The 1992 Belgian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Spa-Francorchamps on 30 August 1992. It was the twelfth race of the 1992 Formula One World Championship. The 44-lap race was won by Michael Schumacher, driving a Benetton-Ford. This was the first Grand Prix win for a German driver since Jochen Mass at the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix, and the first of an eventual record 91 Grand Prix wins for Schumacher (since eclipsed by Lewis Hamilton in 2020). New World Champion Nigel Mansell finished second in his Williams-Renault with teammate Riccardo Patrese third, thus securing the Constructors' Championship for Williams. Schumacher's win, which was the first full-length Grand Prix won by a German since Wolfgang von Trips's last win at the 1961 British Grand Prix, marked the last time a Formula One car to win a Grand Prix while sporting a H-pattern manual gearbox. This race also marked Ferrari's 500th start in a World Championship event as a team, and the last race for Andrea Moda.
Pre-race There was no pre-qualifying session at this race after the Brabham team did not arrive due to financial problems and the impending sale of the team. This left thirty cars, the maximum allowed in the main qualifying sessions. Emanuele Naspetti made his Grand Prix debut for the March team, replacing Paul Belmondo.
Qualifying Qualifying report Ligier driver Érik Comas was injured and briefly knocked unconscious in a heavy crash during practice on Friday and was advised by doctors not to drive again over the weekend, so he was withdrawn from qualifying. Ayrton Senna encountered Comas's car on the race track, stopped to help him, and cut off the car's engine to reduce the risk of fire. Comas later credited this with likely having saved his life. Gerhard Berger had a 160 mph crash down the hill in the wet during practice on the entrance to Eau Rouge with the back of the car catching fire, although he was uninjured.
Aside from Comas, the other three non-qualifiers included Minardi driver Christian Fittipaldi, returning after four races missed through injury. Also failing to qualify were the two Andrea Moda cars, this being the first time both cars had been present in the main qualifying sessions. Roberto Moreno could only manage 28th fastest, over five seconds slower than Fittipaldi, with Perry McCarthy 29th after he went off the track at the 170 mph Eau Rouge section. McCarthy reported to his team that the car's steering had jammed, and that he suspected the steering rack was flexing. Team boss Andrea Sassetti replied that the team already knew the rack was faulty because it had previously been fitted to Moreno's car, and he had reported the same problem. McCarthy quit the team after the Friday qualifying session. Moreno was a sole entry in a wet Saturday qualifying session. Sassetti was subsequently arrested in the paddock on Saturday afternoon on allegations of forging documents and fraud, and thus Andrea Moda was banned from the championship.
Qualifying classification Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap 1 5 Nigel Mansell Williams-Renault 1:50.545 2:07.693 no time 2 1 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 1:52.743 2:14.983 +2.198 3 19 Michael Schumacher Benetton-Ford 1:53.221 2:11.770 +2.676 4 6 Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault 1:53.557 no time +3.012 5 27 Jean Alesi Ferrari 1:54.438 2:11.360 +3.893 6 2 Gerhard Berger McLaren-Honda 1:54.642 no time +4.097 7 25 Thierry Boutsen Ligier-Renault 1:54.654 2:12.153 +4.109 8 11 Mika Häkkinen Lotus-Ford 1:54.812 2:15.987 +4.267 9 20 Martin Brundle Benetton-Ford 1:54.973 2:12.619 +4.428 10 12 Johnny Herbert Lotus-Ford 1:55.027 2:16.726 +4.482 11 15 Gabriele Tarquini Fondmetal-Ford 1:55.965 no time +5.420 12 28 Ivan Capelli Ferrari 1:56.075 2:15.529 +5.530 13 4 Andrea de Cesaris Tyrrell-Ilmor 1:56.111 2:11.341 +5.566 14 9 Michele Alboreto Footwork-Mugen-Honda 1:56.282 2:14.734 +5.737 15 14 Eric van de Poele Fondmetal-Ford 1:56.674 no time +6.129 16 21 JJ Lehto Dallara-Ferrari 1:56.809 2:12.232 +6.264 17 32 Stefano Modena Jordan-Yamaha 1:56.889 2:14.037 +6.344 18 16 Karl Wendlinger March-Ilmor 1:57.039 2:14.765 +6.494 19 22 Pierluigi Martini Dallara-Ferrari 1:57.267 no time +6.722 20 29 Bertrand Gachot Venturi-Lamborghini 1:57.330 2:13.415 +6.785 21 17 Emanuele Naspetti March-Ilmor 1:57.794 2:16.618 +7.249 22 3 Olivier Grouillard Tyrrell-Ilmor 1:57.818 2:13.612 +7.273 23 24 Gianni Morbidelli Minardi-Lamborghini 1:58.126 2:23.090 +7.581 24 33 Maurício Gugelmin Jordan-Yamaha 1:58.499 2:15.268 +7.954 25 10 Aguri Suzuki Footwork-Mugen-Honda 1:58.826 2:14.711 +8.281 26 30 Ukyo Katayama Venturi-Lamborghini 1:59.383 2:19.247 +8.838 27 23 Christian Fittipaldi Minardi-Lamborghini 1:59.626 no time +9.081 28 34 Roberto Moreno Andrea Moda-Judd 2:05.096 2:24.830 +14.551 29 35 Perry McCarthy Andrea Moda-Judd 2:15.050 no time +24.505 30 26 Érik Comas Ligier-Renault no time no time —Source:
Race Race report At the start before La Source, Gerhard Berger failed to get away from sixth position and retired after an immediate transmission problem which put him out straight away. Mansell attacked and passed Senna at the end of the second lap with Patrese following suit. Then it began to rain and almost everybody pitted for wets. In the early stages of the race, Senna showed strong pace, briefly leading from the Williams. Then, when rain fell and the other front-runners made pit stops for rain tyres, the Brazilian gambled on the rain stopping and thus stayed out. He pitted late and rejoined down in 12th as Alesi went out with a puncture after colliding with Mansell at La Source. Ivan Capelli suffered a dramatic engine failure on lap 26 as he went straight off into the gravel trap at Blanchimont whilst battling Herbert for sixth position.
