1992 British Grand Prix

1992 British Grand Prix
Race 9 of 16 in the 1992 Formula One World Championship
Race details
Date	12 July 1992
Location	Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone, Northamptonshire, Great Britain
Course	Permanent race track
Course length	5.226 km (3.260 miles)
Distance	59 laps, 308.334 km (192.348 miles)
Weather	Dry
Pole position
Driver	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Renault
Time	1:18.965
Fastest lap
Driver	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Renault
Time	1:22.539 on lap 57
Podium
First	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Renault
Second	Riccardo Patrese	Williams-Renault
Third	Martin Brundle	Benetton-Ford
Lap leaders

The 1992 British Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 12 July 1992 at Silverstone, Northamptonshire. It was the ninth round of the 1992 Formula One World Championship. The 59-lap race was won by Nigel Mansell for the Williams-Renault team, the Englishman also starting from pole position, leading every lap and setting the fastest lap of the race. Riccardo Patrese finished second in the other Williams car, with Martin Brundle third in a Benetton-Ford.

After Mansell won his home Grand Prix, the British spectators invaded the race track to congratulate their hero. Mansell's car was blocked by the crowd, preventing him from driving back to the pits. Eventually Mansell was returned to the pits by track marshals to attend the podium ceremony. The win was the 28th of Mansell's career, thus making him the most successful British Formula One driver of all time in terms of wins (surpassing Jackie Stewart's 27).

Future World Champion Damon Hill made his first start, for the Brabham team. Two further future champions, Michael Schumacher and Mika Häkkinen, scored points.

Qualifying

Pre-qualifying report

The Friday morning pre-qualifying pool was slightly changed at this Grand Prix, the mid-point of the season. Footwork driver Michele Alboreto was relieved of the necessity to pre-qualify, and was replaced in the pool by Gabriele Tarquini of Fondmetal. Thus both Fondmetal drivers were now required to pre-qualify, alongside the two Larrousse drivers and the two Andrea Moda drivers.

The session itself followed the usual pattern for this season, with the two Andrea Moda cars being the ones to drop out at this stage. Bertrand Gachot was comfortably fastest for Larrousse, with Tarquini over 2.7 seconds slower in second. Gachot's team-mate Ukyo Katayama was third, 1.4 seconds ahead of the final pre-qualifier, Andrea Chiesa, who was using the older Fondmetal GR01 after driving, and writing off, the new GR02 at the last race.

The Andrea Moda team had arrived at the circuit, unlike the previous event in France, and had engines with them, unlike the prior event in Canada. With the first part of the session taking place in damp conditions, Perry McCarthy was held in the pits by his team until the track was almost dry. However, he was then sent out with his team-mate Roberto Moreno's used wet tyres on his car, and managed only one timed lap before his clutch failed. Despite McCarthy setting a time fast enough to pre-qualify at that stage, all the other entrants subsequently took advantage of the drying track and went much faster. However, Moreno was still unable to match Chiesa's time, finishing fifth in the session, over 1.6 seconds slower than the Fondmetal.

Pre-qualifying classification

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Time	Gap
1	29	Bertrand Gachot	Venturi-Lamborghini	1:24.650	—
2	15	Gabriele Tarquini	Fondmetal-Ford	1:27.378	+2.728
3	30	Ukyo Katayama	Venturi-Lamborghini	1:27:560	+2.910
4	14	Andrea Chiesa	Fondmetal-Ford	1:28.965	+4.315
5	34	Roberto Moreno	Andrea Moda-Judd	1:30.592	+5.942
6	35	Perry McCarthy	Andrea Moda-Judd	1:46.719	+22.069

Qualifying report

Nigel Mansell dominated qualifying, taking his eighth pole position of the year by nearly two seconds from Williams teammate Riccardo Patrese with a further 0.8 seconds back to Ayrton Senna's McLaren in third. Alongside Senna on the second row was Michael Schumacher in the Benetton, with their respective teammates Gerhard Berger and Martin Brundle on the third row. Johnny Herbert was seventh in his Lotus, ahead of Jean Alesi's Ferrari, with Mika Häkkinen in the other Lotus and Érik Comas in the Ligier completing the top ten. Damon Hill qualified for the first time, taking the 26th and last slot in his Brabham.

