The 1992 Mexican Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City on 22 March 1992. It was the second race of the 1992 Formula One World Championship.
| 1992 Mexican Grand Prix | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 2 of 16 in the 1992 Formula One World Championship | |||
 | |||
| Race details | |||
| Date | 22 March 1992 | ||
| Official name | XVI Gran Premio de México | ||
| Location | Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez Mexico City, Mexico | ||
| Course | Permanent racing facility | ||
| Course length | 4.421 km (2.747 miles) | ||
| Distance | 69 laps, 305.049 km (189.549 miles) | ||
| Weather | Scattered clouds 27 °C (81 °F)[1] | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | Williams-Renault | ||
| Time | 1:16.346 | ||
| Fastest lap | |||
| Driver |  Gerhard Berger | McLaren-Honda | |
| Time | 1:17.711 on lap 60 | ||
| Podium | |||
| First | Williams-Renault | ||
| Second | Williams-Renault | ||
| Third | Benetton-Ford | ||
Lap leaders | |||
The 69-lap race was won from pole position by British driver Nigel Mansell, driving a Williams-Renault. Italian teammate Riccardo Patrese finished second, with Michael Schumacher third in a Benetton-Ford, the first of an eventual 155 podiums for the German driver.
The Hermanos Rodríguez circuit had a reputation for being very bumpy, and by this point the bumps on the track had decayed even further, and the decline of Mexico City itself with increasing crowding and pollution problems made the event look bad for Formula One's glamorous image at the time.[citation needed] This was the final Formula One race in Mexico until 2015, when the Grand Prix was revived on a revised Hermanos Rodríguez circuit.
Pre-race edit
On 20 February 1992 Mexico city officials put out a smog alert due to the dangerous air pollution levels in the city. Alerts mandated restrictions on operating heavy motorized equipment. The Mexican Grand Prix committee had to delay work paving sections of the track.[2]
The planned pre-qualifying session was again cancelled, as it had been in South Africa, where the Andrea Moda team was excluded from the event due to non-payment of the $100,000 guarantee required for new teams. With the guarantee now paid, FISA clarified that if Andrea Moda came to Mexico with two new cars that met the regulations, the team would be reinstated in the Championship.[3] Therefore team owner Andrea Sassetti abandoned the C4B car with its Coloni origins, and brought forward the introduction of their new car, the Simtek-designed Andrea Moda S921, which was originally intended for the fourth round in Spain. The team brought two hastily-built S921s for Alex Caffi and Enrico Bertaggia, but the cars could not be made ready in time for pre-qualifying. So Sassetti withdrew his cars, citing "freight delays" as extenuating circumstances.[4] With only four cars remaining in the pre-qualifying pool, the session was cancelled.[5]
Qualifying edit
Qualifying report edit
During the Friday qualifying session, Ayrton Senna hit one of the bumps in the Esses, lost control of his McLaren, and crashed into a perimeter wall at 150 mph (240 km/h).[6] He suffered whiplash and a severely bruised leg, and did not take any further part in this session, but was deemed fit enough to participate in the Saturday session.
Nigel Mansell took pole position in his Williams-Renault by 0.016 seconds from teammate Riccardo Patrese. The Benettons of Michael Schumacher and Martin Brundle made up the second row of the grid, though Schumacher's time was over 0.9 seconds slower than those of the Williams and Brundle's time was nearly 1.3 seconds slower than Schumacher's. The McLarens made up the third row, Gerhard Berger ahead of a still-sore Senna. The Dallaras impressed with JJ Lehto seventh and Pierluigi Martini ninth; between them was Maurício Gugelmin in the Jordan. Jean Alesi completed the top ten in his Ferrari; his teammate Ivan Capelli could only manage 20th.
The four non-qualifiers were Aguri Suzuki in the Footwork, Paul Belmondo in the March, and the two Brabhams of Eric van de Poele and Giovanna Amati. This was the first time in the Brabham team's history that neither of its cars had qualified.
