1992 Brazilian Grand Prix

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]

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 However, when he arrived at Interlagos, his licence was rescinded by race director Roland Bruynseraede, who told him there had been an error in the issuing of the licence, so McCarthy was withdrawn from the event.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]

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

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^[update], 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).

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]

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.

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]

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Nigel Mansell 30 2 Riccardo Patrese 18 3 Michael Schumacher 11 4 Gerhard Berger 5 5 Ayrton Senna 4 Source:[8]

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Williams-Renault 48 2 Benetton-Ford 11 3 McLaren-Honda 9 4 Ferrari 5 5 Tyrrell-Ilmor 2 Source:[8]

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

• Henry, Alan (1992). AUTOCOURSE 1992-93. Hazleton Publishing. ISBN 0-905138-96-1.