1992 Portuguese Grand Prix
Race 14 of 16 in the 1992 Formula One World Championship
Race details
Date 27 September 1992
Official name XXI Grande Premio SG Gigante de Portugal
Location Autódromo do Estoril, Estoril, Portugal
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 4.349 km (2.703 miles)
Distance 71 laps, 308.779 km (191.913 miles)
Weather Dry, sunny, windy
Pole position
Driver
Williams-Renault
Time 1:13.041
Fastest lap
Driver Brazil Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda
Time 1:16.272 on lap 66
Podium
First
Williams-Renault
Second
McLaren-Honda
Third
McLaren-Honda
Lap leaders

The 1992 Portuguese Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Autódromo do Estoril on 27 September 1992. It was the fourteenth race of the 1992 Formula One World Championship.

The 71-lap race was won from pole position by Briton Nigel Mansell, driving a Williams-Renault. In the process, Mansell set new records for the most wins (nine) and the most points (108) in one season. McLaren-Honda drivers, Austrian Gerhard Berger and Brazilian Ayrton Senna, finished second and third respectively.

Pre-race

The Fondmetal team did not arrive in Estoril for the race, suffering financial problems. Team boss Gabriele Rumi attempted to bring in paydriver Giuseppe Bugatti to help ease the team's cashflow problems but this was not enough to allow the team to race.[1] Although they hoped at the time to return for the final two races of the season in Japan and Australia, they ultimately proved unable to do so. This was the third race in succession where a team exited Formula One, after Brabham and Andrea Moda at the previous two races. Brabham had also hoped to return as the team was put up for sale, but before this weekend their full withdrawal was announced.[2]

Fondmetal's absence meant that there were only 26 cars on the entry list, so this Grand Prix was the first since 1987 in which all cars automatically qualified for the race, regardless of qualifying lap times.

Qualifying

Qualifying report

The top six on the grid lined up in pairs, with the Williams, McLaren and Benetton drivers occupying the first three rows. Nigel Mansell took pole from Riccardo Patrese, with Ayrton Senna, Gerhard Berger, Michael Schumacher and Martin Brundle lining up behind.[2]

Qualifying classification

PosNoDriverConstructorQ1Q2Gap
1 5 United Kingdom Nigel Mansell Williams-Renault 1:13.041 1:13.961
2 6 Italy Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault 1:13.672 1:14.305 +0.631
3 1 Brazil Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 1:15.343 1:14.258 +1.217
4 2 Austria Gerhard Berger McLaren-Honda 1:15.117 1:15.068 +2.027
5 19 Germany Michael Schumacher Benetton-Ford 1:15.356 1:15.890 +2.315
6 20 United Kingdom Martin Brundle Benetton-Ford 1:16.796 1:16.084 +3.043
7 11 Finland Mika Häkkinen Lotus-Ford 1:16.173 1:16.213 +3.132
8 9 Italy Michele Alboreto Footwork-Mugen-Honda 1:16.282 1:17.109 +3.241
9 12 United Kingdom Johnny Herbert Lotus-Ford 1:16.755 1:16.628 +3.587
10 27 France Jean Alesi Ferrari 1:16.937 1:16.884 +3.843
11 25 Belgium Thierry Boutsen Ligier-Renault 1:17.332 1:16.930 +3.889
12 4 Italy Andrea de Cesaris Tyrrell-Ilmor 1:17.356 1:17.240 +4.199
13 29 France Bertrand Gachot Venturi-Lamborghini 1:17.624 1:17.250 +4.209
14 26 France Érik Comas Ligier-Renault 1:17.384 1:17.264 +4.223
15 3 France Olivier Grouillard Tyrrell-Ilmor 1:17.512 1:17.277 +4.236
16 28 Italy Ivan Capelli Ferrari 1:18.030 1:17.287 +4.246
17 10 Japan Aguri Suzuki Footwork-Mugen-Honda 1:17.361 1:17.675 +4.320
18 24 Italy Gianni Morbidelli Minardi-Lamborghini 1:17.973 1:17.387 +4.346
19 21 Finland JJ Lehto Dallara-Ferrari 1:17.847 1:17.474 +4.433
20 33 Brazil Maurício Gugelmin Jordan-Yamaha 1:17.949 1:17.631 +4.590
21 22 Italy Pierluigi Martini Dallara-Ferrari 1:17.661 1:18.676 +4.620
22 16 Austria Karl Wendlinger March-Ilmor 1:18.060 1:18.445 +5.019
23 17 Italy Emanuele Naspetti March-Ilmor 1:18.092 1:18.531 +5.051
24 32 Italy Stefano Modena Jordan-Yamaha 1:18.318 1:19.314 +5.277
25 30 Japan Ukyo Katayama Venturi-Lamborghini 1:36.224 1:18.592 +5.551
26 23 Brazil Christian Fittipaldi Minardi-Lamborghini 1:18.615 1:18.823 +5.574
Source:[3][4][5]

