Pre-qualifying report For the second Grand Prix in a row, the
Onyx of
Bertrand Gachot topped the time sheets in Friday morning's pre-qualifying session. It was Gachot's second pre-qualifying success. Two tenths of a second slower in second place was
Nicola Larini in the
Osella, pre-qualifying for the third time this season. The other two to go through to the main qualifying sessions were the
Brabham pairing of
Stefano Modena and
Martin Brundle. This was the team's last pre-qualifying session of the season, as their five points in
Monaco were enough to enable them to avoid having to pre-qualify for the rest of the season. Modena had pre-qualified at all eight events so far in 1989, and Brundle six, with both drivers qualifying for all of those races. Brundle, who had failed to pre-qualify in both
Canada and
France, told in a pit lane interview during qualifying proper that he was glad to make it through as he had been
"Driving like an old tart quite frankly".
Stefan Johansson narrowly missed out in fifth place in the second Onyx, his fourth failure this season.
Alex Caffi was sixth in the
Dallara, only his second failure, but Dallara were another team who would avoid pre-qualifying for the rest of the season, having scored eight points.
Gregor Foitek was seventh in the sole
EuroBrun, still only able to pre-qualify once this season, which was once more than
Piercarlo Ghinzani, eighth in the second Osella. Ninth was
Yannick Dalmas, who had replaced
Joachim Winkelhock at
AGS, and for the rest of the season, both AGS cars would have to take part in pre-qualifying sessions. The
Zakspeed pairing of
Bernd Schneider and
Aguri Suzuki were tenth and twelfth, with no success at this stage since the first race of the season.
Pierre-Henri Raphanel was eleventh in his
Coloni, and from here on, both Colonis would have to take part in pre-qualifying. At the bottom of the time sheets was the
Rial of
Volker Weidler, his eighth consecutive failure to pre-qualify, but
Christian Danner's three points at
Phoenix meant both cars would avoid pre-qualifying for the rest of the season.
Pre-qualifying classification Qualifying report McLaren took control of qualifying with
Ayrton Senna ahead of
Alain Prost. Having announced before the previous race in
France that he would be leaving McLaren at the end of the season, Prost now announced that he would be joining
Ferrari in .
Derek Warwick returned after missing the French Grand Prix, qualifying 19th. Still in pain from his karting accident, he had a special seat fitted in his
Arrows.
Maurício Gugelmin qualified sixth, but his
March developed a water-related problem moments before the race, forcing him to start from the pit lane.
Qualifying classification ==Race==