1992 Brazilian Grand Prix

The 1992 Brazilian Grand Prix (formally the XXI Grande Prêmio do Brasil) was a Formula One motor race held at Interlagos on 5 April 1992. It was the third race of the 1992 Formula One World Championship.

1992 Brazilian Grand Prix
Race 3 of 16 in the 1992 Formula One World Championship
Race details
Date 5 April 1992
Official name XXI Grande Prêmio do Brasil
Location Autódromo José Carlos Pace
Interlagos, São Paulo, Brazil
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 4.325 km (2.687 miles)
Distance 71 laps, 307.075 km (190.808 miles)
Weather Dry
Pole position
Driver Williams-Renault
Time 1:15.703
Fastest lap
Driver Italy Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault
Time 1:19.490 on lap 34
Podium
First Williams-Renault
Second Williams-Renault
Third Benetton-Ford
Lap leaders

The 71-lap race was won by Englishman Nigel Mansell, driving a Williams-Renault, after he started from pole position. Mansell's Italian teammate, Riccardo Patrese, finished second after leading the first 31 laps, with German Michael Schumacher third in a Benetton-Ford.

Background

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Going into the race, the two major talking points were Williams' utter domination of the previous two races, as well as McLaren's response to that domination: the new MP4/7A would debut at Interlagos, despite having originally been scheduled to debut at Barcelona. However, the car was still experiencing teething issues, despite an intensive testing programme at Silverstone following the Mexican Grand Prix. The team brought a total of 6 complete cars to the race, including three MP4/6Bs to be tested alongside the MP4/7A.[1]

Qualifying

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Pre-qualifying report

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For the first time in 1992, there was a need for a pre-qualifying hour on Friday morning. The pool consisted of six cars, which needed to be reduced to four to ensure the maximum of 30 cars in the main qualifying sessions. The entrants were the two Lamborghini-powered Venturi LC92 cars entered by the Larrousse team, and driven by Bertrand Gachot and Ukyo Katayama; the Footwork FA13-Mugen-Honda of Michele Alboreto; the Fondmetal GR01 of Andrea Chiesa, and the two Andrea Moda S921s of Roberto Moreno and Perry McCarthy. Moreno and McCarthy had been recruited by Andrea Moda after team boss Andrea Sassetti had fired both his drivers (Alex Caffi and Enrico Bertaggia) after they had criticised the amateurish way the team had been run thus far.[2]

With very little time to prepare, McCarthy had hastily acquired a FISA Super Licence which enabled him to compete in Formula One. However, when he arrived at Interlagos, his licence was rescinded by race director Roland Bruynseraede, who told him there had been an error in the issuing of the licence, so McCarthy was withdrawn from the event. In any case, the team had not finished building his car in time, so he would not have driven in the session anyway.[3]

This left five cars in the session, and it became clear which four were to progress when the remaining Andrea Moda of Roberto Moreno managed just two laps before it broke down, having posted a very slow time.[3] The other four cars were over 15 seconds faster, with Gachot's Venturi topping the time sheets. Alboreto was just under two tenths of a second slower, with Chiesa third in the Fondmetal. Fourth was Katayama, just over a second slower than his team-mate Gachot. Thus Moreno failed to pre-qualify.[2]

Pre-qualifying classification

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Pos No Driver Constructor Time Gap
1 29   Bertrand Gachot Venturi-Lamborghini 1:22.161
2 9   Michele Alboreto Footwork-Mugen-Honda 1:22.346 +0.185
3 14   Andrea Chiesa Fondmetal-Ford 1:22.860 +0.699
4 30   Ukyo Katayama Venturi-Lamborghini 1:23.272 +1.111
5 34   Roberto Moreno Andrea Moda-Judd 1:38.569 +16.408

Qualifying report

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The Williams cars were ahead of the McLarens with Mansell on pole ahead of Patrese, with Senna third in front of his home crowd ahead of Berger, Schumacher, and Alesi. There was controversy in the second qualifying session, as Senna slowed in front of an over-enthusiastic Mansell, forcing him wide on the entry to turn 11 and into a spin. Having been collected by the outside wall, Mansell limped out of his damaged Williams. Interestingly, Berger's time was set in one of the MP4/6B's, as he suffered an engine failure in his primary car, an MP4/7A; however, he raced an MP4/7A on raceday. As of 2024, this was the last time a woman, Giovanna Amati, took part in the World Championship (Amati would be sacked by Brabham after this race and replaced by Englishman Damon Hill, son of late and two-time World Champion Graham Hill).

