1992 Spanish Grand Prix

Date 3 May 1992

Official name Gran Premio Tío Pepe de España

Location Circuit de Catalunya, Montmeló, Catalonia, Spain^[1]

Course Permanent racing facility

1992 Spanish Grand Prix
Race 4 of 16 in the 1992 Formula One World Championship

Race details
Date	3 May 1992
Official name	Gran Premio Tío Pepe de España
Location	Circuit de Catalunya, Montmeló, Catalonia, Spain^[1]
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	4.747 km (2.950 miles)
Distance	65 laps, 308.555 km (191.727 miles)
Weather	Dry at start, wet later
Attendance	28,000
Pole position
Driver	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Renault
Time	1:20.190
Fastest lap
Driver	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Renault
Time	1:42.503 on lap 10
Podium
First	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Renault
Second	Michael Schumacher	Benetton-Ford
Third	Jean Alesi	Ferrari
Lap leaders

The 1992 Spanish Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 3 May 1992 at the Circuit de Catalunya, Montmeló. The 65-lap race was the fourth round of the 1992 Formula One World Championship and was won by Nigel Mansell driving a Williams-Renault and scoring the third grand chelem of his career.

The race was also advertised as the Grand Prix of the Olympic Games. The race was moved up from its former September date, and held just months before the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.

Pre-qualifying report

The Friday morning pre-qualifying session was a similar story to the previous session in Brazil. The Andrea Moda cars were well behind the performance of the other entrants in the session, who all pre-qualified easily. Perry McCarthy had regained his Super Licence so was able to compete for the team alongside Roberto Moreno. Team boss Andrea Sassetti had been approached by Enrico Bertaggia, whom Sassetti had sacked after the Mexican Grand Prix, but who now wanted to return to the team with $1 million in sponsorship. Sassetti wanted to fire McCarthy and rehire Bertaggia, but was told that the team had already reached its maximum number of driver changes for the season, so was forced to retain McCarthy.^[2]^[3]

In the session itself, Bertrand Gachot was again fastest for Larrousse, less than a tenth of a second faster than Michele Alboreto in the Footwork. Third was Gachot's team-mate Ukyo Katayama, 1.4 seconds ahead of the last pre-qualifier, Andrea Chiesa in the Fondmetal.

McCarthy took to the track for Andrea Moda, but his engine cut out just four metres after the pitlane exit line.^[2]^[4] Moreno managed three laps in his car before it also suffered an engine failure. McCarthy's car was brought back for Moreno to use, but the Brazilian was still unable to pre-qualify.^[4]

Pre-qualifying classification

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Time	Gap
1	29	Bertrand Gachot	Venturi-Lamborghini	1:26.032	—
2	9	Michele Alboreto	Footwork-Mugen-Honda	1:26.120	+0.088
3	30	Ukyo Katayama	Venturi-Lamborghini	1:26.484	+0.452
4	14	Andrea Chiesa	Fondmetal-Ford	1:27.902	+1.870
5	34	Roberto Moreno	Andrea Moda-Judd	1:37.155	+11.123
6	35	Perry McCarthy	Andrea Moda-Judd	no time	—

Qualifying report

Damon Hill, son of former world champion Graham Hill, made his debut with Brabham, replacing Giovanna Amati who was dismissed from the team, but did not qualify for the race. As in the three previous races, Mansell qualified in pole position, ahead of Michael Schumacher, Ayrton Senna, Riccardo Patrese, Ivan Capelli and Martin Brundle.

