1992 Australian Grand Prix

Qualifying

Qualifying report

Nigel Mansell took pole position in his Williams-Renault by nearly half a second from Ayrton Senna in the McLaren-Honda. It was Mansell's 14th pole position of the season, surpassing the 13 achieved by Senna in both and . Their respective teammates, Riccardo Patrese and Gerhard Berger, were third and fourth, followed by Michael Schumacher in the Benetton and Jean Alesi in the Ferrari. Completing the top ten were Andrea de Cesaris in the Tyrrell, Martin Brundle in the second Benetton, Érik Comas in the Ligier and Mika Häkkinen in the Lotus.

Qualifying classification

Race

Race report

Nicola Larini started this race from the back of the grid. A first-lap collision between the Tyrrell of Olivier Grouillard and the Dallara of Pierluigi Martini had eliminated both drivers on the same lap. The order of the top six at the end of the first lap was Mansell, Senna, Patrese, Berger, Schumacher and Alesi. Mansell as usual was unable to pull away, whilst Senna in second tried his hardest to pass the Williams on lap 8, but was unable to do so. Gugelmin for the second race running had spun out and crashed by lap 9.

Senna ran wide and allowed Mansell to retain the lead. The order of the top two remained the same until lap 19 when they collided at the Mistral hairpin; Senna attempted to overtake Mansell but crashed into the rear of the Williams (eliminating both drivers). This allowed Riccardo Patrese to take the lead from lap 20 in the remaining Williams, but was under enormous pressure from Gerhard Berger who was a close second. Berger, like Senna, attempted to pass the Williams on the outside but ran wide. Berger pitted for fresh tyres on lap 35, as did Michael Schumacher in the leading Benetton five laps later; the German rejoined four seconds behind Berger.

Martin Brundle was able to pass Jean Alesi in the leading Ferrari for third during their pit-stops. Patrese led by 20 seconds over Berger by the end of lap 50 until his engine failed on the next lap. Thus allowing Berger to take the lead and hold on to the lead for the remaining 31 laps and took the eighth victory of his career ahead of a hard-charging Schumacher by less than a second. The order of the top six was Berger winning ahead of, Michael Schumacher, Brundle, Alesi, Thierry Boutsen and Stefano Modena in the Jordan.

Jordan scored their only point of the season with Stefano Modena, while Thierry Boutsen (who won here in 1989) scored his only 1992 season points, and the last points of his career. Benetton's double podium finish ensured that they scored points in every round, as Benetton were the first team to score points in every round of a season since Lotus in 1963.

Race classification

Final championship standings

;Drivers' Championship standings

;Constructors' Championship standings

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
• Bold text indicates the 1992 World Champions.

References

Name_of_race = Australian Grand Prix | Year_of_race = 1992 | Previous_race_in_season = 1992 Japanese Grand Prix | Next_race_in_season = 1993 South African Grand Prix | Previous_year's_race = 1991 Australian Grand Prix | Next_year's_race = 1993 Australian Grand Prix

References

1. Dornin, Tim. (8 November 1992). "Mansell takes pole". [[The Sun-Herald]].
2. "Foster's Australian Grand Prix - QUALIFYING 1".
3. "Foster's Australian Grand Prix - QUALIFYING 2".
4. "Foster's Australian Grand Prix - OVERALL QUALIFYING".
5. "1992 Australian Grand Prix". formula1.com.
6. "Australia 1992 - Championship • STATS F1".