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1992 French Grand Prix
Race 8 of 16 in the 1992 Formula One World Championship
Race details
Date	5 July 1992
Official name	Rhône-Poulenc Grand Prix de France
Location	Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours Magny-Cours, France
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	4.250 km (2.651 miles)
Distance	69 laps, 293.250 km (182.938 miles)
Scheduled distance	72 laps, 306.000 km (190.892 miles)
Weather	Dry, then raining
Pole position
Driver	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Renault
Time	1:13.864
Fastest lap
Driver	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Renault
Time	1:17.070 on lap 37
Podium
First	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Renault
Second	Riccardo Patrese	Williams-Renault
Third	Martin Brundle	Benetton-Ford
Lap leaders

The 1992 French Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Magny-Cours on 5 July 1992. It was the eighth race of the 1992 Formula One World Championship.

The 69-lap race was won by Briton Nigel Mansell, driving a Williams-Renault, after he started from pole position. Mansell took his sixth victory of the season by 46 seconds from his Italian teammate, Riccardo Patrese, who led the first 18 laps. Another Briton, Martin Brundle, finished third in a Benetton-Ford.

Pre-race

The usual Friday morning pre-qualifying session was cancelled when the Andrea Moda Formula team failed to arrive at the circuit. The team's transporter had been stuck in traffic due to a blockade by French lorry drivers, and although all the other teams had also been affected, Andrea Moda were the only team to fail to arrive. The remaining four cars in the pre-qualifying pool therefore progressed automatically to the main qualifying sessions.

Qualifying

Qualifying report

Again the Williams-Renaults filled the front row of the grid, Nigel Mansell taking pole position by nearly half a second from Riccardo Patrese. On the second row were the McLaren-Hondas of Ayrton Senna and Gerhard Berger, Senna's time over 1.3 seconds slower than Mansell's. On the third row were Michael Schumacher in the Benetton and Jean Alesi in the Ferrari, and on the fourth row were their respective teammates, Martin Brundle and Ivan Capelli. In the Ligier team's home race, Thierry Boutsen and Érik Comas filled the fifth row, and on the sixth were the Lotuses of Mika Häkkinen and Johnny Herbert.

Christian Fittipaldi failed to qualify after he crashed his Minardi heavily at the Imola chicane, fracturing his fifth vertebra. He was joined in non-qualification by Paul Belmondo in the March and the two Brabhams of Eric van de Poele and Damon Hill.

