1992 San Marino Grand Prix

The 1992 San Marino Grand Prix (formally the XII Gran Premio Iceberg di San Marino) was a Formula One motor race held at Imola on 17 May 1992. It was the fifth race of the 1992 Formula One World Championship.

1992 San Marino Grand Prix
Race 5 of 16 in the 1992 Formula One World Championship
Race details
Date17 May 1992
Official nameXII Gran Premio Iceberg di San Marino
LocationAutodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari
Imola, Emilia-Romagna, Italy
CoursePermanent racing facility
Course length5.040 km (3.144 miles)
Distance60 laps, 302.400 km (188.646 miles)
WeatherSunny
Pole position
DriverWilliams-Renault
Time1:21.842
Fastest lap
DriverItaly Riccardo PatreseWilliams-Renault
Time1:26.100 on lap 60
Podium
FirstWilliams-Renault
SecondWilliams-Renault
ThirdMcLaren-Honda
Lap leaders

The 60-lap race was won from pole position by Nigel Mansell, driving a Williams-Renault. Mansell became the first driver to win the first five races of the season. Teammate Riccardo Patrese was second, with Ayrton Senna third in a McLaren-Honda.

Qualifying edit

Pre-qualifying report edit

In the Friday morning pre-qualifying session, Michele Alboreto was fastest for the first time this season in the Footwork. He was half a second faster than the Venturi Larrousse of Bertrand Gachot, who was himself a couple of tenths of a second faster than his team-mate Ukyo Katayama. The fourth pre-qualifier was again Andrea Chiesa, nearly a second behind in the Fondmetal.[1]

As in Spain, the two cars failing to pre-qualify were the Andrea Modas of Roberto Moreno and Perry McCarthy. Moreno had tested with the team here at Imola, and improved the car prior to the Grand Prix weekend,[1] and the result was that he was just 0.463 of a second behind Chiesa. McCarthy drove his first seven laps in the car, with no windscreen and an ill-fitting seat,[2] and posted a time around 8.6 seconds slower than Moreno before stopping with a differential problem.[3]

Pre-qualifying classification edit

PosNoDriverConstructorTimeGap
19 Michele AlboretoFootwork-Mugen-Honda1:26.865
229 Bertrand GachotVenturi-Lamborghini1:27.407+0.542
330 Ukyo KatayamaVenturi-Lamborghini1:27.601+0.736
414 Andrea ChiesaFondmetal-Ford1:28.480+1.615
534 Roberto MorenoAndrea Moda-Judd1:28.943+2.078
635 Perry McCarthyAndrea Moda-Judd1:37.537+10.672

Qualifying report edit

In the main qualifying session the Lotus of Mika Häkkinen, the Fondmetal of Andrea Chiesa, and the Brabhams of Damon Hill and Eric van de Poele were eliminated. This turned out to be the only race of 1992 in which Häkkinen failed to qualify.

Mansell took pole position by over a second from Williams team-mate Riccardo Patrese, who crashed at Tamburello corner two weeks before. The McLarens of Ayrton Senna and Gerhard Berger took up the second row, while the Benettons of Michael Schumacher and Martin Brundle filled the third row. The top ten was completed by the Ferraris of Jean Alesi and Ivan Capelli, the Footwork of Michele Alboreto, and the Ligier of Thierry Boutsen.

Mansell's pole position saw one of Formula One's hottest streaks come to an end, as Senna had taken pole in each of the previous seven races at Imola.

Qualifying classification edit

PosNoDriverConstructorQ1Q2Gap
15 Nigel MansellWilliams-Renault1:21.8421:22.440
26 Riccardo PatreseWilliams-Renault1:23.8761:22.895+1.053
31 Ayrton SennaMcLaren-Honda1:23.0861:23.151+1.244
42 Gerhard BergerMcLaren-Honda1:23.4181:24.393+1.576
519 Michael SchumacherBenetton-Ford1:23.7011:24.177+1.859
620 Martin BrundleBenetton-Ford1:25.2391:23.904+2.062
727 Jean AlesiFerrari1:23.9701:24.103+2.128
828 Ivan CapelliFerrari1:24.2741:24.192+2.350
99 Michele AlboretoFootwork-Mugen-Honda1:24.7061:26.519+2.864
1025 Thierry BoutsenLigier-Renault1:25.0431:25.276+3.201
1110 Aguri SuzukiFootwork-Mugen-Honda1:25.1341:25.909+3.292
1216 Karl WendlingerMarch-Ilmor1:27.0191:25.483+3.641
1326 Érik ComasLigier-Renault1:25.7391:25.543+3.701
144 Andrea de CesarisTyrrell-Ilmor1:25.6371:26.337+3.795
1522 Pierluigi MartiniDallara-Ferrari1:25.8381:26.331+3.996
1621 JJ LehtoDallara-Ferrari1:25.8651:26.215+4.023
1730 Ukyo KatayamaVenturi-Lamborghini1:26.9001:25.982+4.140
1833 Maurício GugelminJordan-Yamaha1:26.0561:26.659+4.214
1929 Bertrand GachotVenturi-Lamborghini1:26.4031:26.182+4.340
203 Olivier GrouillardTyrrell-Ilmor1:26.9531:26.404+4.562
2124 Gianni MorbidelliMinardi-Lamborghini1:26.6811:27.051+4.839
2215 Gabriele TarquiniFondmetal-Ford1:26.9591:26.765+4.923
2332 Stefano ModenaJordan-Yamaha1:26.9001:26.774+4.932
2417 Paul BelmondoMarch-Ilmor1:28.5151:27.194+5.352
2523 Christian FittipaldiMinardi-Lamborghini1:27.2291:27.282+5.387
2612 Johnny HerbertLotus-Ford1:27.2701:27.357+5.428
2711 Mika HäkkinenLotus-Ford1:27.4371:27.912+5.595
2814 Andrea ChiesaFondmetal-Ford1:27.756no time+5.914
298 Damon HillBrabham-Juddno time1:28.423+6.581
307 Eric van de PoeleBrabham-Judd1:29.3471:28.832+6.990
Source:[4][5][6]

Race edit

Race report edit

The first start was aborted due to Karl Wendlinger's March stalling; he eventually started the race at the back of the grid. Stefano Modena started from the pit lane in his Jordan.