Qualifying classification

Mika Häkkinen finished sixth in his Lotus 107.

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Q1 Time	Q2 Time	Gap
1	5	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Renault	1:18.965	1:35.990	Pole
2	6	Riccardo Patrese	Williams-Renault	1:20.884	1:38.185	+1.919
3	1	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda	1:21.706	1:41.912	+2.741
4	19	Michael Schumacher	Benetton-Ford	1:22.066	1:41.227	+3.101
5	2	Gerhard Berger	McLaren-Honda	1:22.296	1:41.311	+3.331
6	20	Martin Brundle	Benetton-Ford	1:23.489	1:40.781	+4.524
7	12	Johnny Herbert	Lotus-Ford	1:23.605	1:42.124	+4.640
8	27	Jean Alesi	Ferrari	1:23.723	1:39.961	+4.758
9	11	Mika Häkkinen	Lotus-Ford	1:23.813	1:42.815	+4.848
10	26	Érik Comas	Ligier-Renault	1:23.957	no time	+4.992
11	29	Bertrand Gachot	Venturi-Lamborghini	1:24.065	1:45.881	+5.100
12	9	Michele Alboreto	Footwork-Mugen-Honda	1:24.198	1:41.504	+5.233
13	25	Thierry Boutsen	Ligier-Renault	1:24.545	1:45.659	+5.580
14	28	Ivan Capelli	Ferrari	1:24.558	1:41.734	+5.593
15	15	Gabriele Tarquini	Fondmetal-Ford	1:24.761	1:49.639	+5.796
16	30	Ukyo Katayama	Venturi-Lamborghini	1:24.851	1:46.644	+5.886
17	10	Aguri Suzuki	Footwork- Mugen-Honda	1:24.924	1:43.215	+5.959
18	4	Andrea de Cesaris	Tyrrell-Ilmor	1:24.984	1:42.160	+6.019
19	21	JJ Lehto	Dallara-Ferrari	1:25.037	1:40.867	+6.072
20	3	Olivier Grouillard	Tyrrell-Ilmor	1:25.096	1:41.221	+6.131
21	16	Karl Wendlinger	March-Ilmor	1:25.123	no time	+6.131
22	22	Pierluigi Martini	Dallara-Ferrari	1:25.221	1:46.295	+6.256
23	32	Stefano Modena	Jordan-Yamaha	1:25.362	1:42.104	+6.397
24	33	Maurício Gugelmin	Jordan-Yamaha	1:25.988	no time	+7.023
25	24	Gianni Morbidelli	Minardi-Lamborghini	1:25.998	1:43.981	+7.033
26	8	Damon Hill	Brabham-Judd	1:26.378	1:45.272	+7.413
27	23	Alessandro Zanardi	Minardi-Lamborghini	1:26.458	no time	+7.493
28	17	Paul Belmondo	March-Ilmor	1:27.995	no time	+9.030
29	14	Andrea Chiesa	Fondmetal-Ford	1:28.452	no time	+9.487
30	7	Eric van de Poele	Brabham-Judd	1:28.719	no time	+9.754

Race

Race report

Though Patrese led at the first corner, Mansell soon re-passed his teammate and pulled away from the rest of the field, eventually winning by 39 seconds. Johnny Herbert became the first of the leaders to retire from 6th position in the leading Lotus by the pit wall with transmission problems on lap 32. Jean Alesi in the leading Ferrari eventually went off the track with mechanical problems by lap 44. Brundle made a fast start to run third, battling with his old Formula 3 rival Senna until the Brazilian suffered a transmission failure seven laps from the end. Brundle eventually finished nine seconds behind Patrese and five ahead of teammate Schumacher, who had lost time following a collision with the Jordan of Stefano Modena when he was trying to lap him. Berger finished just behind Schumacher despite an engine problem in the closing stages, while Häkkinen took the final point for sixth. Hill finished 16th, four laps behind Mansell; he and other drivers were still circulating when the spectators invaded the track to celebrate Mansell's win.

