The 1992 Italian Grand Prix (formally the Pioneer 63º Gran Premio d'Italia) was a Formula One motor race held at Monza on 13 September 1992. It was the thirteenth race of the 1992 Formula One World Championship.
The 53-lap race was won by Brazilian driver Ayrton Senna, driving a McLaren-Honda, after he started from second position. It was Senna's third victory of the season. Briton Martin Brundle finished second in a Benetton-Ford, with German teammate Michael Schumacher third.
Pre-race As at the last Grand Prix in Belgium, there was no pre-qualifying session as entrants dropped out. The Brabham team had not returned after missing the last race, and Andrea Moda had been excluded from Formula One by FISA for "conduct prejudicial to the sport" after a succession of chaotic events throughout the season so far. The team arrived at Monza but were refused entry. This left 28 cars in the qualifying sessions.
Nigel Mansell announced his retirement from Formula One on the morning of the race, as rumours circulated that Williams had already signed Alain Prost for , as well as attempting to sign Ayrton Senna. Angered and hurt by this, Mansell decided to announce his retirement despite being told minutes before the press conference that he would be able to partner Prost. Prost and Mansell previously had a difficult partnership at Ferrari in .
Qualifying Qualifying report Nigel Mansell took his eleventh pole position of the season in his Williams-Renault by 0.6 seconds from Ayrton Senna's McLaren-Honda. On Ferrari's home soil, Jean Alesi took third and Ivan Capelli seventh; between them were Mansell's teammate Riccardo Patrese, Senna's teammate Gerhard Berger, and Michael Schumacher's Benetton. The top ten was completed by Thierry Boutsen in the Ligier, Martin Brundle in the other Benetton and Bertrand Gachot tenth in Larrousse's best qualifying performance of the season.
The Jordans, with their underpowered Yamaha engines, struggled with Maurício Gugelmin coming 26th after an engine failure on Saturday morning, and Stefano Modena failing to qualify. Modena was joined in non-qualification by Christian Fittipaldi's Minardi.
Qualifying classification Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap 1 5 Nigel Mansell Williams-Renault 1:22.586 1:22.221 2 1 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 1:22.822 1:24.122 +0.601 3 27 Jean Alesi Ferrari 1:22.976 1:23.333 +0.755 4 6 Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault 1:23.022 1:23.673 +0.801 5 2 Gerhard Berger McLaren-Honda 1:23.997 1:23.112 +0.891 6 19 Michael Schumacher Benetton-Ford 1:24.143 1:23.629 +1.408 7 28 Ivan Capelli Ferrari 1:24.877 1:24.321 +2.100 8 25 Thierry Boutsen Ligier-Renault 1:25.173 1:24.413 +2.192 9 20 Martin Brundle Benetton-Ford 1:24.551 1:25.253 +2.330 10 29 Bertrand Gachot Venturi-Lamborghini 1:25.173 1:24.654 +2.433 11 11 Mika Häkkinen Lotus-Ford 1:25.106 1:24.807 +2.586 12 24 Gianni Morbidelli Minardi-Lamborghini 1:25.575 1:24.912 +2.691 13 12 Johnny Herbert Lotus-Ford 1:26.162 1:25.140 +2.919 14 21 JJ Lehto Dallara-Ferrari 1:25.951 1:25.145 +2.924 15 26 Érik Comas Ligier-Renault 1:25.178 1:25.270 +2.957 16 9 Michele Alboreto Footwork-Mugen-Honda 1:25.234 1:26.237 +3.013 17 16 Karl Wendlinger March-Ilmor 1:26.667 1:25.343 +3.122 18 3 Olivier Grouillard Tyrrell-Ilmor 1:25.354 1:26.008 +3.133 19 10 Aguri Suzuki Footwork-Mugen-Honda 1:25.775 1:25.374 +3.153 20 15 Gabriele Tarquini Fondmetal-Ford 1:26.307 1:25.420 +3.199 21 4 Andrea de Cesaris Tyrrell-Ilmor 1:25.502 1:25.425 +3.204 22 22 Pierluigi Martini Dallara-Ferrari 1:25.528 1:25.563 +3.342 23 30 Ukyo Katayama Venturi-Lamborghini 1:27.018 1:26.174 +3.953 24 17 Emanuele Naspetti March-Ilmor 1:26.279 1:26.288 +4.058 25 14 Eric van de Poele Fondmetal-Ford 1:27.019 1:26.407 +4.186 26 33 Maurício Gugelmin Jordan-Yamaha 1:26.463 1:27.531 +4.242 27 23 Christian Fittipaldi Minardi-Lamborghini 1:27.228 1:26.510 +4.289 28 32 Stefano Modena Jordan-Yamaha 1:27.331 1:28.112 +5.110 Sources:
Race Race report Berger had an electrical problem on the grid, and was forced to start the race from the pit lane in the spare car.
