1989 Canadian Grand Prix

The 1989 Canadian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on 18 June 1989. It was the sixth race of the 1989 Formula One World Championship.

The 69-lap race was won by Belgian driver Thierry Boutsen, driving a Williams-Renault. Boutsen took his first F1 victory, and the first for Williams with Renault engines, after Brazilian Ayrton Senna suffered an engine failure in his McLaren-Honda late on. Boutsen's Italian teammate Riccardo Patrese finished second with another Italian, Andrea de Cesaris, third in a Dallara-Ford.

Stefano Modena was comfortably fastest in the pre-qualifying session in his Brabham, over a second faster than the Osella of Nicola Larini. Both their team-mates failed to pre-qualify; it was the first time a Brabham had failed to pre-qualify this season as Martin Brundle was fifth after suffering various car-related issues, and Osella's Piercarlo Ghinzani was down in eighth, over two seconds behind Larini. It was Ghinzani's sixth successive failure to pre-qualify. Stefan Johansson was third fastest in the Onyx, but his team-mate Bertrand Gachot failed to pre-qualify in sixth, also his sixth successive failure. The last pre-qualifier was Alex Caffi in the Dallara, in fourth.

The other entrants to fail to pre-qualify on the Friday morning included Gregor Foitek, seventh in the sole EuroBrun, who had failed to pre-qualify on the previous four occasions, and both the underpowered Zakspeeds, with Bernd Schneider ninth and Aguri Suzuki a distant twelfth. The AGS of Joachim Winkelhock was tenth and Volker Weidler's Rial was eleventh; both Germans' sixth successive failures to pre-qualify. Pierre-Henri Raphanel was bottom of the time sheets in thirteenth, not recording a representative time in his Coloni.

Nearly all the thirty drivers who took part in qualifying posted their faster times on Friday afternoon, as the Saturday session was cold, windy, overcast and sometimes wet. Of the front runners, only Ayrton Senna was able to come close to matching his Friday time, but the Brazilian was denied his ninth consecutive pole position by his McLaren team-mate Alain Prost, by just under eight hundredths of a second. The second row was filled by Riccardo Patrese in the Williams and Gerhard Berger's Ferrari, with the third row occupied by their team-mates; Ferrari's Nigel Mansell a tenth or two faster than Williams' Thierry Boutsen.

Modena put the sole remaining Brabham a fine seventh on the grid, the top V8 and the top Pirelli-tyred runner, with another pre-qualifier, Caffi, alongside him in eighth. Caffi's Dallara team-mate, Andrea de Cesaris, shared the fifth row with the Lola of Philippe Alliot. The Minardi of Pierluigi Martini was eleventh, with Derek Warwick in the Arrows twelfth.

Alessandro Nannini suffered balance issues in his Benetton to qualify 13th, alongside Jonathan Palmer's Tyrrell. Pre-qualifier Larini was 15th in the surviving Osella, with the second Arrows of Eddie Cheever in 16th. Mauricio Gugelmin qualified his March 17th, alongside the last pre-qualifier, Johansson's Onyx.

Triple World Champion Nelson Piquet could only manage 19th spot in his Lotus, with the second Tyrrell of Michele Alboreto 20th. The second March of Ivan Capelli was 21st, alongside the only Ligier to qualify, that of René Arnoux, amid rumours of his retirement. Christian Danner qualified the sole remaining Rial 23rd, and was one of the few drivers to improve his time on Saturday, with the second Minardi of Spaniard Luis Pérez-Sala in 24th. The back row consisted of the AGS of Gabriele Tarquini, and the Coloni of Roberto Moreno, who narrowly qualified on Saturday after failing to post a representative time on Friday. In total, the drivers of the record 18 out of 20 participating teams qualified for the race.