1990 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season

1990 F.I.M. Grand Prix motorcycle racing season
Previous:	1989	Next:	1991

The 1990 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season was the 42nd F.I.M. Road Racing World Championship season.

Season summary

1990 marked the beginning of the Rainey era with the Marlboro-Yamaha rider taking 7 wins and scoring points in every race but Hungary after he had already clinched the championship.^[1] Rainey's teammate was 1989 champion Eddie Lawson, but he was unable to defend his championship after breaking his left ankle in the first round and then severely shattering his right ankle the following round at Laguna Seca. Rainey on having Lawson as a teammate: “I just wanted to devastate Eddie. I don’t think he was ready for a team-mate like me. Maybe he thought he could control me, but at that stage I was past being controlled.”^[2] Rainey switched from Dunlop to Michelin tires this year.

Kevin Schwantz continued to win on his Suzuki but just as often he would crash.^[1] Australian Mick Doohan would win his first Grand Prix for Honda at the Hungaroring.^[1] [1]

The 1990 season continued the trend of crashes as riders tried to cope with the harsh power output of the V4 two-strokes.^[1] Honda put forth a proposition limiting the top class to 375cc and 3 cylinders, but that never caught on.^[1] Still, with 500cc lap times becoming stagnant, it was clear that something needed to be done.^[1]

Newcomer John Kocinski took the 250 title for Kenny Roberts' Marlboro-Yamaha squad after a tight points battle with Carlos Cardús that was not decided until the final race of the season.^[1] Despite five Grand Prix victories for Hans Spaan, seventeen-year-old Loris Capirossi became the youngest-ever world champion when he claimed the 125 crown for Honda.^[1]

Grands Prix

Round	Race	Location	125cc winner	250cc winner	500cc winner	Report
1	Japanese Grand Prix	Suzuka	Hans Spaan	Luca Cadalora	Wayne Rainey	Report
2	United States Grand Prix	Laguna Seca	No race	John Kocinski	Wayne Rainey	Report
3	Spanish Grand Prix	Jerez	Jorge Martínez	John Kocinski	Wayne Gardner	Report
4	Nations Grand Prix	Misano	Jorge Martínez	John Kocinski	Wayne Rainey	Report
5	German Grand Prix	Nürburgring	Doriano Romboni	Wilco Zeelenberg	Kevin Schwantz	Report
6	Austrian Grand Prix	Salzburgring	Jorge Martínez	Luca Cadalora	Kevin Schwantz	Report
7	Yugoslavian Grand Prix	Rijeka	Stefan Prein	Carlos Cardús	Wayne Rainey	Report
8	Dutch TT	Assen	Doriano Romboni	John Kocinski	Kevin Schwantz	Report
9	Belgian Grand Prix	Spa	Hans Spaan	John Kocinski	Wayne Rainey	Report
10	French Grand Prix	Le Mans	Hans Spaan	Carlos Cardús	Kevin Schwantz	Report
11	British Grand Prix	Donington	Loris Capirossi	Luca Cadalora	Kevin Schwantz	Report
12	Swedish Grand Prix	Anderstorp	Hans Spaan	Carlos Cardús	Wayne Rainey	Report
13	Czechoslovakian Grand Prix	Brno	Hans Spaan	Carlos Cardús	Wayne Rainey	Report
14	Hungarian Grand Prix	Hungaroring	Loris Capirossi	John Kocinski	Mick Doohan	Report
15	Australian Grand Prix	Phillip Island	Loris Capirossi	John Kocinski	Wayne Gardner	Report

Final standings

Scoring system

Points are awarded to the top fifteen finishers. Rider has to finish the race to earn points.^[3]

Position	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	11th	12th	13th	14th	15th
Points	20	17	15	13	11	10	9	8	7	6	5	4	3	2	1

500cc standings^[4]