Qualifying classification

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Gap
1	5	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Renault	1:15.047	1:13.864
2	6	Riccardo Patrese	Williams-Renault	1:15.551	1:14.332	+0.468
3	1	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda	1:16.892	1:15.199	+1.335
4	2	Gerhard Berger	McLaren-Honda	1:16.944	1:15.316	+1.452
5	19	Michael Schumacher	Benetton-Ford	1:16.969	1:15.569	+1.705
6	27	Jean Alesi	Ferrari	1:17.686	1:16.118	+2.254
7	20	Martin Brundle	Benetton-Ford	1:17.638	1:16.151	+2.287
8	28	Ivan Capelli	Ferrari	1:18.152	1:16.443	+2.579
9	25	Thierry Boutsen	Ligier-Renault	1:18.179	1:16.806	+2.942
10	26	Érik Comas	Ligier-Renault	1:17.637	1:16.938	+3.074
11	11	Mika Häkkinen	Lotus-Ford	1:18.327	1:16.999	+3.135
12	12	Johnny Herbert	Lotus-Ford	1:18.168	1:17.257	+3.393
13	29	Bertrand Gachot	Venturi-Lamborghini	1:18.864	1:17.442	+3.578
14	9	Michele Alboreto	Footwork-Mugen-Honda	1:19.291	1:17.508	+3.644
15	10	Aguri Suzuki	Footwork-Mugen-Honda	1:19.022	1:17.548	+3.684
16	24	Gianni Morbidelli	Minardi-Lamborghini	1:19.110	1:17.667	+3.803
17	21	JJ Lehto	Dallara-Ferrari	1:19.279	1:17.677	+3.813
18	30	Ukyo Katayama	Venturi-Lamborghini	1:19.819	1:17.709	+3.845
19	4	Andrea de Cesaris	Tyrrell-Ilmor	1:20.029	1:17.868	+4.004
20	32	Stefano Modena	Jordan-Yamaha	1:18.905	1:17.901	+4.037
21	16	Karl Wendlinger	March-Ilmor	1:18.596	1:17.937	+4.073
22	3	Olivier Grouillard	Tyrrell-Ilmor	1:19.204	1:17.989	+4.125
23	15	Gabriele Tarquini	Fondmetal-Ford	1:19.146	1:17.993	+4.129
24	33	Maurício Gugelmin	Jordan-Yamaha	1:19.574	1:18.337	+4.473
25	22	Pierluigi Martini	Dallara-Ferrari	1:18.634	1:18.586	+4.722
26	14	Andrea Chiesa	Fondmetal-Ford	1:19.835	1:18.701	+4.837
27	17	Paul Belmondo	March-Ilmor	1:19.963	1:19.354	+5.490
28	23	Christian Fittipaldi	Minardi-Lamborghini	1:20.062	no time	+6.198
29	7	Eric van de Poele	Brabham-Judd	1:21.594	1:20.139	+6.275
30	8	Damon Hill	Brabham-Judd	1:21.412	1:22.495	+7.548
Source:

Race

Race report

At the start, Patrese got by Mansell while Berger got ahead of Senna and Martin Brundle was able to sneak by Alesi. At the Adelaide hairpin, Schumacher tried to pass Senna but instead hit him, taking Senna out and forcing himself to pit. Meanwhile, Patrese and Mansell were side by side but Patrese kept the lead. Patrese led Mansell, Berger, Brundle, Alesi and Häkkinen.

Nothing changed until lap 11 when Berger's engine failed. Soon afterwards it began to rain so heavily that the race was stopped. After some time the rain decreased and the grid formed up again. The race would be decided on the aggregate times of both parts of the race. Patrese took the lead again with Alesi getting ahead of Mika Häkkinen's Lotus as well. Mansell tried to pass his teammate again but Patrese defended and once again kept the lead. Further back, Schumacher again tried too hard, hitting Stefano Modena in the Jordan, dropping out of the race with a broken front suspension. Patrese led Mansell, Brundle, Alesi, Häkkinen and Comas on aggregate. Patrese then waved Mansell through on track and soon Mansell got ahead on aggregate. When Patrese was quizzed after the race on whether team orders existed in the Williams team he refused to comment.

It began to rain again and everyone pitted for wets with Alesi leaving the change too late and dropping down to sixth. His engine failed on lap 61. Mansell won with Patrese making it a Williams 1-2 ahead of Brundle, Häkkinen, Comas and Herbert. This was Brundle's first podium; he had been disqualified from his podium finish at the 1984 Detroit Grand Prix.

Thus, at the halfway stage of the season, Mansell led the championship with 66 points compared to Patrese's 34. Schumacher was third with 26, Senna was fourth with 18, Berger was fifth with 18, Alesi was sixth with 11, Brundle was seventh with nine and Alboreto was eighth with five. In the constructors championship, Williams had 100 points and were well ahead of the field: McLaren were second with 36, Benetton were third with 35 and Ferrari were fourth with 13.

Due to his sabbatical from Formula One in 1992, the race was only the second time since he first appeared on the podium for his home race in 1981 that Alain Prost was not on the podium for the French Grand Prix. Prost had won the French GP in 1981, 1983, 1988, 1989 and 1990. He was second in 1982, 1986 and 1991, and finished third in 1985 and 1987. The only podium he missed from 1981-1991 was at Dijon in 1984 when he finished seventh after problems with a loose wheel.

