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1992 Mexican Grand Prix
Race 2 of 16 in the 1992 Formula One World Championship
Race details
Date	22 March 1992
Official name	XVI Gran Premio de México
Location	Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez Mexico City, Mexico
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	4.421 km (2.747 miles)
Distance	69 laps, 305.049 km (189.549 miles)
Weather	Scattered clouds 27 °C (81 °F)
Pole position
Driver	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Renault
Time	1:16.346
Fastest lap
Driver	Gerhard Berger	McLaren-Honda
Time	1:17.711 on lap 60
Podium
First	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Renault
Second	Riccardo Patrese	Williams-Renault
Third	Michael Schumacher	Benetton-Ford
Lap leaders

The 1992 Mexican Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City on 22 March 1992. It was the second race of the 1992 Formula One World Championship.

The 69-lap race was won from pole position by British driver Nigel Mansell, driving a Williams-Renault. Italian teammate Riccardo Patrese finished second, with Michael Schumacher third in a Benetton-Ford, the first of an eventual 155 podiums for the German driver.

The Hermanos Rodríguez circuit had a reputation for being very bumpy, and by this point the bumps on the track had decayed even further, and the decline of Mexico City itself with increasing crowding and pollution problems made the event look bad for Formula One's glamorous image at the time. This was the final Formula One race in Mexico until 2015, when the Grand Prix was revived on a revised Hermanos Rodríguez circuit.

Pre-race

On 20 February 1992 Mexico city officials put out a smog alert due to the dangerous air pollution levels in the city. Alerts mandated restrictions on operating heavy motorized equipment. The Mexican Grand Prix committee had to delay work paving sections of the track.

The planned pre-qualifying session was again cancelled, as it had been in South Africa, where the Andrea Moda team was excluded from the event due to non-payment of the $100,000 guarantee required for new teams. With the guarantee now paid, FISA clarified that if Andrea Moda came to Mexico with two new cars that met the regulations, the team would be reinstated in the Championship. Therefore team owner Andrea Sassetti abandoned the C4B car with its Coloni origins, and brought forward the introduction of their new car, the Simtek-designed Andrea Moda S921, which was originally intended for the fourth round in Spain. The team brought two hastily-built S921s for Alex Caffi and Enrico Bertaggia, but the cars could not be made ready in time for pre-qualifying. So Sassetti withdrew his cars, citing "freight delays" as extenuating circumstances. With only four cars remaining in the pre-qualifying pool, the session was cancelled.

Qualifying

Qualifying report

During the Friday qualifying session, Ayrton Senna hit one of the bumps in the Esses, lost control of his McLaren, and crashed into a perimeter wall at 150 mph (240 km/h). He suffered whiplash and a severely bruised leg, and did not take any further part in this session, but was deemed fit enough to participate in the Saturday session.

Nigel Mansell took pole position in his Williams-Renault by 0.016 seconds from teammate Riccardo Patrese. The Benettons of Michael Schumacher and Martin Brundle made up the second row of the grid, though Schumacher's time was over 0.9 seconds slower than those of the Williams and Brundle's time was nearly 1.3 seconds slower than Schumacher's. The McLarens made up the third row, Gerhard Berger ahead of a still-sore Senna. The Dallaras impressed with JJ Lehto seventh and Pierluigi Martini ninth; between them was Maurício Gugelmin in the Jordan. Jean Alesi completed the top ten in his Ferrari; his teammate Ivan Capelli could only manage 20th.

The four non-qualifiers were Aguri Suzuki in the Footwork, Paul Belmondo in the March, and the two Brabhams of Eric van de Poele and Giovanna Amati. This was the first time in the Brabham team's history that neither of its cars had qualified.

