1992 Italian Grand Prix

The 1992 Italian Grand Prix (formally the Pioneer 63º Gran Premio d'Italia[1]) 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.

1992 Italian Grand Prix
Race 13 of 16 in the 1992 Formula One World Championship
Race details
Date 13 September 1992
Official name Pioneer 63º Gran Premio d'Italia
Location Autodromo Nazionale di Monza
Monza, Lombardy, Italy
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 5.800 km (3.604 miles)
Distance 53 laps, 307.400 km (191.01 miles)
Weather Sunny and warm
Pole position
Driver Williams-Renault
Time 1:22.221
Fastest lap
Driver United Kingdom Nigel Mansell Williams-Renault
Time 1:26.119 on lap 39
Podium
First McLaren-Honda
Second Benetton-Ford
Third Benetton-Ford
Lap leaders

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

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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.[2] The team arrived at Monza but were refused entry.[3] 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 1993, 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 had had a difficult partnership at Ferrari in 1990.

Qualifying

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Qualifying report

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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.[2]

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.[2]

Qualifying classification

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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:[4][5][6]

Race

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Race report

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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.[7]

Race classification

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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
Ret 33   Maurício Gugelmin Jordan-Yamaha 46 Transmission 26
Ret 5   Nigel Mansell Williams-Renault 41 Electrical 1
Ret 25   Thierry Boutsen Ligier-Renault 41 Throttle 8
Ret 26   Érik Comas Ligier-Renault 35 Spun off 15
Ret 15   Gabriele Tarquini Fondmetal-Ford 30 Gearbox 20
Ret 3   Olivier Grouillard Tyrrell-Ilmor 26 Engine 18
Ret 12   Johnny Herbert Lotus-Ford 18 Engine 13
Ret 17   Emanuele Naspetti March-Ilmor 17 Engine 24
Ret 27   Jean Alesi Ferrari 12 Fuel system 3
Ret 28   Ivan Capelli Ferrari 12 Electrical/Spun off 7
Ret 24   Gianni Morbidelli Minardi-Lamborghini 12 Engine 12
Ret 29   Bertrand Gachot Venturi-Lamborghini 11 Engine 10
Ret 11   Mika Häkkinen Lotus-Ford 5 Engine 11
Ret 10   Aguri Suzuki Footwork-Mugen-Honda 2 Suspension 19
Ret 14   Eric van de Poele Fondmetal-Ford 0 Clutch 25
DNQ 23   Christian Fittipaldi Minardi-Lamborghini
DNQ 32   Stefano Modena Jordan-Yamaha
Source:[8]

Championship standings after the race

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  • Bold text indicates the World Champions.
  • Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

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  1. ^ "Motor Racing Programme Covers: 1992". The Programme Covers Project. Retrieved 12 November 2017.
  2. ^ a b c Walker, Murray (1992). Murray Walker's 1992 Grand Prix Year. Hazleton Publishing. pp. 111–118. ISBN 0-905138-99-6.
  3. ^ Campbell, Shaun (January 1998). "Perry McCarthy: The worst car I ever drove". Motor Sport. Vol. LXXIV, no. 1. pp. 86–87. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  4. ^ "Pioneer Italian Grand Prix – Qualifying 1". Formula1.com. Retrieved 5 January 2024.
  5. ^ "Pioneer Italian Grand Prix – Qualifying 2". Formula1.com. Retrieved 5 January 2024.
  6. ^ "1992 Italian Grand Prix Classification Qualifying". Motorsport Stats. Retrieved 5 January 2024.
  7. ^ Tremayne, David (October 1992). "1992 Italian Grand Prix: A weekend of surprises". Motor Sport. Vol. LXVIII, no. 10. pp. 926–932. Retrieved 9 November 2020.
  8. ^ "1992 Italian Grand Prix". formula1.com. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
  9. ^ a b "Italy 1992 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 18 March 2019.


Previous race:
1992 Belgian Grand Prix
FIA Formula One World Championship
1992 season
Next race:
1992 Portuguese Grand Prix
Previous race:
1991 Italian Grand Prix
Italian Grand Prix Next race:
1993 Italian Grand Prix