1990 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season

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]

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]

1990 Grand Prix season calendar

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]

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 Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Retired (Ret) Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Withdrew (WD) Race cancelled (C) Blank Did not participate (DNP) 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
• "The Official MotoGP website". Retrieved 2010-07-06. 

1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Noyes, Dennis; Scott, Michael (1999), Motocourse: 50 Years Of Moto Grand Prix, Hazleton Publishing Ltd, ISBN 1-874557-83-7 
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
4. ↑ "500cc Final Standings". motogp.com. Retrieved 6 August 2012. 
5. ↑ "250cc Final Standings". motogp.com. Retrieved 6 August 2012. 
6. ↑ "125cc Final Standings". motogp.com. Retrieved 6 August 2012. 

Grand Prix motorcycle racing seasons
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