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. Friday's planned pre-qualifying session for the event was cancelled after the Andrea Moda team failed to turn up at the circuit.

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; all others used alternate routes to reach the circuit. 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 +7.548Source:

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 27 Jean Alesi Ferrari 61 Engine 6 4 Andrea de Cesaris Tyrrell-Ilmor 51 Spun off 19 30 Ukyo Katayama Venturi-Lamborghini 49 Engine 18 25 Thierry Boutsen Ligier-Renault 46 Spun off 9 28 Ivan Capelli Ferrari 38 Engine 8 16 Karl Wendlinger March-Ilmor 33 Gearbox 21 32 Stefano Modena Jordan-Yamaha 25 Engine 20 10 Aguri Suzuki Footwork-Mugen-Honda 20 Spun off 15 19 Michael Schumacher Benetton-Ford 17 Collision 5 2 Gerhard Berger McLaren-Honda 10 Engine 4 15 Gabriele Tarquini Fondmetal-Ford 6 Throttle 23 1 Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 0 Collision 3 29 Bertrand Gachot Venturi-Lamborghini 0 Collision 13 33 Maurício Gugelmin Jordan-Yamaha 0 Collision 24 14 Andrea Chiesa Fondmetal-Ford 0 Collision 26 17 Paul Belmondo March-Ilmor 23 Christian Fittipaldi Minardi-Lamborghini 7 Eric van de Poele Brabham-Judd 8 Damon Hill Brabham-Judd

Championship standings after the race

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

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

References