Qualifying classification

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Gap
1	5	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Renault	1:20.190	1:46.737
2	19	Michael Schumacher	Benetton-Ford	1:21.195	No time	+1.005
3	1	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda	1:21.209	1:46.581	+1.019
4	6	Riccardo Patrese	Williams-Renault	1:21.534	No time	+1.344
5	28	Ivan Capelli	Ferrari	1:22.413	1:52.319	+2.223
6	20	Martin Brundle	Benetton-Ford	1:22.529	No time	+2.339
7	2	Gerhard Berger	McLaren-Honda	1:22.711	1:46.062	+2.521
8	27	Jean Alesi	Ferrari	1:22.746	1:45.903	+2.556
9	16	Karl Wendlinger	March-Ilmor	1:23.121	No time	+2.931
10	26	Érik Comas	Ligier-Renault	1:23.593	1:50.914	+3.403
11	4	Andrea de Cesaris	Tyrrell-Ilmor	1:23.723	1:49.847	+3.533
12	21	JJ Lehto	Dallara-Ferrari	1:24.054	1:54.117	+3.864
13	22	Pierluigi Martini	Dallara-Ferrari	1:24.236	1:54.590	+4.046
14	25	Thierry Boutsen	Ligier-Renault	1:24.583	1:56.313	+4.393
15	3	Olivier Grouillard	Tyrrell-Ilmor	1:24.608	1:51.606	+4.418
16	9	Michele Alboreto	Footwork-Mugen-Honda	1:24.634	1:48.366	+4.444
17	33	Maurício Gugelmin	Jordan-Yamaha	1:24.671	1:50.598	+4.481
18	15	Gabriele Tarquini	Fondmetal-Ford	1:24.800	1:57.115	+4.610
19	10	Aguri Suzuki	Footwork-Mugen-Honda	1:24.940	No time	+4.750
20	14	Andrea Chiesa	Fondmetal-Ford	1:24.963	No time	+4.773
21	11	Mika Häkkinen	Lotus-Ford	1:25.202	No time	+5.012
22	23	Christian Fittipaldi	Minardi-Lamborghini	1:25.315	1:54.122	+5.125
23	17	Paul Belmondo	March-Ilmor	1:25.467	No time	+5.277
24	29	Bertrand Gachot	Venturi-Lamborghini	1:25.700	1:54.108	+5.510
25	24	Gianni Morbidelli	Minardi-Lamborghini	1:25.786	1:58.389	+5.596
26	12	Johnny Herbert	Lotus-Ford	1:25.786	No time	+5.596
27	30	Ukyo Katayama	Venturi-Lamborghini	1:25.932	No time	+5.742
28	7	Eric van de Poele	Brabham-Judd	1:26.880	3:23.215	+6.690
29	32	Stefano Modena	Jordan-Yamaha	1:27.480	1:54.443	+7.290
30	8	Damon Hill	Brabham-Judd	1:27.763	No time	+7.573
Sources:^[5]^[6]^[7]

Race

Race report

At the start of the race, in damp conditions, Patrese got by Schumacher and Senna. Ferrari driver Jean Alesi made a good start from eighth on the grid to third into the first corner on the first lap, forcing other drivers to take defensive actions and drop back. Senna dropped from third all the way to seventh, he recovered two positions to fifth during the first lap. The order was: Mansell, Patrese, Alesi, Schumacher, Senna and Capelli.

Andrea de Cesaris became the first retirement in the Tyrrell with an engine problem on lap 3 where he retired in the pits. Brundle meanwhile had spun off on the main straight into retirement with a clutch problem by lap 5. Schumacher attacked and passed Alesi on lap 7. Berger tried to do the same but tipped Alesi into a spin, putting the Frenchman behind Senna and Capelli as well. By, now the rain intensified, and Patrese spun off on lap 20 while trying to lap a backmarker. This put Mansell ahead of Schumacher, Senna, Berger, Capelli and Alesi. Maurício Gugelmin had spun into the pit wall on lap 25 meaning more disaster for the Jordan team, as he was the only one to qualify for the race.

Alesi pitted for fresh tyres halfway through the race, and soon began to charge up through the field as the rain intensified despite making contact with both Gerhard Berger in the McLaren and Mika Häkkinen in the Lotus forcing the Finn to spin off the track whilst trying to lap him, who eventually retired after 56 laps from spinning off. He cruised past Berger for fourth and began to close in quickly on Senna and Schumacher. With two laps to go Senna spun off and into the wall trying to lap Martini, although he was still classified ninth; he had already spun and recovered a few laps earlier. At the same time, Capelli spun off as well (The Italian was classified tenth).

Mansell continued his perfect record in 1992 with his fourth win of the season from Schumacher, Alesi, Berger, Alboreto and Pierluigi Martini, but for the first time in the season his Williams team did not score a 1-2 finish. Martin Brundle scored his fourth consecutive retirement of the season in his Benetton, it was proven to be a clutch failure by lap 2 causing the Benetton to eventually spin into retirement on lap 5.

