This weekend sees F1 head to Mexico for the Mexican Grand Prix so in our inaugural Throwback Thursday, let rewind to 1989.
I have picked the 1989 Mexican GP because it’s a notable race in that it was the last Mexican GP won by a Honda powered car, in the hands of McLaren’s Ayrton Senna and we could very well see another Honda powered victory this weekend.
Should Max Verstappen win here this weekend, he will become the first driver to win the Mexican GP for three consecutive years and equal Jim Clark’s total number of Mexican victories.
So without further ado let’s rewind the clock and go back to the 1989 Grand Prix, in which Pre-Qualifying was dominated by the Brabham cars of Martin Brundle and Stefano Modena.
Qualifying then was ultimately won by McLaren who locked out the front row for a third consecutive race as Senna started on pole from Alain Prost by a staggering margin of 0.827s.
Both McLarens however opted for contrasting race strategies as Senna begun the race on hard tyres, whilst Prost went for the soft tyre option which didn’t help because Senna made the better start despite pole being on the dirty side of the track.
Further down the field, Modena spun his Brabham into the Pereltada at the end of the first lap, which brought out the red flag after he got tapped by Oliver Grouillard’s Ligier and hit the tyre barrier.
As per rules at that time, the race was restarted from scratch and Senna again got the better start whilst Prost found himself leading a trail of faster cars including both set of Ferrari and Williams drivers.
The “Professor” however made his soft tyre advantage count soon afterwards as he caught Senna, further igniting a tense feud as Prost soon began questioning whether his teammate had deliberately been given more power.
A pit stop error then added extra fuel to Prost’s theory as he found himself nearly a lap down, only for Senna to then quickly catch and pass him on fresher rubber despite having the faster pace through Pereltada.
That pass left Prost a lap down but he quickly managed to unlap himself and go on to finish fifth and eventually win the title in Suzuka.
Elsewhere, Ferrari suffered a double gearbox failure as Gerhard Berger and Nigel Mansell both retired, leaving Williams’ Ricardo Patrese and Michele Alboreto of Tyrell to complete the podium.
Italy’s Gabriele Tarquini meanwhile drove a stunning race from 17th on the grid to finish sixth in his AGS-Ford and collect the only F1 point of his career.
If you have enjoyed our new Thursday Throwback feature, please leave a comment below and we hope to see you back next Thursday for a US Grand Prix throwback.
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