At the start Mansell took the lead ahead of Senna who just managed to stay ahead of Alesi then Patrese and Capelli. Schumacher had a poor start selecting a wrong gear and then hit a Ligier from behind at the first chicane. He had to pit to replace the nose and front wing at the end of the first lap. Patrese managed to overtake Alesi at the start of lap 2. The opening laps saw both Berger and Schumacher recovering many positions from the back of the field and overtaking a number of slower cars.
At the front Mansell opened a gap with Senna unable to match his pace. The positions were Mansell, Senna with Patrese closing down on him and then the two Ferraris of Alesi and Capelli. Next Martin Brundle managed to overtake Capelli and moved into 5th position. Lap 12 proved disastrous for the Ferrari team with both cars retiring, Alesi, who was in fourth, due to a mechanical problem and Capelli spinning off at the Parabolica with electronic problems. On lap 14 Patrese overtook Senna and moved into second. Meanwhile, Berger pitted for new tyres and dropped back again. On lap 17 the order was Mansell in first, ten seconds in front of Patrese, with Senna two seconds further behind. Fourth was Brundle, some 28 seconds behind Mansell and then Boutsen and Herbert over 40 seconds behind Mansell. On lap 18, Herbert retired from sixth with an engine issue.
On lap 20 Patrese suddenly appeared in the lead as Mansell let his team-mate pass. The order was Patrese followed closely by Mansell and Senna in third. Schumacher overtook Boutsen and moved into fifth place. Positions at lap 27 were: Patrese, Mansell, Senna, Brundle, Schumacher and Boutsen. As the lead trio lapped the slower cars of Berger and Comas, Mansell continued to stay very close to Patrese and Senna tried his best not to lose contact with the two Williams cars; in fact he closed up on Mansell momentarily when the Williams had to take evasive action passing Comas at the Roggia. On lap 41 Mansell slowed through the Ascari bends and coasted into the pits with gearbox failure from loss of hydraulic pressure and had to retire. Classification at lap 44 was: Patrese, Senna, Brundle, Schumacher, then Berger and de Cesaris both a lap down. Patrese led comfortably until six laps from the end he suffered a hydraulic problem, forcing him to slow down and concede the lead to Ayrton Senna. In the closing stages of the race Senna allowed his teammate Berger to unlap himself. Patrese limped to the end of the race and finished fifth.
Senna won the race in what proved to be his last win with a Honda-powered car. The other places on the podium went to the two Benettons of Brundle and Schumacher.
Race classification Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 1 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 53 1:18:15.349 2 10 2 20 Martin Brundle Benetton-Ford 53 + 17.050 9 6 3 19 Michael Schumacher Benetton-Ford 53 + 24.373 6 4 4 2 Gerhard Berger McLaren-Honda 53 + 1:25.490 5 3 5 6 Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault 53 + 1:33.158 4 2 6 4 Andrea de Cesaris Tyrrell-Ilmor 52 + 1 lap 21 1 7 9 Michele Alboreto Footwork-Mugen-Honda 52 + 1 lap 16 8 22 Pierluigi Martini Dallara-Ferrari 52 + 1 lap 22 9 30 Ukyo Katayama Venturi-Lamborghini 50 Transmission 23 10 16 Karl Wendlinger March-Ilmor 50 + 3 laps 17 11 21 JJ Lehto Dallara-Ferrari 47 Engine 14 33 Maurício Gugelmin Jordan-Yamaha 46 Transmission 26 5 Nigel Mansell Williams-Renault 41 Electrical 1 25 Thierry Boutsen Ligier-Renault 41 Throttle 8 26 Érik Comas Ligier-Renault 35 Spun off 15 15 Gabriele Tarquini Fondmetal-Ford 30 Gearbox 20 3 Olivier Grouillard Tyrrell-Ilmor 26 Engine 18 12 Johnny Herbert Lotus-Ford 18 Engine 13 17 Emanuele Naspetti March-Ilmor 17 Engine 24 27 Jean Alesi Ferrari 12 Fuel system 3 28 Ivan Capelli Ferrari 12 Electrical/Spun off 7 24 Gianni Morbidelli Minardi-Lamborghini 12 Engine 12 29 Bertrand Gachot Venturi-Lamborghini 11 Engine 10 11 Mika Häkkinen Lotus-Ford 5 Engine 11 10 Aguri Suzuki Footwork-Mugen-Honda 2 Suspension 19 14 Eric van de Poele Fondmetal-Ford 0 Clutch 25 23 Christian Fittipaldi Minardi-Lamborghini 32 Stefano Modena Jordan-Yamaha
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings PosDriverPoints 1 Nigel Mansell 98 1 2 Michael Schumacher 47 1 3 Ayrton Senna 46 2 4 Riccardo Patrese 46 5 Gerhard Berger 27Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Williams-Renault 144 2 Benetton-Ford 74 3 McLaren-Honda 73 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.
References