Qualifying classification

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Gap
1	5	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Renault	1:16.346	1:16.648
2	6	Riccardo Patrese	Williams-Renault	1:17.908	1:16.362	+0.016
3	19	Michael Schumacher	Benetton-Ford	1:17.554	1:17.292	+0.946
4	20	Martin Brundle	Benetton-Ford	1:18.937	1:18.588	+2.242
5	2	Gerhard Berger	McLaren-Honda	1:18.604	1:18.589	+2.243
6	1	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda	1:23.063	1:18.791	+2.445
7	21	JJ Lehto	Dallara-Ferrari	1:19.982	1:19.111	+2.765
8	33	Maurício Gugelmin	Jordan-Yamaha	1:20.246	1:19.355	+3.009
9	22	Pierluigi Martini	Dallara-Ferrari	1:19.767	1:19.378	+3.032
10	27	Jean Alesi	Ferrari	1:21.434	1:19.417	+3.071
11	4	Andrea de Cesaris	Tyrrell-Ilmor	1:19.423	1:24.117	+3.077
12	12	Johnny Herbert	Lotus-Ford	1:20.450	1:19.509	+3.163
13	29	Bertrand Gachot	Venturi-Lamborghini	1:21.656	1:19.743	+3.397
14	15	Gabriele Tarquini	Fondmetal-Ford	1:20.386	1:19.769	+3.423
15	32	Stefano Modena	Jordan-Yamaha	1:19.957	1:20.469	+3.611
16	3	Olivier Grouillard	Tyrrell-Ilmor	1:20.709	1:19.961	+3.615
17	23	Christian Fittipaldi	Minardi-Lamborghini	1:20.042	1:20.202	+3.696
18	11	Mika Häkkinen	Lotus-Ford	1:20.145	1:20.390	+3.799
19	16	Karl Wendlinger	March-Ilmor	47:56.613	1:20.200	+3.854
20	28	Ivan Capelli	Ferrari	1:20.223	1:21.120	+3.877
21	24	Gianni Morbidelli	Minardi-Lamborghini	1:21.019	1:20.227	+3.881
22	25	Thierry Boutsen	Ligier-Renault	1:20.709	1:20.395	+4.049
23	14	Andrea Chiesa	Fondmetal-Ford	1:21.902	1:20.845	+4.499
24	30	Ukyo Katayama	Venturi-Lamborghini	1:22.188	1:20.935	+4.589
25	9	Michele Alboreto	Footwork-Mugen-Honda	1:21.396	1:21.064	+4.718
26	26	Érik Comas	Ligier-Renault	1:21.122	1:21.963	+4.776
27	10	Aguri Suzuki	Footwork-Mugen-Honda	1:21.617	1:21.187	+4.841
28	17	Paul Belmondo	March-Ilmor	1:23.508	1:21.504	+5.158
29	7	Eric van de Poele	Brabham-Judd	1:22.937	1:22.197	+5.851
30	8	Giovanna Amati	Brabham-Judd	no time	1:25.052	+8.706
Sources:

Race

Race report

Stefano Modena, having qualified 15th in the other Jordan, had to start the race from the pit lane.

Nigel Mansell dominated the race straight from the pole position, finishing the race 12 seconds ahead of Patrese and 21 seconds ahead of Michael Schumacher. Senna's transmission broke on the 11th lap, ending his race prematurely; teammate Berger finished 4th, salvaging some pride for McLaren in the farewell race for the MP4/6. Gerhard Berger managed to get ahead of Martin Brundle with a battle that managed to last for eight laps until Brundle was able to move back up to fourth on lap 44 but soon retired with engine trouble on lap 47, ending the battle for fourth. At the front, Mansell won with Patrese making it a Williams 1–2 again ahead of Schumacher, Berger, de Cesaris and Mika Häkkinen scoring the final point for Lotus for the second race in succession from South Africa and respectively the Finn's first point of the season.