Race

Race report

The race is often remembered for the accident between Berger and Mansell's Williams team-mate Riccardo Patrese. Intending to make a pit stop, Berger moved towards the right side of the track at the beginning of the start/finish straight, with Patrese following in his slipstream. Failing to realise Berger's intentions, Patrese swerved to avoid him, but his right front wheel hit Berger's left rear and the Williams was launched into the air, almost hitting a pedestrian bridge over the track. Patrese escaped the accident shaken but unhurt, and neither driver was punished by the stewards. The debris from the crash, however, caused numerous other incidents, with Michael Schumacher and Pierluigi Martini suffering punctures, and JJ Lehto suffering slight injury as the driveshaft of the Williams went through the undertray of his Dallara, hitting him on the leg and eventually being forced to retire after 51 laps.

This race was the last time a Honda-powered car set the fastest lap until Fernando Alonso repeated the achievement in the 2016 Italian Grand Prix, and the last time McLaren would score a double points result with Honda engines until the 2015 Hungarian Grand Prix.

Race classification

PosNoDriverConstructorLapsTime/RetiredGridPoints
1 5 United Kingdom Nigel Mansell Williams-Renault 71 1:34:46.659 1 10
2 2 Austria Gerhard Berger McLaren-Honda 71 + 37.533 4 6
3 1 Brazil Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 70 + 1 lap 3 4
4 20 United Kingdom Martin Brundle Benetton-Ford 70 + 1 lap 6 3
5 11 Finland Mika Häkkinen Lotus-Ford 70 + 1 lap 7 2
6 9 Italy Michele Alboreto Footwork-Mugen-Honda 70 + 1 lap 8 1
7 19 Germany Michael Schumacher Benetton-Ford 69 + 2 laps 5
8 25 Belgium Thierry Boutsen Ligier-Renault 69 + 2 laps 11
9 4 Italy Andrea de Cesaris Tyrrell-Ilmor 69 + 2 laps 12
10 10 Japan Aguri Suzuki Footwork-Mugen-Honda 68 + 3 laps 17
11 17 Italy Emanuele Naspetti March-Ilmor 68 + 3 laps 23
12 23 Brazil Christian Fittipaldi Minardi-Lamborghini 68 + 3 laps 26
13 32 Italy Stefano Modena Jordan-Yamaha 68 + 3 laps 24
14 24 Italy Gianni Morbidelli Minardi-Lamborghini 68 + 3 laps 18
Ret 21 Finland JJ Lehto Dallara-Ferrari 51 Physical 19
Ret 16 Austria Karl Wendlinger March-Ilmor 48 Gearbox 22
Ret 26 France Érik Comas Ligier-Renault 47 Engine 14
Ret 30 Japan Ukyo Katayama Venturi-Lamborghini 46 Spun off 25
Ret 6 Italy Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault 43 Collision 2
Ret 22 Italy Pierluigi Martini Dallara-Ferrari 43 Puncture 21
Ret 28 Italy Ivan Capelli Ferrari 34 Engine 16
Ret 3 France Olivier Grouillard Tyrrell-Ilmor 27 Gearbox 15
Ret 29 France Bertrand Gachot Venturi-Lamborghini 25 Engine 13
Ret 33 Brazil Maurício Gugelmin Jordan-Yamaha 19 Electrical 20
Ret 27 France Jean Alesi Ferrari 12 Spun off 10
Ret 12 United Kingdom Johnny Herbert Lotus-Ford 2 Accident 9
Source:[6]

Championship standings after the race

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

References

  1. ↑ "Giuseppe Bugatti". Old Racing Cars. 12 December 2014. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
  2. 1 2 Walker, Murray (1992). Murray Walker's 1992 Grand Prix Year. Hazleton Publishing. pp. 117–124. ISBN 0-905138-99-6.
  3. ↑ "SG Gigante Portuguese Grand Prix - QUALIFYING 1". formula1.com. Retrieved 14 September 2017.
  4. ↑ "SG Gigante Portuguese Grand Prix - QUALIFYING 2". formula1.com. Retrieved 14 September 2017.
  5. ↑ "SG Gigante Portuguese Grand Prix - OVERALL QUALIFYING". formula1.com. Retrieved 14 September 2017.
  6. ↑ "1992 Portuguese Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 3 November 2014. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  7. 1 2 "Portugal 1992 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 20 March 2019.
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