1992 San Marino Grand Prix

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 (3.132 miles)
Distance	60 laps, 302.400 km (187.903 miles)
Weather	Sunny
Pole position
Driver	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Renault
Time	1:21.842
Fastest lap
Driver	Riccardo Patrese	Williams-Renault
Time	1:26.100 on lap 60
Podium
First	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Renault
Second	Riccardo Patrese	Williams-Renault
Third	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda
Lap leaders

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.

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

Pre-qualifying report

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

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

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

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

Race report

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

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

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Nigel Mansell 50 2 Riccardo Patrese 24 3 Michael Schumacher 17 4 Ayrton Senna 8 5 Gerhard Berger 8 Source: [8]

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Williams-Renault 74 2 Benetton-Ford 20 3 McLaren-Honda 16 4 Ferrari 9 5 Footwork-Mugen-Honda 5 Source: [8]

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

References

1. 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. "San Marino 1992 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 20 March 2019.

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

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