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.
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, 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, and posted a time around 8.6 seconds slower than Moreno before stopping with a differential problem.
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 +6.990Source:
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 30 Ukyo Katayama Venturi-Lamborghini 40 Spun off 17 27 Jean Alesi Ferrari 39 Collision 7 2 Gerhard Berger McLaren-Honda 39 Collision 4 29 Bertrand Gachot Venturi-Lamborghini 32 Spun off 19 25 Thierry Boutsen Ligier-Renault 29 Engine 10 32 Stefano Modena Jordan-Yamaha 25 Gearbox 23 24 Gianni Morbidelli Minardi-Lamborghini 24 Engine 21 15 Gabriele Tarquini Fondmetal-Ford 24 Engine 22 19 Michael Schumacher Benetton-Ford 20 Suspension 5 28 Ivan Capelli Ferrari 11 Spun off 8 23 Christian Fittipaldi Minardi-Lamborghini 8 Gearbox 25 12 Johnny Herbert Lotus-Ford 8 Gearbox 26 11 Mika Häkkinen Lotus-Ford 14 Andrea Chiesa Fondmetal-Ford 8 Damon Hill Brabham-Judd 7 Eric van de Poele Brabham-Judd 34 Roberto Moreno Andrea Moda-Judd 35 Perry McCarthy Andrea Moda-Judd
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings PosDriverPoints 1 Nigel Mansell 50 2 Riccardo Patrese 24 3 Michael Schumacher 17 2 4 Ayrton Senna 8 1 5 Gerhard Berger 8Source:
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 5Source:
References