Race classification

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	5	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Renault	69	1:31:53.587	1	10
2	6	Riccardo Patrese	Williams-Renault	69	+ 12.971	2	6
3	19	Michael Schumacher	Benetton-Ford	69	+ 21.429	3	4
4	2	Gerhard Berger	McLaren-Honda	69	+ 33.347	5	3
5	4	Andrea de Cesaris	Tyrrell-Ilmor	68	+ 1 lap	11	2
6	11	Mika Häkkinen	Lotus-Ford	68	+ 1 lap	18	1
7	12	Johnny Herbert	Lotus-Ford	68	+ 1 lap	12
8	21	JJ Lehto	Dallara-Ferrari	68	+ 1 lap	7
9	26	Érik Comas	Ligier-Renault	67	+ 2 laps	26
10	25	Thierry Boutsen	Ligier-Renault	67	+ 2 laps	22
11	29	Bertrand Gachot	Venturi-Lamborghini	66	+ 3 laps	13
12	30	Ukyo Katayama	Venturi-Lamborghini	66	+ 3 laps	24
13	9	Michele Alboreto	Footwork-Mugen-Honda	65	+ 4 laps	25
Ret	20	Martin Brundle	Benetton-Ford	47	Engine	4
Ret	15	Gabriele Tarquini	Fondmetal-Ford	45	Clutch	14
Ret	14	Andrea Chiesa	Fondmetal-Ford	37	Spun off	23
Ret	22	Pierluigi Martini	Dallara-Ferrari	36	Handling	9
Ret	27	Jean Alesi	Ferrari	31	Engine	10
Ret	24	Gianni Morbidelli	Minardi-Lamborghini	29	Spun off	21
Ret	32	Stefano Modena	Jordan-Yamaha	17	Gearbox	15
Ret	3	Olivier Grouillard	Tyrrell-Ilmor	12	Engine	16
Ret	1	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda	11	Transmission	6
Ret	23	Christian Fittipaldi	Minardi-Lamborghini	2	Spun off	17
Ret	33	Maurício Gugelmin	Jordan-Yamaha	0	Engine	8
Ret	16	Karl Wendlinger	March-Ilmor	0	Collision	19
Ret	28	Ivan Capelli	Ferrari	0	Collision	20
DNQ	10	Aguri Suzuki	Footwork-Mugen-Honda
DNQ	17	Paul Belmondo	March-Ilmor
DNQ	7	Eric van de Poele	Brabham-Judd
DNQ	8	Giovanna Amati	Brabham-Judd
Source:

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Nigel Mansell 20 2 Riccardo Patrese 12 3 Michael Schumacher 7 4 Gerhard Berger 5 5 Ayrton Senna 4 Source:

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Williams-Renault 32 2 McLaren-Honda 9 3 Benetton-Ford 7 4 Tyrrell-Ilmor 2 5 Lotus-Ford 2 Source:

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

References

1. "History | Weather Underground". Wunderground.com. Retrieved 26 October 2013.
2. "Gray haze makes people sick: Mexico city smog worsens". Ellensburg Daily Record. Associated Press. February 20, 1992. Retrieved November 1, 2015.
3. "Andrea Moda : de l'exclusion au repêchage" [Andrea Moda: From exclusion to draft pick]. Sport Auto (in French). 363: 24. April 1992.
4. McCarthy, Perry (2003). Flat Out, Flat Broke. Haynes. p. 166–167. ISBN 1-84425-018-0.
5. Walker, Murray (1992). Murray Walker's 1992 Grand Prix Year. Hazleton Publishing. pp. 21–28. ISBN 0-905138-99-6.
6. Collings, Timothy (21 March 1992). "Senna injures leg in practice crash". The Daily Telegraph. London. p. 37.
7. "Mexican Grand Prix – Qualifying 1". Formula1.com. Retrieved 5 January 2024.
8. "Mexican Grand Prix – Qualifying 2". Formula1.com. Retrieved 5 January 2024.
9. "1992 Mexican Grand Prix Classification Qualifying". Motorsport Stats. Retrieved 5 January 2024.
10. "1992 Mexican Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 17 February 2015. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
11. ^ "Mexico 1992 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 19 March 2019.

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

• 1992 Formula One races
• Mexican Grand Prix
• 1992 in Mexican motorsport
• March 1992 sports events in Mexico