The 1992 Australian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Adelaide on 8 November 1992. It was the sixteenth and final race of the 1992 Formula One World Championship.
The 81-lap race was won by Austrian driver Gerhard Berger, driving a McLaren-Honda. Berger won by 0.7 seconds from German Michael Schumacher in a Benetton-Ford, with Schumacher's British teammate Martin Brundle third. Nigel Mansell, in what was intended to be his final Formula One race before his move to IndyCars for 1993, took pole position in his Williams-Renault and led until Brazilian Ayrton Senna, in the other McLaren-Honda, collided with him while attempting to overtake him, eliminating them both.
Brundle (who spent 1993 with Ligier), Berger (who returned to Ferrari) and Riccardo Patrese (who joined Benetton) were among the many drivers for whom this was the final race with their current teams, while for Jan Lammers, Stefano Modena, Maurício Gugelmin and Olivier Grouillard it was the last Grand Prix of their careers.
This was McLaren's final race using Honda engines until 2015. The company ceased their full factory involvement in the sport following this race, although the Mugen arm of the company continued. They returned in as engine supplier to BAR.
This Grand Prix would also be the last Grand Prix for the March F1 team.
Qualifying Qualifying report Nigel Mansell took pole position in his Williams-Renault by nearly half a second from Ayrton Senna in the McLaren-Honda. It was Mansell's 14th pole position of the season, surpassing the 13 achieved by Senna in both and . Their respective teammates, Riccardo Patrese and Gerhard Berger, were third and fourth, followed by Michael Schumacher in the Benetton and Jean Alesi in the Ferrari. Completing the top ten were Andrea de Cesaris in the Tyrrell, Martin Brundle in the second Benetton, Érik Comas in the Ligier and Mika Häkkinen in the Lotus.
Qualifying classification Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap 1 5 Nigel Mansell Williams-Renault 1:13.732 1:15.133 2 1 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 1:14.202 1:14.416 +0.470 3 6 Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault 1:14.370 1:15.895 +0.638 4 2 Gerhard Berger McLaren-Honda 1:15.114 1:15.688 +1.382 5 19 Michael Schumacher Benetton-Ford 1:15.210 1:16.613 +1.478 6 27 Jean Alesi Ferrari 1:16.091 1:17.213 +2.359 7 4 Andrea de Cesaris Tyrrell-Ilmor 1:16.440 1:17.333 +2.708 8 20 Martin Brundle Benetton-Ford 1:16.562 1:17.674 +2.830 9 26 Érik Comas Ligier-Renault 1:16.727 1:17.856 +2.995 10 11 Mika Häkkinen Lotus-Ford 1:16.863 1:17.868 +3.131 11 9 Michele Alboreto Footwork-Mugen-Honda 1:16.937 1:17.621 +3.205 12 12 Johnny Herbert Lotus-Ford 1:16.944 1:18.099 +3.212 13 3 Olivier Grouillard Tyrrell-Ilmor 1:17.037 1:19.017 +3.305 14 22 Pierluigi Martini Dallara-Ferrari 1:17.047 1:18.043 +3.315 15 32 Stefano Modena Jordan-Yamaha 1:17.231 1:18.790 +3.499 16 24 Gianni Morbidelli Minardi-Lamborghini 1:17.333 1:19.661 +3.601 17 23 Christian Fittipaldi Minardi-Lamborghini 1:17.367 1:19.441 +3.635 18 10 Aguri Suzuki Footwork-Mugen-Honda 1:17.409 1:19.589 +3.677 19 28 Nicola Larini Ferrari 1:17.465 1:18.618 +3.733 20 33 Maurício Gugelmin Jordan-Yamaha 1:17.805 1:19.735 +4.073 21 29 Bertrand Gachot Venturi-Lamborghini 1:17.808 1:18.477 +4.076 22 25 Thierry Boutsen Ligier-Renault 1:17.957 1:17.976 +4.225 23 17 Emanuele Naspetti March-Ilmor 4:23.313 1:18.099 +4.367 24 21 JJ Lehto Dallara-Ferrari 1:18.565 1:18.891 +4.833 25 16 Jan Lammers March-Ilmor 3:10.720 1:18.843 +5.111 26 30 Ukyo Katayama Venturi-Lamborghini 1:18.862 1:20.306 +5.130Source:
Race Race report Nicola Larini started this race from the back of the grid. A first-lap collision between the Tyrrell of Olivier Grouillard and the Dallara of Pierluigi Martini had eliminated both drivers on the same lap. The order of the top six at the end of the first lap was Mansell, Senna, Patrese, Berger, Schumacher and Alesi. Mansell as usual was unable to pull away, whilst Senna in second tried his hardest to pass the Williams on lap 8, but was unable to do so. Gugelmin for the second race running had spun out and crashed by lap 9.
