Pre-qualifying report For the first time in six Grands Prix,
Onyx were not fastest in pre-qualifying. That credit went to
Larrousse-
Lola, as their cars were first and second on Friday morning, with
Philippe Alliot ahead of
Michele Alboreto. Third was
Nicola Larini in the Osella, with
Bertrand Gachot's Onyx fourth. Gachot's team-mate and once a hero of the
Tifosi as a
Ferrari driver in and
Stefan Johansson, missed out in fifth. Sixth was the
AGS of
Gabriele Tarquini, with
Roberto Moreno's
Coloni seventh. Eighth was Larini's Osella team-mate
Piercarlo Ghinzani, his eleventh pre-qualifying failure this season. As at the previous meeting, the
Zakspeeds were ninth and tenth,
Bernd Schneider again ahead of
Aguri Suzuki. Argentine
Oscar Larrauri had returned to
EuroBrun for whom he raced in 1988, replacing Swiss driver
Gregor Foitek, but with no improvement down in eleventh. Twelfth was the other AGS of
Yannick Dalmas, ahead only of the second Coloni of
Enrico Bertaggia.
Pre-qualifying classification Qualifying report Predictably, the
McLaren-
Honda of
Ayrton Senna was the fastest in qualifying for his 38th career pole position. Second was a surprise as Ferrari's Gerhard Berger joined Senna on the front row, whilst his teammate
Nigel Mansell was third. Prost was only 4th, some 1.79 seconds slower than his Brazilian teammate, publicly complaining all weekend of a down on power engine compared to Senna's. Prost's claims that Honda were favouring Senna were refuted by both Honda and McLaren boss Ron Dennis. However Prost's assertion was supported by former Honda drivers Mansell and World Champion
Keke Rosberg who also told the press that when it became known they would not be driving Honda powered cars any more that their engines did not work as well or have as much power as was previous.
BBC commentator
Murray Walker also reported during the race itself that Prost was over slower than Senna through the speed trap in the race morning warm-up session despite the two cars running similar wing settings. Senna's time of 1:23.720 in his
V10 McLaren-Honda was 2.254 seconds faster than he had been
a year earlier in the turbocharged
McLaren MP4/4. His time was only 0.26 seconds shy of the fastest ever lap of the Monza circuit set by
Nelson Piquet in a
Williams-Honda in qualifying for the
1987 race when the turbo engines were developing some more than the
naturally aspirated engines of 1989.
Eddie Cheever, who had finished 3rd in the 1988 race, failed to qualify his
Arrows-
Ford. It was the second time in 1989 that the American had failed to qualify for a race. His teammate Derek Warwick qualified 16th. The
Brabham-
Judd of
Stefano Modena was excluded from the meeting when his car was found to be underweight. This promoted the
Minardi of
Luis Pérez-Sala onto the grid.
Qualifying classification ==Race==