Race classification

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	5	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Renault	65	1:56:10.674	1	10
2	19	Michael Schumacher	Benetton-Ford	65	+ 23.914	2	6
3	27	Jean Alesi	Ferrari	65	+ 26.462	8	4
4	2	Gerhard Berger	McLaren-Honda	65	+ 1:20.647	7	3
5	9	Michele Alboreto	Footwork-Mugen-Honda	64	+ 1 lap	16	2
6	22	Pierluigi Martini	Dallara-Ferrari	63	+ 2 laps	13	1
7	10	Aguri Suzuki	Footwork-Mugen-Honda	63	+ 2 laps	19
8	16	Karl Wendlinger	March-Ilmor	63	+ 2 laps	9
9	1	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda	62	Spun off	3
10	28	Ivan Capelli	Ferrari	62	Spun off	5
11	23	Christian Fittipaldi	Minardi-Lamborghini	61	+ 4 laps	22
12	17	Paul Belmondo	March-Ilmor	61	+ 4 laps	23
Ret	21	JJ Lehto	Dallara-Ferrari	56	Spun off	12
Ret	15	Gabriele Tarquini	Fondmetal-Ford	56	Spun off	18
Ret	11	Mika Häkkinen	Lotus-Ford	56	Spun off	21
Ret	26	Érik Comas	Ligier-Renault	55	Spun off	10
Ret	29	Bertrand Gachot	Venturi-Lamborghini	35	Engine	24
Ret	3	Olivier Grouillard	Tyrrell-Ilmor	30	Spun off	15
Ret	24	Gianni Morbidelli	Minardi-Lamborghini	26	Handling	25
Ret	33	Maurício Gugelmin	Jordan-Yamaha	24	Spun off	17
Ret	14	Andrea Chiesa	Fondmetal-Ford	22	Spun off	20
Ret	6	Riccardo Patrese	Williams-Renault	19	Spun off	4
Ret	12	Johnny Herbert	Lotus-Ford	13	Spun off	26
Ret	25	Thierry Boutsen	Ligier-Renault	11	Engine	14
Ret	20	Martin Brundle	Benetton-Ford	4	Spun off/Clutch	6
Ret	4	Andrea de Cesaris	Tyrrell-Ilmor	2	Engine	11
DNQ	30	Ukyo Katayama	Venturi-Lamborghini
DNQ	7	Eric van de Poele	Brabham-Judd
DNQ	32	Stefano Modena	Jordan-Yamaha
DNQ	8	Damon Hill	Brabham-Judd
DNPQ	34	Roberto Moreno	Andrea Moda-Judd
DNPQ	35	Perry McCarthy	Andrea Moda-Judd
Source:^[8]

v t e « previous Formula One Grands Prix (1990–1999) next »
1990	USA BRA SMR MON CAN MEX FRA GBR GER HUN BEL ITA POR ESP JPN AUS
1991	USA BRA SMR MON CAN MEX FRA GBR GER HUN BEL ITA POR ESP JPN AUS
1992	RSA MEX BRA ESP SMR MON CAN FRA GBR GER HUN BEL ITA POR JPN AUS
1993	RSA BRA EUR SMR ESP MON CAN FRA GBR GER HUN BEL ITA POR JPN AUS
1994	BRA PAC SMR MON ESP CAN FRA GBR GER HUN BEL ITA POR EUR JPN AUS
1995	BRA ARG SMR ESP MON CAN FRA GBR GER HUN BEL ITA POR EUR PAC JPN AUS
1996	AUS BRA ARG EUR SMR MON ESP CAN FRA GBR GER HUN BEL ITA POR JPN
1997	AUS BRA ARG SMR MON ESP CAN FRA GBR GER HUN BEL ITA AUT LUX JPN EUR
1998	AUS BRA ARG SMR ESP MON CAN FRA GBR AUT GER HUN BEL ITA LUX JPN
1999	AUS BRA SMR MON ESP CAN FRA GBR AUT GER HUN BEL ITA EUR MAL JPN