Senna ran wide and allowed Mansell to retain the lead. The order of the top two remained the same until lap 19 when they collided at the Mistral hairpin; Senna attempted to overtake Mansell but crashed into the rear of the Williams (eliminating both drivers). This allowed Riccardo Patrese to take the lead from lap 20 in the remaining Williams, but was under enormous pressure from Gerhard Berger who was a close second. Berger, like Senna, attempted to pass the Williams on the outside but ran wide. Berger pitted for fresh tyres on lap 35, as did Michael Schumacher in the leading Benetton five laps later; the German rejoined four seconds behind Berger.
Martin Brundle was able to pass Jean Alesi in the leading Ferrari for third during their pit-stops. Patrese led by 20 seconds over Berger by the end of lap 50 until his engine failed on the next lap. Thus allowing Berger to take the lead and hold on to the lead for the remaining 31 laps and took the eighth victory of his career ahead of a hard-charging Schumacher by less than a second. The order of the top six was Berger winning ahead of, Michael Schumacher, Brundle, Alesi, Thierry Boutsen and Stefano Modena in the Jordan.
Jordan scored their only point of the season with Stefano Modena, while Thierry Boutsen (who won here in 1989) scored his only 1992 season points, and the last points of his career. Benetton's double podium finish ensured that they scored points in every round, as Benetton were the first team to score points in every round of a season since Lotus in 1963.
Race classification Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 2 Gerhard Berger McLaren-Honda 81 1:46:54.786 4 10 2 19 Michael Schumacher Benetton-Ford 81 + 0.741 5 6 3 20 Martin Brundle Benetton-Ford 81 + 54.156 8 4 4 27 Jean Alesi Ferrari 80 + 1 lap 6 3 5 25 Thierry Boutsen Ligier-Renault 80 + 1 lap 22 2 6 32 Stefano Modena Jordan-Yamaha 80 + 1 lap 15 1 7 11 Mika Häkkinen Lotus-Ford 80 + 1 lap 10 8 10 Aguri Suzuki Footwork-Mugen-Honda 79 + 2 laps 18 9 23 Christian Fittipaldi Minardi-Lamborghini 79 + 2 laps 17 10 24 Gianni Morbidelli Minardi-Lamborghini 79 + 2 laps 16 11 28 Nicola Larini Ferrari 79 + 2 laps 19 12 16 Jan Lammers March-Ilmor 78 + 3 laps 25 13 12 Johnny Herbert Lotus-Ford 77 + 4 laps 12 21 JJ Lehto Dallara-Ferrari 70 Gearbox 24 17 Emanuele Naspetti March-Ilmor 55 Gearbox 23 29 Bertrand Gachot Venturi-Lamborghini 51 Fuel system 21 6 Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault 50 Engine 3 30 Ukyo Katayama Venturi-Lamborghini 35 Differential 26 4 Andrea de Cesaris Tyrrell-Ilmor 29 Engine 7 5 Nigel Mansell Williams-Renault 18 Collision 1 1 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 18 Collision 2 33 Maurício Gugelmin Jordan-Yamaha 7 Spun off 20 26 Érik Comas Ligier-Renault 4 Engine 9 9 Michele Alboreto Footwork-Mugen-Honda 0 Engine 11 22 Pierluigi Martini Dallara-Ferrari 0 Accident 14 3 Olivier Grouillard Tyrrell-Ilmor 0 Accident 13
Final championship standings
Drivers' Championship standings PosDriverPoints 1 Nigel Mansell 108 2 Riccardo Patrese 56 1 3 Michael Schumacher 53 1 4 Ayrton Senna 50 5 Gerhard Berger 49Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Williams-Renault 164 2 McLaren-Honda 99 3 Benetton-Ford 91 4 Ferrari 21 5 Lotus-Ford 13Source:
Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. Bold text indicates the 1992 World Champions.
References