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
Date 17 May 1992
Official name XII Gran Premio Iceberg di San Marino
Location Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari
Imola, Emilia-Romagna, Italy
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 5.040 km (3.144 miles)
Distance 60 laps, 302.400 km (188.646 miles)
Weather Sunny
Pole position
Driver Williams-Renault
Time 1:21.842
Fastest lap
Driver Italy Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault
Time 1:26.100 on lap 60
Podium
First Williams-Renault
Second Williams-Renault
Third McLaren-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

Pos No Driver Constructor Time Gap
1 9   Michele Alboreto Footwork-Mugen-Honda 1:26.865
2 29   Bertrand Gachot Venturi-Lamborghini 1:27.407 +0.542
3 30   Ukyo Katayama Venturi-Lamborghini 1:27.601 +0.736
4 14   Andrea Chiesa Fondmetal-Ford 1:28.480 +1.615
5 34   Roberto Moreno Andrea Moda-Judd 1:28.943 +2.078
6 35   Perry McCarthy Andrea Moda-Judd 1:37.537 +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

Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap
1 5   Nigel Mansell Williams-Renault 1:21.842 1:22.440
2 6   Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault 1:23.876 1:22.895 +1.053
3 1   Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 1:23.086 1:23.151 +1.244
4 2   Gerhard Berger McLaren-Honda 1:23.418 1:24.393 +1.576
5 19   Michael Schumacher Benetton-Ford 1:23.701 1:24.177 +1.859
6 20   Martin Brundle Benetton-Ford 1:25.239 1:23.904 +2.062
7 27   Jean Alesi Ferrari 1:23.970 1:24.103 +2.128
8 28   Ivan Capelli Ferrari 1:24.274 1:24.192 +2.350
9 9   Michele Alboreto Footwork-Mugen-Honda 1:24.706 1:26.519 +2.864
10 25   Thierry Boutsen Ligier-Renault 1:25.043 1:25.276 +3.201
11 10   Aguri Suzuki Footwork-Mugen-Honda 1:25.134 1:25.909 +3.292
12 16   Karl Wendlinger March-Ilmor 1:27.019 1:25.483 +3.641
13 26   Érik Comas Ligier-Renault 1:25.739 1:25.543 +3.701
14 4   Andrea de Cesaris Tyrrell-Ilmor 1:25.637 1:26.337 +3.795
15 22   Pierluigi Martini Dallara-Ferrari 1:25.838 1:26.331 +3.996
16 21   JJ Lehto Dallara-Ferrari 1:25.865 1:26.215 +4.023
17 30   Ukyo Katayama Venturi-Lamborghini 1:26.900 1:25.982 +4.140
18 33   Maurício Gugelmin Jordan-Yamaha 1:26.056 1:26.659 +4.214
19 29   Bertrand Gachot Venturi-Lamborghini 1:26.403 1:26.182 +4.340
20 3   Olivier Grouillard Tyrrell-Ilmor 1:26.953 1:26.404 +4.562
21 24   Gianni Morbidelli Minardi-Lamborghini 1:26.681 1:27.051 +4.839
22 15   Gabriele Tarquini Fondmetal-Ford 1:26.959 1:26.765 +4.923
23 32   Stefano Modena Jordan-Yamaha 1:26.900 1:26.774 +4.932
24 17   Paul Belmondo March-Ilmor 1:28.515 1:27.194 +5.352
25 23   Christian Fittipaldi Minardi-Lamborghini 1:27.229 1:27.282 +5.387
26 12   Johnny Herbert Lotus-Ford 1:27.270 1:27.357 +5.428
27 11   Mika Häkkinen Lotus-Ford 1:27.437 1:27.912 +5.595
28 14   Andrea Chiesa Fondmetal-Ford 1:27.756 no time +5.914
29 8   Damon Hill Brabham-Judd no time 1:28.423 +6.581
30 7   Eric van de Poele Brabham-Judd 1:29.347 1:28.832 +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

Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 5   Nigel Mansell Williams-Renault 60 1:28:40.927 1 10
2 6   Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault 60 + 9.451 2 6
3 1   Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 60 + 48.984 3 4
4 20   Martin Brundle Benetton-Ford 60 + 53.007 6 3
5 9   Michele Alboreto Footwork-Mugen-Honda 59 + 1 lap 9 2
6 22   Pierluigi Martini Dallara-Ferrari 59 + 1 lap 15 1
7 33   Maurício Gugelmin Jordan-Yamaha 58 + 2 laps 18
8 3   Olivier Grouillard Tyrrell-Ilmor 58 + 2 laps 20
9 26   Érik Comas Ligier-Renault 58 + 2 laps 13
10 10   Aguri Suzuki Footwork-Mugen-Honda 58 + 2 laps 11
11 21   JJ Lehto Dallara-Ferrari 57 Engine 16
12 16   Karl Wendlinger March-Ilmor 57 + 3 laps 12
13 17   Paul Belmondo March-Ilmor 57 + 3 laps 24
14 4   Andrea de Cesaris Tyrrell-Ilmor 55 Fuel system 14
Ret 30   Ukyo Katayama Venturi-Lamborghini 40 Spun off 17
Ret 27   Jean Alesi Ferrari 39 Collision 7
Ret 2   Gerhard Berger McLaren-Honda 39 Collision 4
Ret 29   Bertrand Gachot Venturi-Lamborghini 32 Spun off 19
Ret 25   Thierry Boutsen Ligier-Renault 29 Engine 10
Ret 32   Stefano Modena Jordan-Yamaha 25 Gearbox 23
Ret 24   Gianni Morbidelli Minardi-Lamborghini 24 Engine 21
Ret 15   Gabriele Tarquini Fondmetal-Ford 24 Engine 22
Ret 19   Michael Schumacher Benetton-Ford 20 Suspension 5
Ret 28   Ivan Capelli Ferrari 11 Spun off 8
Ret 23   Christian Fittipaldi Minardi-Lamborghini 8 Gearbox 25
Ret 12   Johnny Herbert Lotus-Ford 8 Gearbox 26
DNQ 11   Mika Häkkinen Lotus-Ford
DNQ 14   Andrea Chiesa Fondmetal-Ford
DNQ 8   Damon Hill Brabham-Judd
DNQ 7   Eric van de Poele Brabham-Judd
DNPQ 34   Roberto Moreno Andrea Moda-Judd
DNPQ 35   Perry McCarthy Andrea 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.


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