It could be said that one of the greatest honours bestowed upon Nigel Mansell was that he was the last driver to be personally selected by Enzo Ferrari to drive one of his scarlet cars. Mansell had a endured a disappointing 1988, accumulating a meagre 12 points, due to an uncompetitive Williams, who had been forced into competing with naturally-aspirated Judd V8 engines after Honda’s decision to supply McLaren instead for 1988 onwards. Despite this, Mansell showed his considerable prowess in a number of races, including the British Grand Prix, where he finished second and set the fastest lap after qualifying 11th, and in Hungary, where he qualified second despite suffering from chickenpox. A move to Ferrari, partnering Gerhard Berger, began a new chapter in Mansell’s career.
After a staggeringly dominant 1988, McLaren were favourites to continue such a streak for 1989, retaining Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost as their drivers, and it was Senna who qualified on pole position for his home race, with Prost a disappointing fifth. Both Williams cars of Riccardo Patrese and Mansell’s replacement, Thierry Boutsen, qualified second and fourth, ironically ahead of Mansell, who was sixth. Johnny Herbert made his F1 début for Benetton, almost seven months to the day after a horrifying Formula 3000 accident at Brands Hatch in which he badly damaged his feet and ankles, and qualified a more-than-creditable tenth. Ferrari’s cars were under-prepared and weren’t confident of even finishing the race, predicting that their cars would not last beyond six laps.
1989 Brazilian Grand Prix
At the start, Senna made a poor getaway and was swamped by Patrese and Berger. Senna squeezed out Berger and subsequently lost his front wing, leaving Berger out of the race, and leaving Patrese to storm into the lead, with Boutsen taking advantage of the first corner incident to move into second. Mansell soon overtook Boutsen and on lap 15, already exceeding the predicted distance his car would make, took Patrese for the lead. Prost worked his way through the field and took the lead on lap 21 after Mansell’s tyre stop, but Mansell retook the lead seven laps later and slowly pulled away from the Frenchman. Eddie Cheever, who had struggled to fit into his Arrows before the race, twice collapsed from heat exhaustion whilst being led away by marshals after retiring on lap 37. Mansell repeated his move on Prost at the same place on lap 47, after a pit stop that included a steering wheel change on the Ferrari. Ten laps from the end, Patrese retired immediately after taking third place from the March of Mauricio Gugelmin with an alternator problem.
Mansell, to the surprise of himself and his team, took the chequered flag seven seconds ahead of Prost. Herbert, who was still having trouble walking after his Brands Hatch accident, finished a remarkable fourth and was catching the eventual third place man Gugelmin by the end of the race. Derek Warwick ensured three Britons finished in the points by bringing his Arrows home in fifth, with Herbert’s team-mate Alessandro Nannini rounding off the top six. Senna never recovered from his first-corner collision with Berger and finished 11th, some two laps behind. It was an exciting and incident-filled race that set the tone for the 1989 Formula 1 season.
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