AUTOSPORT relives the great races of the past - Australia 1989: Thierry Boutsen wins a wild and wet grand prix in Adelaide

About the best you could say was that no-one got hurt. Conditions at the Australian Grand Prix were worse than any of the drivers could remember and most of them didn't want to start. Commercial pressures meant they did, and in a race disfigured by accidents, Ayrton Senna lost the remnants of his tentative claim to be world champion, crashing out of a dominant lead. That left Thierry Boutsen to give a fine display of finesse and control amid the wrecker's yard of Adelaide.

Practice and qualifying - by Joe Saward

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