1992 Mexican Grand Prix

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 Austria 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. 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

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

Qualifying report

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
PosNoDriverConstructorQ1Q2Gap
1 5 United Kingdom Nigel Mansell Williams-Renault 1:16.346 1:16.648
2 6 Italy Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault 1:17.908 1:16.362 +0.016
3 19 Germany Michael Schumacher Benetton-Ford 1:17:554 1:17.292 +0.946
4 20 United Kingdom Martin Brundle Benetton-Ford 1:18.937 1:18.588 +2.242
5 2 Austria Gerhard Berger McLaren-Honda 1:18.604 1:18.589 +2.243
6 1 Brazil Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 1:23.063 1:18.791 +2.445
7 21 Finland JJ Lehto Dallara-Ferrari 1:19.982 1:19.111 +2.765
8 33 Brazil Maurício Gugelmin Jordan-Yamaha 1:20.246 1:19.355 +3.009
9 22 Italy Pierluigi Martini Dallara-Ferrari 1:19.767 1:19.378 +3.032
10 27 France Jean Alesi Ferrari 1:21.434 1:19.417 +3.071
11 4 Italy Andrea de Cesaris Tyrrell-Ilmor 1:19.423 1:24.117 +3.077
12 12 United Kingdom Johnny Herbert Lotus-Ford 1:20.450 1:19.509 +3.163
13 29 France Bertrand Gachot Venturi-Lamborghini 1:21.656 1:19.743 +3.397
14 15 Italy Gabriele Tarquini Fondmetal-Ford 1:20.386 1:19.769 +3.423
15 32 Italy Stefano Modena Jordan-Yamaha 1:19.957 1:20.469 +3.611
16 3 France Olivier Grouillard Tyrrell-Ilmor 1:20.709 1:19.961 +3.615
17 23 Brazil Christian Fittipaldi Minardi-Lamborghini 1:20.042 1:20.202 +3.696
18 11 Finland Mika Häkkinen Lotus-Ford 1:20.145 1:20.390 +3.799
19 16 Austria Karl Wendlinger March-Ilmor 47:56.613 1:20.200 +3.854
20 28 Italy Ivan Capelli Ferrari 1:20.223 1:21.120 +3.877
21 24 Italy Gianni Morbidelli Minardi-Lamborghini 1:21.019 1:20.227 +3.881
22 25 Belgium Thierry Boutsen Ligier-Renault 1:20.709 1:20.395 +4.049
23 14 Switzerland Andrea Chiesa Fondmetal-Ford 1:21.902 1:20.845 +4.499
24 30 Japan Ukyo Katayama Venturi-Lamborghini 1:22.188 1:20.935 +4.589
25 9 Italy Michele Alboreto Footwork-Mugen-Honda 1:21.396 1:21.064 +4.718
26 26 France Érik Comas Ligier-Renault 1:21.122 1:21.963 +4.776
27 10 Japan Aguri Suzuki Footwork-Mugen-Honda 1:21.617 1:21.187 +4.841
28 17 France Paul Belmondo March-Ilmor 1:23.508 1:21.504 +5.158
29 7 Belgium Eric van de Poele Brabham-Judd 1:22.937 1:22.197 +5.851
30 8 Italy Giovanna Amati Brabham-Judd no time 1:25.052 +8.706

Race

Race report

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
PosNoDriverConstructorLapsTime/RetiredGridPoints
1 5 United Kingdom Nigel Mansell Williams-Renault 69 1:31:53.587 1 10
2 6 Italy Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault 69 + 12.971 2 6
3 19 Germany Michael Schumacher Benetton-Ford 69 + 21.429 3 4
4 2 Austria Gerhard Berger McLaren-Honda 69 + 33.347 5 3
5 4 Italy Andrea de Cesaris Tyrrell-Ilmor 68 + 1 lap 11 2
6 11 Finland Mika Häkkinen Lotus-Ford 68 + 1 lap 18 1
7 12 United Kingdom Johnny Herbert Lotus-Ford 68 + 1 lap 12
8 21 Finland JJ Lehto Dallara-Ferrari 68 + 1 lap 7
9 26 France Érik Comas Ligier-Renault 67 + 2 laps 26
10 25 Belgium Thierry Boutsen Ligier-Renault 67 + 2 laps 22
11 29 France Bertrand Gachot Venturi-Lamborghini 66 + 3 laps 13
12 30 Japan Ukyo Katayama Venturi-Lamborghini 66 + 3 laps 24
13 9 Italy Michele Alboreto Footwork-Mugen-Honda 65 + 4 laps 25
Ret 20 United Kingdom Martin Brundle Benetton-Ford 47 Engine 4
Ret 15 Italy Gabriele Tarquini Fondmetal-Ford 45 Clutch 14
Ret 14 Switzerland Andrea Chiesa Fondmetal-Ford 37 Spun off 23
Ret 22 Italy Pierluigi Martini Dallara-Ferrari 36 Handling 9
Ret 27 France Jean Alesi Ferrari 31 Engine 10
Ret 24 Italy Gianni Morbidelli Minardi-Lamborghini 29 Spun off 21
Ret 32 Italy Stefano Modena Jordan-Yamaha 17 Gearbox 15
Ret 3 France Olivier Grouillard Tyrrell-Ilmor 12 Engine 16
Ret 1 Brazil Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 11 Transmission 6
Ret 23 Brazil Christian Fittipaldi Minardi-Lamborghini 2 Spun off 17
Ret 33 Brazil Maurício Gugelmin Jordan-Yamaha 0 Engine 8
Ret 16 Austria Karl Wendlinger March-Ilmor 0 Collision 19
Ret 28 Italy Ivan Capelli Ferrari 0 Collision 20
DNQ 10 Japan Aguri Suzuki Footwork-Mugen-Honda
DNQ 17 France Paul Belmondo March-Ilmor
DNQ 7 Belgium Eric van de Poele Brabham-Judd
DNQ 8 Italy Giovanna Amati Brabham-Judd
Source:[7]

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

References
  1. "History | Weather Underground". Wunderground.com. Retrieved 26 October 2013.
  2. "Gray haze makes people sick: Mexico city smog worsens". Ellensburg Daily Record. Associated Press. February 20, 1992. Retrieved November 1, 2015.
  3. "Andrea Moda : de l'exclusion au repêchage" [Andrea Moda: From exclusion to draft pick]. Sport Auto (in French). 363: 24. April 1992.
  4. McCarthy, Perry (2003). Flat Out, Flat Broke. Haynes. p. 166–167. ISBN 1-84425-018-0.
  5. Walker, Murray (1992). Murray Walker's 1992 Grand Prix Year. Hazleton Publishing. pp. 21–28. ISBN 0-905138-99-6.
  6. Collings, Timothy (21 March 1992). "Senna injures leg in practice crash". The Daily Telegraph. London. p. 37.
  7. "1992 Mexican Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 17 February 2015. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  8. "Mexico 1992 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 19 March 2019.
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