Pos	Rider	Bike	JPN	USA	ESP	NAT	GER	AUT	YUG	NED	BEL	FRA	GBR	SWE	CZE	HUN	AUS	Pts
1	Wayne Rainey	Yamaha	1	1	2	1	2	2	1	2	1	3	2	1	1	Ret	3	255
2	Kevin Schwantz	Suzuki	3	Ret	3	2	1	1	2	1	7	1	1	Ret	Ret	3	Ret	188
3	Mick Doohan	Honda	Ret	2	4	3	Ret	3	4	4	6	4	4	4	9	1	2	179
4	Niall Mackenzie	Suzuki			8	5	3	5	3	5	12	6	5	5	4	7	5	140
5	Wayne Gardner	Honda	2	Ret	1	4				Ret	10	2	Ret	3	2	4	1	138
6	Juan Garriga	Yamaha	10	6	9	8	7	9	Ret	6	9	8	7	8	5	5	6	121
7	Eddie Lawson	Yamaha	Ret							3	3	5	3	2	3	2	4	118
8	Jean-Philippe Ruggia	Yamaha	8	5	10	Ret	6	8	5	11	2	Ret	9	7	8	6	Ret	110
9	Christian Sarron	Yamaha	Ret	4	7		4	7		7	4	Ret	8		6	Ret	Ret	84
10	Sito Pons	Honda	5	Ret	6	6	5	6	Ret						7	10	7	76
11	Pierfrancesco Chili	Honda	7	3	5	Ret	Ret	4	Ret	8							9	63
12	Alex Barros	Cagiva	Ret	8	Ret	Ret	8	11	Ret	10	5	Ret	11	9	Ret	9		57
13	Marco Papa	Cagiva				9	11	13	6	14	Ret	9	13	11	13	12	10	55
14	Randy Mamola	Honda	Ret	7		7	9	10	Ret	18	Ret	7	6	Ret	11	Ret		55
15	Ron Haslam	Cagiva	Ret	Ret	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	12	DNS	9	8	10	10	10	12	11		46
16	Cees Doorakkers	Honda			13	14	10	14	7	13	15	12	Ret	12	16	16	12	39
17	Eddie Laycock	Honda			11					12	13	11	12		14	14	11	30
18	Carl Fogarty	Honda											Ret	6	10	8		24
19	Niggi Schmassman	Honda		10	12	13	13		9	16								23
20	Peter Linden	Honda		9		12	15							13				15
21	Kevin Magee	Suzuki	4	Ret														13
22	Karl Truchsess	Honda						15	8	15	14	Ret				Ret		12
23	Tadahiko Taira	Yamaha	6														Ret	10
24	Peter Goddard	Yamaha															8	8
25	Andy Leuthe	Honda			14	Ret	12						14	Ret	Ret	Ret		8
26	Shinichi Ito	Honda	9															7
27	Romolo Balbi	Honda				10												6
28	Michele Valdo	Honda				11												5
29	Hikaru Miyagi	Honda	11															5
30	Norihiko Fujiwara	Honda	Ret							Ret	11							5
31	Shinji Katayama	Yamaha	12															4
32	Rachel Nicotte	Honda										Ret			15	13		4
33	Osamu Hiwatashi	Suzuki	13															3
34	Hansjörg Butz	Honda			15		14											3
35	Martin Trösch	Honda										Ret			17	15		1
36	Vittorio Scatola	Paton			Ret	15	16		Ret	Ret	DNS	Ret						1
Pos	Rider	Bike	JPN	USA	ESP	NAT	GER	AUT	YUG	NED	BEL	FRA	GBR	SWE	CZE	HUN	AUS	Pts

Colour	Result
Gold	Winner
Silver	2nd place
Bronze	3rd place
Green	Points finish
Blue	Non-points finish
Blue	Non-classified finish (NC)
Purple	Retired (Ret)
Red	Did not qualify (DNQ)
Red	Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ)
Black	Disqualified (DSQ)
White	Did not start (DNS)
	Withdrew (WD)
	Race cancelled (C)
Blank	Did not participate (DNP)
Blank	Excluded (EX)

Bold – Pole Position

250cc standings^[5]