Qualifying classification

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Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap
1 5   Nigel Mansell Williams-Renault 1:15.703 1:16.091
2 6   Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault 1:17.591 1:16.894 +1.191
3 1   Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 1:19.358 1:17.902 +2.199
4 2   Gerhard Berger McLaren-Honda 1:19.277 1:18.416 +2.713
5 19   Michael Schumacher Benetton-Ford 1:18.541 1:18.582 +2.838
6 27   Jean Alesi Ferrari 1:19.340 1:18.647 +2.944
7 20   Martin Brundle Benetton-Ford 1:19.488 1:18.711 +3.008
8 22   Pierluigi Martini Dallara-Ferrari 1:18.953 1:20.018 +3.250
9 16   Karl Wendlinger March-Ilmor 1:19.897 1:19.007 +3.304
10 25   Thierry Boutsen Ligier-Renault 1:20.823 1:19.038 +3.335
11 28   Ivan Capelli Ferrari 1:19.895 1:19.300 +3.597
12 32   Stefano Modena Jordan-Yamaha 1:19.344 1:19.314 +3.611
13 4   Andrea de Cesaris Tyrrell-Ilmor 1:19.343 1:19.497 +3.640
14 9   Michele Alboreto Footwork-Mugen-Honda 1:19.533 1:20.159 +3.830
15 26   Érik Comas Ligier-Renault 1:19.541 1:19.537 +3.834
16 21   JJ Lehto Dallara-Ferrari 1:20.502 1:19.834 +4.131
17 3   Olivier Grouillard Tyrrell-Ilmor 1:21.930 1:19.849 +4.146
18 29   Bertrand Gachot Venturi-Lamborghini 1:20.413 1:19.927 +4.224
19 15   Gabriele Tarquini Fondmetal-Ford 1:20.533 1:19.993 +4.290
20 23   Christian Fittipaldi Minardi-Lamborghini 1:21.019 1:20.133 +4.430
21 33   Maurício Gugelmin Jordan-Yamaha 1:20.817 1:20.266 +4.563
22 10   Aguri Suzuki Footwork-Mugen-Honda 1:20.891 1:20.435 +4.732
23 24   Gianni Morbidelli Minardi-Lamborghini 1:20.445 1:20.862 +4.742
24 11   Mika Häkkinen Lotus-Ford 1:20.577 1:20.734 +4.874
25 30   Ukyo Katayama Venturi-Lamborghini 1:21.568 1:20.648 +4.945
26 12   Johnny Herbert Lotus-Ford 1:21.161 1:20.650 +4.947
27 14   Andrea Chiesa Fondmetal-Ford no time 1:20.809 +5.066
28 17   Paul Belmondo March-Ilmor 1:20.886 1:22.875 +5.183
29 7   Eric van de Poele Brabham-Judd 1:22.742 1:21.770 +6.067
30 8   Giovanna Amati Brabham-Judd 1:30.420 1:26.645 +10.942
Sources:[4][5][6]

Race

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Race report

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On the parade lap, Gerhard Berger stalled and had to start at the back. Mansell’s start was poor and Patrese blasted ahead of him with Brundle getting ahead of Alesi. The order from there was Patrese, Mansell, Senna, Schumacher, Brundle and Alesi. Berger had to retire after only 4 laps in the pits with electrical failure. The Williamses pulled away while Senna was holding the rest at bay; Schumacher was 30 seconds behind by the time he had passed Senna for third on lap 13. Martin Brundle and Jean Alesi passed him soon afterwards and Senna retired with engine problems on lap 17.

The stops brought Alesi closer to Brundle and Alesi made his move on lap 31. The two collided, with Brundle spinning out into retirement as a result. This promoted Karl Wendlinger in the March up to fifth and he was there until his clutch failed on lap 56. As Thierry Boutsen collided with teammate Érik Comas in the leading Ligier and forced the Lotus of Johnny Herbert off into the gravel at the Senna S as it forced both drivers to retire but Comas managed to continue, this incident happened just six laps after Brundle's retirement, Comas would soon retire with gearbox failure on lap 42 which meant a double retirement for Ligier. Meanwhile, Mansell pitted while passing back markers and took advantage of subsequent clear laps, taking over first place when Patrese pitted after slower laps passing more of the back markers. Mansell then built a lead and won with a 29-second lead over Patrese in second, making it yet another Williams 1–2 and lapping the rest of the field ahead of Michael Schumacher, Jean Alesi, Ivan Capelli who was able to score his first points for Ferrari in fifth (which was Ferrari's only double points finish of the season) and Michele Alboreto scoring his first point for Footwork.