Mansell led every lap, finishing nearly ten seconds ahead of Patrese. Senna finished third, nearly forty seconds behind Patrese, but was unable to take his place on the podium due to discomfort he suffered all race, and was unable to get out of his car until long after the race ended; he had pulled off right after crossing the finish line, not even bothering to take a cool down lap. Ivan Capelli in the second Ferrari spun off into the gravel trap ending his race on lap 12. Michael Schumacher saw his first retirement of the season on lap 21 as he and teammate Brundle were pressuring Berger and spun out into the tyre wall on lap 21 with left suspension damage; despite fixing the problem on the front, the damage to the rear was too much and he retired in the pits only one lap later. On lap 40, Senna passed Jean Alesi going into the Villeneuve corner; Berger tried to do the same thing through Tosa, but Alesi closed the door and clipped Berger's car, lost control and clipped Berger's car again, damaging the McLaren's right rear suspension and destroying the Ferrari's front wing, forcing both drivers to retire; each side blamed the other for the accident. Mansell's win continued his perfect start to the 1992 season, with five wins from the opening five races; this broke the record of successive wins from the start of the season set by Senna the previous year.

Brundle finished fourth to pick up his first points of 1992. Alboreto finished fifth, and Pierluigi Martini finished sixth, scoring what would prove to be the Dallara team's last point in Formula One.

Race classification edit

PosNoDriverConstructorLapsTime/RetiredGridPoints
15 Nigel MansellWilliams-Renault601:28:40.927110
26 Riccardo PatreseWilliams-Renault60+ 9.45126
31 Ayrton SennaMcLaren-Honda60+ 48.98434
420 Martin BrundleBenetton-Ford60+ 53.00763
59 Michele AlboretoFootwork-Mugen-Honda59+ 1 lap92
622 Pierluigi MartiniDallara-Ferrari59+ 1 lap151
733 Maurício GugelminJordan-Yamaha58+ 2 laps18
83 Olivier GrouillardTyrrell-Ilmor58+ 2 laps20
926 Érik ComasLigier-Renault58+ 2 laps13
1010 Aguri SuzukiFootwork-Mugen-Honda58+ 2 laps11
1121 JJ LehtoDallara-Ferrari57Engine16
1216 Karl WendlingerMarch-Ilmor57+ 3 laps12
1317 Paul BelmondoMarch-Ilmor57+ 3 laps24
144 Andrea de CesarisTyrrell-Ilmor55Fuel system14
Ret30 Ukyo KatayamaVenturi-Lamborghini40Spun off17
Ret27 Jean AlesiFerrari39Collision7
Ret2 Gerhard BergerMcLaren-Honda39Collision4
Ret29 Bertrand GachotVenturi-Lamborghini32Spun off19
Ret25 Thierry BoutsenLigier-Renault29Engine10
Ret32 Stefano ModenaJordan-Yamaha25Gearbox23
Ret24 Gianni MorbidelliMinardi-Lamborghini24Engine21
Ret15 Gabriele TarquiniFondmetal-Ford24Engine22
Ret19 Michael SchumacherBenetton-Ford20Suspension5
Ret28 Ivan CapelliFerrari11Spun off8
Ret23 Christian FittipaldiMinardi-Lamborghini8Gearbox25
Ret12 Johnny HerbertLotus-Ford8Gearbox26
DNQ11 Mika HäkkinenLotus-Ford
DNQ14 Andrea ChiesaFondmetal-Ford
DNQ8 Damon HillBrabham-Judd
DNQ7 Eric van de PoeleBrabham-Judd
DNPQ34 Roberto MorenoAndrea Moda-Judd
DNPQ35 Perry McCarthyAndrea Moda-Judd
Source:[7]

Championship standings after the race edit

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

References edit

  1. ^ a b Walker, Murray (1992). Murray Walker's 1992 Grand Prix Year. Hazleton Publishing. pp. 45–52. ISBN 0-905138-99-6.
  2. ^ "The worst car I ever drove". MotorSport magazine. January 1998. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
  3. ^ McCarthy, Perry (2003). Flat Out, Flat Broke. Haynes. p. 184. ISBN 1-84425-018-0.
  4. ^ "San Marino Iceberg Grand Prix - QUALIFYING 1". formula1.com. Retrieved 13 September 2017.
  5. ^ "San Marino Iceberg Grand Prix - QUALIFYING 2". formula1.com. Retrieved 13 September 2017.
  6. ^ "San Marino Iceberg Grand Prix - OVERALL QUALIFYING". formula1.com. Retrieved 13 September 2017.
  7. ^ "1992 San Marino Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 3 November 2014. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  8. ^ a b "San Marino 1992 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 20 March 2019.


Previous race:
1992 Spanish Grand Prix
FIA Formula One World Championship
1992 season
Next race:
1992 Monaco Grand Prix
Previous race:
1991 San Marino Grand Prix
San Marino Grand PrixNext race:
1993 San Marino Grand Prix