodepot	Suzuki	27	+2 Laps	28
21	Nicholas Schmassman	FMS	Honda	27	+2 Laps	31
22	Pascal Seguela		Honda	27	+2 Laps	34
23	Bernard Gitton	Byblos	Fior	27	+2 Laps	35
24	Francisco Gonzales	Club Motocross Pozuelo	Honda	27	+2 Laps	36
25	Cees Doorakkers	HRK Motors	Honda	27	+2 Laps	24
Ret	Freddie Spencer	Marlboro Yamaha Team Agostini	Yamaha		Retirement	9
Ret	Andreas Leuthe	Librenti Corse	Suzuki		Retirement	33
Ret	Marco Gentile	Fior Marlboro	Fior		Retirement	18
Ret	Wayne Gardner	Rothmans Honda Team	Honda		Retirement	10
Ret	Marco Papa	Team Greco	Paton		Retirement	25
Ret	Patrick Salles		Fior Honda		Retirement	30
Ret	Patrick Lerustre		Fior		Retirement	29
Ret	Bernard Andrault		Honda		Retirement	32
Ret	Fred Merkel	HB Honda Gallina Team	Honda		Retirement	12
Ret	Raymond Roche	Cagiva Corse	Cagiva		Retirement	17
DNS	Dominique Sarron	Team ROC Elf Honda	Honda		Did not start	14
DNQ	Vittorio Scatola		Honda		Did not qualify
Sources: