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1992 South African Grand Prix
Race 1 of 16 in the 1992 Formula One World Championship
Circuit Kyalami in South Africa
Race details
Date	1 March 1992
Official name	Yellow Pages South African Grand Prix
Location	Kyalami Midrand, Transvaal Province, South Africa
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	4.261 km (2.648 miles)
Distance	72 laps, 306.792 km (190.632 miles)
Weather	Hot, dry and dull
Pole position
Driver	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Renault
Time	1:15.486
Fastest lap
Driver	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Renault
Time	1:17.578 on lap 70
Podium
First	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Renault
Second	Riccardo Patrese	Williams-Renault
Third	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda
Lap leaders

The 1992 South African Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at the Kyalami circuit in Midrand, South Africa on 1 March 1992. It was the opening round of the 1992 Formula One World Championship and was contested over 72 laps. It was the 32nd South African Grand Prix, and the 22nd as part of the World Championship. Nigel Mansell dominated the weekend in his Williams-Renault, taking pole position, fastest lap and leading every lap of the race en route to victory for the second time in his career. Mansell's teammate, Riccardo Patrese, asserted the dominance of the car by completing a 1–2 finish. Ayrton Senna completed the podium for the McLaren team.

This was the first post-apartheid South African Grand Prix, the last running of the race having been in 1985 during Premier P. W. Botha's state of emergency. It was held on a revised Kyalami circuit, which used only a small part of the old layout.

Pre-race

As the revised Kyalami circuit was new to the Formula One calendar, there were two acclimatisation sessions held on the Thursday before the Grand Prix weekend. A pre-qualifying session was to be held on Friday morning to eliminate two cars, allowing the other 30 to take part in the main qualifying sessions on Friday afternoon and Saturday.

The entrants required to take part in pre-qualifying included the Larrousse team with their new Venturi LC92 chassis, driven by Bertrand Gachot, who had driven for the team in the season-ending 1991 Australian Grand Prix after losing his seat at Jordan; and the reigning Japanese Formula 3000 champion Ukyo Katayama. Also due to take part were one car from each of the Fondmetal and Footwork teams. They had chosen Swiss debutant Andrea Chiesa and Italian veteran Michele Alboreto respectively. The other two cars taking part were from the new Andrea Moda team.

The Andrea Moda fashion company, owned by Andrea Sassetti, had bought the Coloni team, which had failed to pre-qualify at every race of the 1991 season. They had signed ex-Footwork driver Alex Caffi, and Enrico Bertaggia, who had driven for Coloni during the 1989 season, and had brought the Judd-engined Andrea Moda C4B to South Africa. This car was an adaptation of last season's Cosworth-powered Coloni C4. Caffi drove in the second of Thursday's acclimatisation sessions, although the car's battery failed on the first lap. Bertaggia did not run, and it was unclear if a second C4B had been built, or brought to Kyalami. However, a Stewards' Meeting on Thursday afternoon ruled that Andrea Moda was a new team, not a continuation of Coloni, and were therefore liable to pay a $100,000 guarantee according to Article 41 of the Formula One Sporting Regulations. The stewards also noted that the C4 cars were originally built, and had been raced, by another constructor, i.e. Coloni, not Andrea Moda, thus the cars were likely to be ineligible, as a new team must use an original chassis. In any case, failure to pay the guarantee meant exclusion from the event.

Sassetti believed that he did not have to pay the guarantee for new teams as he had purchased an existing team, but officials decided that he had not purchased Coloni's entry into Formula One, or the constructor itself, only its cars and facilities. Sassetti lodged an appeal, citing the fact that several other teams, such as March, Fondmetal and Footwork had not been required to pay the guarantee when the teams changed hands. In any case, Andrea Moda's exclusion meant that pre-qualifying was cancelled.

Qualifying

Qualifying report

Mansell took pole position with a time almost three-quarters of a second faster than that of Senna in second, and over a second and a half faster than that of his teammate Patrese, who was fourth. Berger was third in the other McLaren, nearly half a second slower than teammate Senna but over three-tenths of a second faster than Patrese. Jean Alesi was fifth in his Ferrari, and was the only other driver within two seconds of Mansell's time. Michael Schumacher was sixth in his Benetton, followed by Karl Wendlinger in the March, who in turn was ahead of Martin Brundle in the second Benetton and Ivan Capelli in the second Ferrari. Andrea de Cesaris completed the top ten in his Tyrrell.

Three of the five debutants failed to qualify: Paul Belmondo in the second March, Andrea Chiesa in the Fondmetal, and Giovanna Amati, the first female F1 driver in over a decade, in the Brabham. They were joined by Stefano Modena in the Jordan, whose Yamaha engine suffered reliability problems. Of the other two debutants, Katayama was 18th in the Venturi Larrousse and Christian Fittipaldi 20th in the Minardi.

Qualifying classification

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Gap
1	5	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Renault	1:15.576	1:15.486
2	1	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda	1:16.815	1:16.227	+0.741
3	2	Gerhard Berger	McLaren-Honda	1:16.672	1:16.877	+1.186
4	6	Riccardo Patrese	Williams-Renault	1:17.571	1:16.989	+1.503
5	27	Jean Alesi	Ferrari	1:18.388	1:17.208	+1.722
6	19	Michael Schumacher	Benetton-Ford	1:18.251	1:17.635	+2.149
7	16	Karl Wendlinger	March-Ilmor	1:18.880	1:18.115	+2.629
8	20	Martin Brundle	Benetton-Ford	1:19.885	1:18.327	+2.841
9	28	Ivan Capelli	Ferrari	1:19.039	1:18.387	+2.901
10	4	Andrea de Cesaris	Tyrrell-Ilmor	1:18.544	1:18.907	+3.058
11	12	Johnny Herbert	Lotus-Ford	1:19.362	1:18.626	+3.140
12	3	Olivier Grouillard	Tyrrell-Ilmor	1:19.473	1:18.749	+3.263
13	26	Érik Comas	Ligier-Renault	1:19.970	1:19.200	+3.714
14	25	Thierry Boutsen	Ligier-Renault	1:19.506	1:19.296	+3.810
15	15	Gabriele Tarquini	Fondmetal-Ford	1:19.577	1:19.305	+3.819
16	10	Aguri Suzuki	Footwork-Mugen-Honda	1:19.532	1:20.285	+4.046
17	9	Michele Alboreto	Footwork-Mugen-Honda	1:19.571	1:19.643	+4.085
18	30	Ukyo Katayama	Venturi-Lamborghini	1:22.129	1:19.621	+4.135
19	24	Gianni Morbidelli	Minardi-Lamborghini	1:21.027	1:19.636	+4.150
20	23	Christian Fittipaldi	Minardi-Lamborghini	1:20.111	1:19.641	+4.155
21	11	Mika Häkkinen	Lotus-Ford	1:19.672	1:19.931	+4.186
22	29	Bertrand Gachot	Venturi-Lamborghini	1:21.477	1:20.039	+4.553
23	33	Maurício Gugelmin	Jordan-Yamaha	1:20.120	1:20.216	+4.634
24	21	JJ Lehto	Dallara-Ferrari	1:20.571	1:20.126	+4.640
25	22	Pierluigi Martini	Dallara-Ferrari	1:21.134	1:20.203	+4.717
26	7	Eric van de Poele	Brabham-Judd	1:21.648	1:20.488	+5.002
27	17	Paul Belmondo	March-Ilmor	1:22.022	1:20.580	+5.094
28	14	Andrea Chiesa	Fondmetal-Ford	1:22.170	1:21.209	+5.723
29	32	Stefano Modena	Jordan-Yamaha	1:22.020	1:21.494	+6.008
30	8	Giovanna Amati	Brabham-Judd	1:25.942	1:24.405	+8.919
Sources:

Race

Race report

The race was fairly uneventful as Mansell led from lights to flag, finishing nearly 25 seconds ahead of Patrese. Martin Brundle spun off on the first lap but was able to continue until his clutch failed as a result of the spin and was forced into retirement when he pulled into the pits. Senna drove well to ensure he remained on the podium with a 1991 car, as did Schumacher, who gained from his qualifying position to complete the race in fourth place after Jean Alesi had retired with engine failure on lap 41 who was behind Senna and ahead of Schumacher. Berger finished in fifth place and nearly 40 seconds behind his teammate; he was the last driver to finish the race on the lead lap. Johnny Herbert finished in sixth place and took the final point for Lotus after the Tyrrell of Andrea de Cesaris like Alesi had retired when his Ilmor engine failed on lap 42. Interestingly, all of the top 6 finishers drove cars that were either evolutions, or direct carryovers, of cars designed for previous seasons.

