Spanish GP 1992

Spanish GP, 1992

On the way to the Spanish GP the Brabham team was impounded by the French customs for failing to pay bills. The team managed to salvage a couple of cars and appeared with Eric van de Poele partnered by Damon Hill, Giovanna Amati having failed to come up with the necessary sponsorship money to continue, not to mention failing to qualify in the first three races of the season. Andrea Moda Formula continued its mad F1 career with Perry McCarthy (now with a superlicence, which he did not have in Brazil) completing 10 yards and Roberto Moreno just a couple of laps.

Qualifying was restricted to one day by dreadful weather on Saturday and so the grid was rather unusual with Nigel Mansell on pole for Williams-Renault and Michael Schumacher's Benetton alongside him, despite having had a huge accident which broke the Benetton chassis. Ayrton Senna was third in the troublesome McLaren MP4/7 while Riccardo Patrese was not very happy to be fourth in his Williams. Ivan Capelli did better than in the early races in his Ferrari and was fifth on the grid ahead of Martin Brundle (Benetton), Gerhard Berger (McLaren) and his team mate Jean Alesi. Karl Wendlinger was ninth in the March-Ilmor with Erik Comas 10th for Ligier.

At the start all the major runners were on wet tyres and Jean Alesi made an extraordinary start, thanks to having had the rear of his car on a piece of track which was sheltered from the rain by a bridge. He arrived at the first corner in third place behind the two Williams-Renaults. In the early laps Schumacher and Senna tried to pass Alesi, while Brundle quickly dropped back with a pair of spins as a result of a broken clutch. It took Schumacher until the seventh lap to pass Alesi but Jean then dropped quickly behind Senna and Berger as well. He repassed Berger but then spun off.

Mansell was away and clear with an eight second lead on Patrese. He was 15 seconds ahead of Schumacher. The rain intensified and on lap 20 Patrese spun into a wall. Mansell was left ahead of Schumacher, Senna, Berger, Capelli and the fast-closing Alesi. Alesi pitted again and then charged back and by the end of the race was behind Senna. The pressure was such that Ayrton spun on lap 63. At the same time Capelli also spun and so both men dropped from the points.

Mansell thus won his fourth victory in four races with Schumacher second and Alesi third. Berger was fourth ahead of Michele Alboreto's Footwork-Mugen and Pierluigi Martini's Dallara-Ferrari.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
Nigel Mansell Williams-Renault  65 1h56m10.674s  
19 Michael Schumacher Benetton-Cosworth  65 1h56m37.588s  
27 Jean Alesi Ferrari  65 1h56m37.136s  
Gerhard Berger McLaren-Honda  65 1h57m31.321s  
Michele Alboreto Footwork-Mugen Honda  64  16 
22 Pierluigi Martini Dallara-Ferrari  63  13 
10 Aguri Suzuki Footwork-Mugen Honda  63  19 
16 Karl Wendlinger March-Ilmor  63  
9r Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda  62 Spin 
10r 28 Ivan Capelli Ferrari  62 Spin 
11 23 Christian Fittipaldi Minardi-Lamborghini  61  22 
12 17 Paul Belmondo March-Ilmor  61  23 
21 JJ Lehto Dallara-Ferrari  56 Spin 12 
15 Gabriele Tarquini Fondmetal-Cosworth  56 Spin 18 
11 Mika Hakkinen Lotus-Cosworth  56 Spin 21 
26 Erik Comas Ligier-Renault  55 Spin 10 
29 Bertrand Gachot Venturi Larrousse-Lamborghini  35 Engine 24 
Olivier Grouillard Tyrrell-Ilmor  30 Spin 15 
24 Gianni Morbidelli Minardi-Lamborghini  26 Handling 25 
33 Mauricio Gugelmin Jordan-Yamaha  24 Spin 17 
14 Andrea Chiesa Fondmetal-Cosworth  22 Spin 20 
Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault  19 Spin 
12 Johnny Herbert Lotus-Cosworth  13 Spin 26 
25 Thierry Boutsen Ligier-Renault  11 Engine 14 
20 Martin Brundle Benetton-Cosworth  Spin 
Andrea de Cesaris Tyrrell-Ilmor  Oil Pressure/spin 11 
nq 30 Ukyo Katayama Venturi Larrousse-Lamborghini    27 
nq Eric van de Poele Brabham-Judd    28 
nq 32 Stefano Modena Jordan-Yamaha    29 
nq Damon Hill Brabham-Judd    30 
npq 34 Roberto Moreno Andrea Moda-Judd    31 
npq 35 Perry McCarthy Andrea Moda-Judd    32