Race classification

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Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 5   Nigel Mansell Williams-Renault 71 1:36:51.856 1 10
2 6   Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault 71 + 29.330 2 6
3 19   Michael Schumacher Benetton-Ford 70 + 1 lap 5 4
4 27   Jean Alesi Ferrari 70 + 1 lap 6 3
5 28   Ivan Capelli Ferrari 70 + 1 lap 11 2
6 9   Michele Alboreto Footwork-Mugen-Honda 70 + 1 lap 14 1
7 24   Gianni Morbidelli Minardi-Lamborghini 69 + 2 laps 23
8 21   JJ Lehto Dallara-Ferrari 69 + 2 laps 16
9 30   Ukyo Katayama Venturi-Lamborghini 68 + 3 laps 25
10 11   Mika Häkkinen Lotus-Ford 67 + 4 laps 24
Ret 15   Gabriele Tarquini Fondmetal-Ford 62 Engine 19
Ret 16   Karl Wendlinger March-Ilmor 55 Clutch 9
Ret 23   Christian Fittipaldi Minardi-Lamborghini 54 Gearbox 20
Ret 3   Olivier Grouillard Tyrrell-Ilmor 52 Engine 17
Ret 26   Érik Comas Ligier-Renault 42 Gearbox 15
Ret 12   Johnny Herbert Lotus-Ford 36 Collision 26
Ret 25   Thierry Boutsen Ligier-Renault 36 Collision 10
Ret 33   Maurício Gugelmin Jordan-Yamaha 36 Gearbox 21
Ret 20   Martin Brundle Benetton-Ford 30 Collision 7
Ret 22   Pierluigi Martini Dallara-Ferrari 24 Clutch 8
Ret 29   Bertrand Gachot Venturi-Lamborghini 23 Suspension 18
Ret 4   Andrea de Cesaris Tyrrell-Ilmor 21 Engine 13
Ret 1   Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 17 Engine 3
Ret 2   Gerhard Berger McLaren-Honda 4 Electrical 4
Ret 10   Aguri Suzuki Footwork-Mugen-Honda 2 Engine 22
Ret 32   Stefano Modena Jordan-Yamaha 1 Gearbox 12
DNQ 14   Andrea Chiesa Fondmetal-Ford
DNQ 17   Paul Belmondo March-Ilmor
DNQ 7   Eric van de Poele Brabham-Judd
DNQ 8   Giovanna Amati Brabham-Judd
DNPQ 34   Roberto Moreno Andrea Moda-Judd
Source:[7]

Championship standings after the race

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  • Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

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  1. ^ "The Domination Game: How Mansell and Williams made 1992 their own". Motor Sport Magazine. July 2002. Retrieved 2022-09-02.
  2. ^ a b Walker, Murray (1992). Murray Walker's 1992 Grand Prix Year. Hazleton Publishing. pp. 29–36. ISBN 0-905138-99-6.
  3. ^ a b McCarthy, Perry (2003). Flat Out, Flat Broke. Haynes. pp. 167–177. ISBN 1-84425-018-0.
  4. ^ "Brazilian Grand Prix – Qualifying 1". Formula1.com. Retrieved 5 January 2024.
  5. ^ "Brazilian Grand Prix – Qualifying 2". Formula1.com. Retrieved 5 January 2024.
  6. ^ "1992 Brazilian Grand Prix Classification Qualifying". Motorsport Stats. Retrieved 5 January 2024.
  7. ^ "1992 Brazilian Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 17 January 2015. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  8. ^ a b "Brazil 1992 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 13 March 2019.


Previous race:
1992 Mexican Grand Prix
FIA Formula One World Championship
1992 season
Next race:
1992 Spanish Grand Prix
Previous race:
1991 Brazilian Grand Prix
Brazilian Grand Prix Next race:
1993 Brazilian Grand Prix