By the time Thierry Boutsen spun off on lap 28, the track was beginning to dry, which meant Senna's gamble had failed, and the subsequent pit stop dropped him back down to twelfth. He then made a charge through the field, passing Mika Häkkinen's Lotus for fifth on the penultimate lap. Johnny Herbert retired once again with engine problems on lap 43, and was classified 13th. Schumacher took his first Grand Prix win for Benetton by a comfortable margin over both the Williamses of Mansell and Patrese after they both suffered engine problems in the closing laps (Mansell with a broken exhaust). The Williams duo were able to finish second and third ahead of Brundle in the other Benetton, Senna in the remaining McLaren and Häkkinen in the remaining Lotus securing the final point. Eighteen cars were classified as finishers, the highest number for the season. In what was his 18th race a year after his debut in 1991, Schumacher achieved his first Grand Prix win, the first of 91 career wins, and the first of a record six-Belgian Grand Prix wins.
Race classification Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 19 Michael Schumacher Benetton-Ford 44 1:36:10.721 3 10 2 5 Nigel Mansell Williams-Renault 44 + 36.595 1 6 3 6 Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault 44 + 43.897 4 4 4 20 Martin Brundle Benetton-Ford 44 + 46.059 9 3 5 1 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 44 + 1:08.369 2 2 6 11 Mika Häkkinen Lotus-Ford 44 + 1:10.030 8 1 7 21 JJ Lehto Dallara-Ferrari 44 + 1:38.237 16 8 4 Andrea de Cesaris Tyrrell-Ilmor 43 + 1 lap 13 9 10 Aguri Suzuki Footwork-Mugen-Honda 43 + 1 lap 25 10 14 Eric van de Poele Fondmetal-Ford 43 + 1 lap 15 11 16 Karl Wendlinger March-Ilmor 43 + 1 lap 18 12 17 Emanuele Naspetti March-Ilmor 43 + 1 lap 21 13 12 Johnny Herbert Lotus-Ford 42 Engine 10 14 33 Maurício Gugelmin Jordan-Yamaha 42 + 2 laps 24 15 32 Stefano Modena Jordan-Yamaha 42 + 2 laps 17 16 24 Gianni Morbidelli Minardi-Lamborghini 42 + 2 laps 23 17 30 Ukyo Katayama Venturi-Lamborghini 42 + 2 laps 26 18 29 Bertrand Gachot Venturi-Lamborghini 40 Spun off 20 25 Thierry Boutsen Ligier-Renault 27 Spun off 7 28 Ivan Capelli Ferrari 25 Engine 12 15 Gabriele Tarquini Fondmetal-Ford 25 Engine 11 9 Michele Alboreto Footwork-Mugen-Honda 20 Gearbox 14 27 Jean Alesi Ferrari 7 Puncture 5 3 Olivier Grouillard Tyrrell-Ilmor 1 Accident 22 2 Gerhard Berger McLaren-Honda 0 Transmission 6 22 Pierluigi Martini Dallara-Ferrari 0 Spun off 19 23 Christian Fittipaldi Minardi-Lamborghini 34 Roberto Moreno Andrea Moda-Judd 35 Perry McCarthy Andrea Moda-Judd 26 Érik Comas Ligier-Renault Qualifying accident
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings PosDriverPoints 1 Nigel Mansell 98 2 Riccardo Patrese 44 1 3 Michael Schumacher 43 1 4 Ayrton Senna 36 5 Gerhard Berger 24Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Williams-Renault 142 1 2 Benetton-Ford 64 1 3 McLaren-Honda 60 4 Ferrari 16 5 Lotus-Ford 11Source:
Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. Bold text indicates the 1992 World Champions.
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