1990 Japanese motorcycle Grand Prix

  1990 Japanese Grand Prix

Race details
Race 1 of 15 races in the 1990 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season
Date	25 March 1990
Location	Suzuka
Course	Permanent racing facility 5.821 km (3.618 mi)
500 cc
Pole position
Rider	Wayne Rainey
Time	2:09.589
Fastest lap
Rider	Wayne Rainey
Time	2:11.354
Podium
First	Wayne Rainey
Second	Wayne Gardner
Third	Kevin Schwantz
250 cc
Pole position
Rider	John Kocinski
Time	2:14.273
Fastest lap
Rider	Jacques Cornu
Time	2:16.452
Podium
First	Luca Cadalora
Second	Carlos Cardús
Third	Wilco Zeelenberg
125 cc
Pole position
Rider	Kinya Wada
Time	2:25.033
Fastest lap
Rider	Stefan Prein
Time	2:25.045
Podium
First	Hans Spaan
Second	Stefan Prein
Third	Koji Takada

The 1990 Japanese motorcycle Grand Prix was the first round of the 1990 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season. It took place on the weekend of 23–25 March 1990 at the Suzuka Circuit.

500 cc race report

Wayne Rainey's pole of 2:09.589 is the first sub-2:10 lap at Suzuka. Rainey gets the start of the new 4-column grid, followed by Mick Doohan, Eddie Lawson and the field. Rainey goes through the chicane with a sub-second gap, followed by Lawson, Doohan, Kevin Schwantz and Wayne Gardner.

Rainey is opening a gap, but Schwantz moves into second and leads the chase. Entering the back straight, Schwantz looks behind him to see who’s back there, but Lawson’s proximity probably blocks the view.

Perhaps Schwantz had a feeling something bad was about to happen. Going into 130R, Gardner barely manages to pass on the brakes and move into second place, while Doohan brakes for all he’s worth, getting the back wheel in the air, and loses the front end as he leans it in. Unfortunately, he’s inside of Lawson when he falls, so Doohan’s bike hits Lawson’s rear wheel hard, taking him out too. Lawson, who came out of 1989 without a race crash, begins the season with a DNF and a broken left ankle.

Rainey has a large gap, and Gardner and Schwantz are scraping fairings for second. Last lap and Rainey has an untouchable lead, and Gardner goes slightly wide heading towards the chicane, but manages to hold Schwantz off; as they flick it right and then left, Schwantz touches Gardner’s back tire and drops his bike. Because it happened at such a low speed, Schwantz is able to get back on quickly and still cross the line in third place.

Schwantz: "I thought I had Gardner sorted out pretty good for the last lap going into the chicane, just as soon as I got up the inside and he saw my wheel he came in and I think he was still going in too fast. He went into the chicane real deep. I got turned quick because I knew he was going to be wide. He came back across and as I was coming down , we hit. I guess it all depends on how you look at it as to who's fault it was I'd say it was his."

500 cc classification

Pos	No.	Rider	Manufacturer	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	2	Wayne Rainey	Yamaha	22	48:52.475	1	20
2	10	Wayne Gardner	Honda	22	+3.237	3	17
3	34	Kevin Schwantz	Suzuki	22	+15.556	2	15
4	4	Kevin Magee	Suzuki	22	+40.689	7	13
5	6	Sito Pons	Honda	22	+41.008	9	11
6	21	Tadahiko Taira	Yamaha	22	+51.363	10	10
7	5	Pierfrancesco Chili	Honda	22	+51.536	6	9
8	14	Jean-Philippe Ruggia	Yamaha	22	+53.739	15	8
9	39	Shinichi Itoh	Honda	22	+1:02.515	8	7
10	11	Juan Garriga	Yamaha	22	+1:25.526	18	6
11	37	Hikaru Miyagi	Honda	22	+1:29.184	20	5
12	41	Shinji Katayama	Yamaha	22	+1:42.002	21	4
13	38	Osamu Hiwatashi	Suzuki	22	+1:42.713	19	3
Ret	43	Keiji Ohishi	Yamaha	18	Retirement	22
Ret	18	Randy Mamola	Cagiva	18	Retirement	17
Ret	28	Alex Barros	Cagiva	12	Retirement	24
Ret	40	Satoshi Tsujimoto	Suzuki	9	Retirement	13
Ret	3	Christian Sarron	Yamaha	8	Retirement	11
Ret	8	Ron Haslam	Cagiva	8	Retirement	23
Ret	36	Kunio Machii	Yamaha	7	Retirement	12
Ret	1	Eddie Lawson	Yamaha	4	Retirement	4
Ret	9	Mick Doohan	Honda	4	Retirement	5
Ret	15	Norihiko Fujiwara	Yamaha	2	Retirement	16
DNS	35	Shunji Yatsushiro	Honda			14
DNQ	26	Niggi Schmassman	Honda
DNQ	44	Kenmei Matsumoto	Honda

References

Previous race: 1989 Brazilian Grand Prix	FIM Grand Prix World Championship 1990 season	Next race: 1990 United States Grand Prix
Previous race: 1989 Japanese Grand Prix	Japanese motorcycle Grand Prix	Next race: 1991 Japanese Grand Prix