Qualifying classification edit
| Pos | No | Driver | Constructor | Q1 | Q2 | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 |  Nigel Mansell | Williams-Renault | 1:16.346 | 1:16.648 | |
| 2 | 6 |  Riccardo Patrese | Williams-Renault | 1:17.908 | 1:16.362 | +0.016 |
| 3 | 19 |  Michael Schumacher | Benetton-Ford | 1:17:554 | 1:17.292 | +0.946 |
| 4 | 20 | Martin Brundle | Benetton-Ford | 1:18.937 | 1:18.588 | +2.242 |
| 5 | 2 | Gerhard Berger | McLaren-Honda | 1:18.604 | 1:18.589 | +2.243 |
| 6 | 1 |  Ayrton Senna | McLaren-Honda | 1:23.063 | 1:18.791 | +2.445 |
| 7 | 21 |  JJ Lehto | Dallara-Ferrari | 1:19.982 | 1:19.111 | +2.765 |
| 8 | 33 | Maurício Gugelmin | Jordan-Yamaha | 1:20.246 | 1:19.355 | +3.009 |
| 9 | 22 | Pierluigi Martini | Dallara-Ferrari | 1:19.767 | 1:19.378 | +3.032 |
| 10 | 27 |  Jean Alesi | Ferrari | 1:21.434 | 1:19.417 | +3.071 |
| 11 | 4 | Andrea de Cesaris | Tyrrell-Ilmor | 1:19.423 | 1:24.117 | +3.077 |
| 12 | 12 | Johnny Herbert | Lotus-Ford | 1:20.450 | 1:19.509 | +3.163 |
| 13 | 29 | Bertrand Gachot | Venturi-Lamborghini | 1:21.656 | 1:19.743 | +3.397 |
| 14 | 15 | Gabriele Tarquini | Fondmetal-Ford | 1:20.386 | 1:19.769 | +3.423 |
| 15 | 32 | Stefano Modena | Jordan-Yamaha | 1:19.957 | 1:20.469 | +3.611 |
| 16 | 3 | Olivier Grouillard | Tyrrell-Ilmor | 1:20.709 | 1:19.961 | +3.615 |
| 17 | 23 | Christian Fittipaldi | Minardi-Lamborghini | 1:20.042 | 1:20.202 | +3.696 |
| 18 | 11 | Mika Häkkinen | Lotus-Ford | 1:20.145 | 1:20.390 | +3.799 |
| 19 | 16 | Karl Wendlinger | March-Ilmor | 47:56.613 | 1:20.200 | +3.854 |
| 20 | 28 | Ivan Capelli | Ferrari | 1:20.223 | 1:21.120 | +3.877 |
| 21 | 24 | Gianni Morbidelli | Minardi-Lamborghini | 1:21.019 | 1:20.227 | +3.881 |
| 22 | 25 |  Thierry Boutsen | Ligier-Renault | 1:20.709 | 1:20.395 | +4.049 |
| 23 | 14 |  Andrea Chiesa | Fondmetal-Ford | 1:21.902 | 1:20.845 | +4.499 |
| 24 | 30 |  Ukyo Katayama | Venturi-Lamborghini | 1:22.188 | 1:20.935 | +4.589 |
| 25 | 9 | Michele Alboreto | Footwork-Mugen-Honda | 1:21.396 | 1:21.064 | +4.718 |
| 26 | 26 | Érik Comas | Ligier-Renault | 1:21.122 | 1:21.963 | +4.776 |
| 27 | 10 | Aguri Suzuki | Footwork-Mugen-Honda | 1:21.617 | 1:21.187 | +4.841 |
| 28 | 17 | Paul Belmondo | March-Ilmor | 1:23.508 | 1:21.504 | +5.158 |
| 29 | 7 | Eric van de Poele | Brabham-Judd | 1:22.937 | 1:22.197 | +5.851 |
| 30 | 8 | Giovanna Amati | Brabham-Judd | no time | 1:25.052 | +8.706 |
| Sources:[7][8][9] | ||||||
Race edit
Race report edit
Stefano Modena, having qualified 15th in the other Jordan, had to start the race from the pit lane.
Nigel Mansell dominated the race straight from the pole position, finishing the race 12 seconds ahead of Patrese and 21 seconds ahead of Michael Schumacher. Senna's transmission broke on the 11th lap, ending his race prematurely; teammate Berger finished 4th, salvaging some pride for McLaren in the farewell race for the MP4/6. Gerhard Berger managed to get ahead of Martin Brundle with a battle that managed to last for eight laps until Brundle was able to move back up to fourth on lap 44 but soon retired with engine trouble on lap 47, ending the battle for fourth. At the front, Mansell won with Patrese making it a Williams 1–2 again ahead of Schumacher, Berger, de Cesaris and Mika Häkkinen scoring the final point for Lotus for the second race in succession from South Africa and respectively the Finn's first point of the season.
Race classification edit
Championship standings after the race edit
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- Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
References edit
- ^ "History | Weather Underground". Wunderground.com. Retrieved 26 October 2013.
- ^ "Gray haze makes people sick: Mexico city smog worsens". Ellensburg Daily Record. Associated Press. February 20, 1992. Retrieved November 1, 2015.
- ^ "Andrea Moda : de l'exclusion au repêchage" [Andrea Moda: From exclusion to draft pick]. Sport Auto (in French). 363: 24. April 1992.
- ^ McCarthy, Perry (2003). Flat Out, Flat Broke. Haynes. p. 166–167. ISBN 1-84425-018-0.
- ^ Walker, Murray (1992). Murray Walker's 1992 Grand Prix Year. Hazleton Publishing. pp. 21–28. ISBN 0-905138-99-6.
- ^ Collings, Timothy (21 March 1992). "Senna injures leg in practice crash". The Daily Telegraph. London. p. 37.
- ^ "Mexican Grand Prix – Qualifying 1". Formula1.com. Retrieved 5 January 2024.
- ^ "Mexican Grand Prix – Qualifying 2". Formula1.com. Retrieved 5 January 2024.
- ^ "1992 Mexican Grand Prix Classification Qualifying". Motorsport Stats. Retrieved 5 January 2024.
- ^ "1992 Mexican Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 17 February 2015. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
- ^ a b "Mexico 1992 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 19 March 2019.
- Henry, Alan (1992). AUTOCOURSE 1992-93. Hazleton Publishing. ISBN 0-905138-96-1.