Race classification

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	5	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Renault	69	1:38:08.459	1	10
2	6	Riccardo Patrese	Williams-Renault	69	+ 46.447	2	6
3	20	Martin Brundle	Benetton-Ford	69	+ 1:12.579	7	4
4	11	Mika Häkkinen	Lotus-Ford	68	+ 1 lap	11	3
5	26	Érik Comas	Ligier-Renault	68	+ 1 lap	10	2
6	12	Johnny Herbert	Lotus-Ford	68	+ 1 lap	12	1
7	9	Michele Alboreto	Footwork-Mugen-Honda	68	+ 1 lap	14
8	24	Gianni Morbidelli	Minardi-Lamborghini	68	+ 1 lap	16
9	21	JJ Lehto	Dallara-Ferrari	67	+ 2 laps	17
10	22	Pierluigi Martini	Dallara-Ferrari	67	+ 2 laps	25
11	3	Olivier Grouillard	Tyrrell-Ilmor	66	+ 3 laps	22
Ret	27	Jean Alesi	Ferrari	61	Engine	6
Ret	4	Andrea de Cesaris	Tyrrell-Ilmor	51	Spun off	19
Ret	30	Ukyo Katayama	Venturi-Lamborghini	49	Engine	18
Ret	25	Thierry Boutsen	Ligier-Renault	46	Spun off	9
Ret	28	Ivan Capelli	Ferrari	38	Engine	8
Ret	16	Karl Wendlinger	March-Ilmor	33	Gearbox	21
Ret	32	Stefano Modena	Jordan-Yamaha	25	Engine	20
Ret	10	Aguri Suzuki	Footwork-Mugen-Honda	20	Spun off	15
Ret	19	Michael Schumacher	Benetton-Ford	17	Collision	5
Ret	2	Gerhard Berger	McLaren-Honda	10	Engine	4
Ret	15	Gabriele Tarquini	Fondmetal-Ford	6	Throttle	23
Ret	1	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda	0	Collision	3
Ret	29	Bertrand Gachot	Venturi-Lamborghini	0	Collision	13
Ret	33	Maurício Gugelmin	Jordan-Yamaha	0	Collision	24
Ret	14	Andrea Chiesa	Fondmetal-Ford	0	Collision	26
DNQ	17	Paul Belmondo	March-Ilmor
DNQ	23	Christian Fittipaldi	Minardi-Lamborghini
DNQ	7	Eric van de Poele	Brabham-Judd
DNQ	8	Damon Hill	Brabham-Judd
Source:

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Nigel Mansell 66 2 Riccardo Patrese 34 3 Michael Schumacher 26 4 Ayrton Senna 18 5 Gerhard Berger 18 Source:

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Williams-Renault 100 2 McLaren-Honda 36 3 Benetton-Ford 35 4 Ferrari 13 5 Lotus-Ford 6 Source:

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

References

1. McCarthy, Perry (2003). Flat Out, Flat Broke. Haynes. pp. 190–191. ISBN 1-84425-018-0.
2. "French GP, 1992". grandprix.com. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
3. Walker, Murray (1992). Murray Walker's 1992 Grand Prix Year. Hazleton Publishing. pp. 69–76. ISBN 0-905138-99-6.
4. Collings, Timothy (5 July 1992). "Mansell leads the way with lap best". The Sunday Telegraph. London. p. 38.
5. "Rhone Poulenc French Grand Prix - QUALIFYING 1". formula1.com. Retrieved 13 September 2017.
6. "Rhone Poulenc French Grand Prix - QUALIFYING 2". formula1.com. Retrieved 13 September 2017.
7. "Rhone Poulenc French Grand Prix - OVERALL QUALIFYING". formula1.com. Retrieved 13 September 2017.
8. "1992 French Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 3 November 2014. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
9. ^ "France 1992 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 17 March 2019.

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

• 1992 Formula One races
• 1992 in French motorsport
• French Grand Prix
• July 1992 sports events in France