Place	Rider	Number	Country	Team	Machine	Points	Wins
1	John Kocinski	19	United States	Marlboro-Yamaha Roberts	YZR250	223	7
2	Carlos Cardús	4	Spain	Repsol-Honda	NSR250	208	4
3	Luca Cadalora	5	Italy	Marlboro-Yamaha Agostini	YZR250	184	3
4	Helmut Bradl	9	Germany	HB-Honda	NSR250	150	0
5	Wilco Zeelenberg	14	Netherlands	Sharp-Samson Honda	NSR250	127	1
6	Martin Wimmer	10	Germany	Hein Gericke Aprilia	RS250	118	0
7	Masahiro Shimizu	6	Japan	Ajinomoto-Honda	NSR250	100	0
8	Jochen Schmid	16	Germany	HB-Honda	NSR250	92	0
9	Jacques Cornu	3	Switzerland	Lucky Strike-Elf Honda	NSR250	86	0
10	Dominique Sarron	8	France	Rothmans-Honda	NSR250	78	0
11	Àlex Crivillé		Spain			76
12	Didier de Radiguès		Belgium			66
13	Loris Reggiani		Italy			63
14	Reinhold Roth		Germany			52
15	Carlos Lavado		Venezuela			37
16	Alberto Puig					32
17	Paolo Casoli		Italy			32
18	Andy Preining					30
19	Marcellino Lucchi					23
20	Adrien Morillas					22
21	Renzo Colleoni					17
22	Daryl Beattie					13
23	Harald Eckl					13
24	Jorge Martinez					13
25	Toshihiko Honma					10
26	Corrado Catalano					10
27	Tetsuya Harada					9
28	Andrea Borgonovo					9
29	Nobuatsu Aoki					8
30	Alberto Rota					8
31	Masumitsu Taguchi					7
32	Tsumoto Udagawa					6
33	Niall Mackenzie					5
34	Jean Pierre Jeandat					4
35	Junzo Suzuki					4
36	Bernd Kassner					4
37	Josè Barresi					4
38	Bernard Haenggeli					4
39	Rich Oliver					3
40	Alan Carter					3
41	Trevor Manley					2
42	Kevin Mitchell					2
43	Urs Jücker					2
44	Yukio Nukumi					1
45	Ricky Rice					1
46	Jean Foray					1

125cc standings^[6]

Place	Rider	Number	Country	Machine	Points	Wins
1	Loris Capirossi	65	Italy	Honda	182	3
2	Hans Spaan	2	Netherlands	Honda	173	5
3	Stefan Prein	7	Germany	Honda	169	1
4	Doriano Romboni		Italy	Honda	130	2
5	Dirk Raudies		Germany	Honda	113	0
6	Jorge Martínez		Spain	Derbi	105	3
7	Fausto Gresini	8	Italy	Honda	102	0
8	Bruno Casanova	4	Italy	Honda	97	0
9	Alessandro Gramigni		Italy	Aprilia	84	0
10	Heinz Lüthi		Switzerland	Honda	78	0
11	Adi Stadler				77
12	Gabriele Debbia				55
13	Julian Miralles				46
14	Maurizio Vitali				44
15	Manuel Hernandez				40
16	Koji Takada				39
17	Steve Patrickson				32
18	Robin Appleyard				32
19	Alfred Waibel				31
20	Hisashi Unemoto				30
21	Robin Milton				28
22	Kinya Wada				26
23	Ralf Waldmann				19
24	Emilio Cuppini				15
25	Herri Torrontegui				14
26	Johnny Wickstroem				13
27	Stefan Kurfiss				11
28	Yoshifumi Ichimiya				8
29	Hans Koopman				7
30	Yukiho Hinokio				6
31	Domenico Brigaglia				6
32	Fuyuki Yamazaki				5
33	Thierry Feuz				5
34	Noboiuki Wakai				3
35	Flemming Kistrup				3
36	Sinya Sato				2
37	Alan Scott				1
38	Jaime Mariano				1
39	Antonio Sanchez				1
40	Stuart Edwards				1

References

Büla, Maurice & Schertenleib, Jean-Claude (2001). Continental Circus 1949-2000. Chronosports S.A. ISBN 2-940125-32-5
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↑ Scott, Michael: "Wayne Rainey", page 142. Haynes Publishing, 1997.
↑ Guinness Motorcycle Sport Fact Book by Ian Morrison page 14 (1991)(1st Edition) Guinness Publishing The Bath Press ISBN 0-85112-953-6
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[2] Scott, Michael: "Wayne Rainey", page 142. Haynes Publishing, 1997.

[3] Guinness Motorcycle Sport Fact Book by Ian Morrison page 14 (1991)(1st Edition) Guinness Publishing The Bath Press ISBN 0-85112-953-6

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1990 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season

Contents

Season summary

Grands Prix