Race classification

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	5	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Renault	72	1:36:45.320	1	10
2	6	Riccardo Patrese	Williams-Renault	72	+ 24.360	4	6
3	1	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda	72	+ 34.675	2	4
4	19	Michael Schumacher	Benetton-Ford	72	+ 47.863	6	3
5	2	Gerhard Berger	McLaren-Honda	72	+ 1:13.634	3	2
6	12	Johnny Herbert	Lotus-Ford	71	+ 1 lap	11	1
7	26	Érik Comas	Ligier-Renault	71	+ 1 lap	13
8	10	Aguri Suzuki	Footwork-Mugen-Honda	70	+ 2 laps	16
9	11	Mika Häkkinen	Lotus-Ford	70	+ 2 laps	21
10	9	Michele Alboreto	Footwork-Mugen-Honda	70	+ 2 laps	17
11	33	Maurício Gugelmin	Jordan-Yamaha	70	+ 2 laps	23
12	30	Ukyo Katayama	Venturi-Lamborghini	68	+ 4 laps	18
13	7	Eric van de Poele	Brabham-Judd	68	+ 4 laps	26
Ret	3	Olivier Grouillard	Tyrrell-Ilmor	62	Engine	12
Ret	25	Thierry Boutsen	Ligier-Renault	60	Fuel system	14
Ret	22	Pierluigi Martini	Dallara-Ferrari	56	Clutch	25
Ret	24	Gianni Morbidelli	Minardi-Lamborghini	55	Engine	19
Ret	21	JJ Lehto	Dallara-Ferrari	44	Gearbox	24
Ret	23	Christian Fittipaldi	Minardi-Lamborghini	43	Alternator	20
Ret	4	Andrea de Cesaris	Tyrrell-Ilmor	41	Engine	10
Ret	27	Jean Alesi	Ferrari	40	Engine	5
Ret	28	Ivan Capelli	Ferrari	28	Engine	9
Ret	15	Gabriele Tarquini	Fondmetal-Ford	23	Engine	15
Ret	16	Karl Wendlinger	March-Ilmor	13	Overheating	7
Ret	29	Bertrand Gachot	Venturi-Lamborghini	8	Steering	22
Ret	20	Martin Brundle	Benetton-Ford	1	Clutch	8
DNQ	17	Paul Belmondo	March-Ilmor
DNQ	14	Andrea Chiesa	Fondmetal-Ford
DNQ	32	Stefano Modena	Jordan-Yamaha
DNQ	8	Giovanna Amati	Brabham-Judd
EX	34	Alex Caffi	Andrea Moda-Judd
EX	35	Enrico Bertaggia	Andrea Moda-Judd
Source:

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Nigel Mansell 10 2 Riccardo Patrese 6 3 Ayrton Senna 4 4 Michael Schumacher 3 5 Gerhard Berger 2 Source:

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Williams-Renault 16 2 McLaren-Honda 6 3 Benetton-Ford 3 4 Lotus-Ford 1 Source:

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

References

1. "Motor Racing Programme Covers: 1992". The Programme Covers Project. Retrieved 26 October 2017.
2. ^ Walker, Murray (1992). Murray Walker's 1992 Grand Prix Year. Hazleton Publishing. pp. 13–20. ISBN 0-905138-99-6.
3. "Andrea Moda". Motorsport Aktuell (in German). 11. Zurich: 8. 1992.
4. FIA press release, "Cars Nos 34 and 35", 27 February 1992
5. "Terza macchina in Formula 1? Una prospettiva molto allettante" (in Italian). circusf1.com. 9 September 2014. Retrieved 5 October 2015.
6. "Andrea Moda - Full Profile". Archived from the original on 13 May 2008. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
7. "Yellow Pages South African Grand Prix – Qualifying 1". Formula1.com. Retrieved 5 January 2024.
8. "Yellow Pages South African Grand Prix – Qualifying 2". Formula1.com. Retrieved 5 January 2024.
9. "1992 South African Grand Prix Classification Qualifying". Motorsport Stats. Retrieved 5 January 2024.
10. "1992 South African Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 3 November 2014. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
11. ^ "South Africa 1992 - Championship • STATS F1". statsf1.com. Retrieved 20 March 2019.

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

• 1992 Formula One races
• South African Grand Prix
• 1992 in South African motorsport
• March 1992 sports events in Africa