Italian GP 1989
Italian GP, 1989
There was a lot of silly seasonaction at Monza with Alain Prost being confirmed at Ferrari, Nelson Piquet moving to Benetton and Derek Warwick and Martin Donnelly being confirmed as Team Lotus drivers in 1990, with Lamborghini V12 engines. Jean Alesi was back in action with Tyrrell but otherwise the field was the same as it had been in Belgium except that EuroBrun had given up with Gregor Foitek and taken on Oscar Larrauri again. . Ayrton Senna took pole for McLaren ahead of the Ferraris of Gerhard Berger and Nigel Mansell and Alain Prost in the second McLaren. The third row was shared by the two Williams-Renaults with Riccardo Patrese ahead of Thierry Boutsen with Philippe Alliot seventh in his Larrousse Lola and Sandro Nannini (Benetton) in eighth. The top 10 was completed by Emanuele Pirro in the second Benetton and Alesi in the Tyrrell. The field went away in grid order and nothing changed until lap 16 when Nannini pitted for new tires. Gradually Prost closed in on Mansell and took third on lap 21 and second on lap 41. Four laps later Senna went out with an engine failure and so Prost inherited the victory with Berger second, Boutsen third, Patrese fourth, Alesi fifth and Martin Brundle (Brabham) sixth. The result meant that Prost was 20 points ahead in the World Championship with four races remaining.