The win, Mansell's seventh of the season, moved him to 76 points in the Drivers' Championship, with Patrese on 40 and Schumacher on 29. In the Constructors' Championship, Williams had 116 points, with Benetton a distant second on 42 and McLaren on 38.

Race classification

Fans invading the track at Copse Corner following Nigel Mansell's victory.

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	5	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Renault	59	1:25:42.991	1	10
2	6	Riccardo Patrese	Williams-Renault	59	+ 39.094	2	6
3	20	Martin Brundle	Benetton-Ford	59	+ 48.395	6	4
4	19	Michael Schumacher	Benetton-Ford	59	+ 53.267	4	3
5	2	Gerhard Berger	McLaren-Honda	59	+ 55.795	5	2
6	11	Mika Häkkinen	Lotus-Ford	59	+ 1:20.138	9	1
7	9	Michele Alboreto	Footwork-Mugen-Honda	58	+ 1 lap	12
8	26	Érik Comas	Ligier-Renault	58	+ 1 lap	10
9	28	Ivan Capelli	Ferrari	58	+ 1 lap	14
10	25	Thierry Boutsen	Ligier-Renault	57	+ 2 laps	13
11	3	Olivier Grouillard	Tyrrell-Ilmor	57	+ 2 laps	20
12	10	Aguri Suzuki	Footwork-Mugen-Honda	57	+ 2 laps	17
13	21	JJ Lehto	Dallara-Ferrari	57	+ 2 laps	19
14	15	Gabriele Tarquini	Fondmetal-Ford	57	+ 2 laps	15
15	22	Pierluigi Martini	Dallara-Ferrari	56	+ 3 laps	22
16	8	Damon Hill	Brabham-Judd	55	+ 4 laps	26
17	24	Gianni Morbidelli	Minardi-Lamborghini	53	Engine	25
Ret	1	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda	52	Transmission	3
Ret	4	Andrea de Cesaris	Tyrrell-Ilmor	46	Spun off	18
Ret	27	Jean Alesi	Ferrari	43	Fire extinguisher	8
Ret	32	Stefano Modena	Jordan-Yamaha	43	Engine	23
Ret	33	Maurício Gugelmin	Jordan-Yamaha	37	Engine	24
Ret	29	Bertrand Gachot	Venturi-Lamborghini	32	Wheel	11
Ret	12	Johnny Herbert	Lotus-Ford	31	Transmission	7
Ret	16	Karl Wendlinger	March-Ilmor	27	Gearbox	21
Ret	30	Ukyo Katayama	Venturi-Lamborghini	27	Transmission	16
DNQ	23	Alessandro Zanardi	Minardi-Lamborghini
DNQ	17	Paul Belmondo	March-Ilmor
DNQ	14	Andrea Chiesa	Fondmetal-Ford
DNQ	7	Eric van de Poele	Brabham-Judd
DNPQ	34	Roberto Moreno	Andrea Moda-Judd
DNPQ	35	Perry McCarthy	Andrea Moda-Judd
Source:

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Nigel Mansell	76
2	Riccardo Patrese	40
3	Michael Schumacher	29
4	Gerhard Berger	20
5	Ayrton Senna	18
Source:

Constructors' Championship standings

Pos	Constructor	Points
1	Williams-Renault	116
2	Benetton-Ford	42
3	McLaren-Honda	38
4	Ferrari	13
5	Lotus-Ford	7
Source:

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

• Henry, Alan (1992). AUTOCOURSE 1992–93. Hazleton Publishing. ISBN 0-905138-96-1.