Crash overshadows win

Press, 26 April 1989, Page 35

Crash overshadows win

NZPA-AP Imola, Italy Fire and smoke pouring from the crashed Ferrari of the Austrian driver, Gerhard Berger, overshadowed Monday’s victory for the Brazilian world champion, Ayrton Senna, in the San Marino Grand Prix and the McLaren-Honda team’s 1-2 finish. Senna, who restored the supremacy of the powerful British-Japanese team after last month’s upset in Brazil, outpaced his veteran French team-mate, Alain Prost, in a race restarted after Berger’s accident in the fourth lap. It was Senna’s fifteenth Grand Prix win and his second straight at the Dino and Enzo Ferrari circuit of Imola, home track of the rival, Ferrari. Senna, aged 29, completed the race in one hour, 26 minutes, 51.245 seconds, at an average speed of about 201 km/h (125.5 m.p.h.). Prost, who finished 40.22 seconds behind his team-mate, leads the over-all world championship standings with 12 points after two events, while Senna moved into second place with nine points. Alessandro Nannini of Italy, in a BenettonFord, finished third.

Berger went off the track at the fast Tamburello bend at the beginning of the fourth lap, travelling at an estimated speed of 280 km/h (174 m/h). His red Ferrari crashed into a wall and burst into flames. The Belgian, Thierry Boutsen, who was tailing Berger, said he saw the front wing of the Ferrari car flying into the air before the impact. “Berger was very lucky,” said Senna, who praised the rescue teams for pulling Berger from the flaming wreckage within 23 seconds. The official medical report said Berger suffered a slight concussion, a broken rib, first degree burns to about 15 per cent of his body, and some second and third-degree burns on his hands. • Britain’s David Thorpe confirmed that his French Grand Prix win the previus weekend was no fluke when he swept to victory in both legs of the Austrian round of the 500 cc motocross world championship on Monday. • The French riders Jean-Michel Mattioli, and Alex Vieira, and Britons, Roger Burnett, riding a Honda, won the Le Mans 24-hour motor-cycling race on Monday.