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Japanese GP 1992

Japanese GP, 1992

There was more action off the track than on it. Alain Prost had signed for Williams with a deal excluding his old rival Ayrton Senna from joining the team, Senna's future being uncertain. Nigel Mansell had quit F1 and was tipped for a drive with the Newman-Haas team in CART racing in America. Riccardo Patrese had signed to be Michael Schumacher's partner at Benetton, leaving Martin Brundle out of a drive. Ferrari had signed Gerhard Berger and Jean Alesi while McLaren had a deal with Michael Andretti and had talks with Mika Hakkinen in case Senna decided not to continue. At the same time Honda had confirmed that it was withdrawing from F1 leaving the team without an engine. Ron Dennis was trying to acquire the Renault supply from Ligier.

While all this was happening Ferrari decided to drop Ivan Capelli for the final two races of the year and replace him with test driver Nicola Larini. March needed more money and so Karl Wendlinger stood down and Jan Lammers took over, returning to F1 after 10 years.

The grid was settled on Friday as Saturday was ruined by torrential rain. It was a familiar story, however, with the Williams of Nigel Mansell and Riccardo Patrese ahead of the McLarens of Ayrton Senna and Gerhard Berger. Michael Schumacher was fifth for Benetton with Johnny Herbert sixth in his Lotus ahead of team mate Hakkinen. Erik Comas was eighth in his Ligier-Renault ahead of Andrea de Cesaris's Tyrrell-Ilmor and Thierry Boutsen in the second Ligier. Ferrari was nowhere with Larini 11th in an experimental active Ferrari F92A and Jean Alesi was back in 15th position with the F92AT. Martin Brundle was suffering from food poisoning and was 13th.

At the end of the first lap Mansell was 3.1 secs ahead of Patrese. Senna was third but soon disappeared with engine failure. Berger was still there but he pitted early and so dropped behind Schumacher and the two Lotus drivers. On lap 13 Schumacher went out with a gearbox failure. Herbert's gearbox failed shortly afterwards and so he lost third place.

Just before the pit stops Mauricio Gugelmin crashed his Jordan heavily and Mansell ran over some of the wreckage. He pitted immediately. His stop coincided with the mid-race pits stops when the tires are changed. Berger and Brundle gained back what they had lost with their early stops and were third and fifth respectively. A few laps later both pitted again, but neither lost a place.

This left Mansell 20secs ahead of Patrese with Berger third. Hakkinen was fourth ahead of Brundle and Erik Comas and de Cesaris were fighting for sixth before Erik parked the Ligier with an engine failure.

At the end of lap 36 however Mansell pulled off the racing line. Patrese went into the lead. Mansell then speeded up again and began to hassle his team mate. This appeared to be a repeat of his performance in Italy. Mansell's second charade in three races ended with an engine failure. Patrese was delighted not to have to worry about Mansell playing behind him. Berger was second and, as Hakkinen had retired with an engine problem, Brundle was third. De Cesaris moved up to fourth while fifth and sixth places went to Alesi and Christian Fittipaldi (Minardi)

POS	NO	DRIVER	ENTRANT	LAPS	TIME/RETIREMENT	QUAL POS
1	6	Riccardo Patrese	Williams-Renault	53	1h33m09.553s	2
2	2	Gerhard Berger	McLaren-Honda	53	1h33m23.282s	4
3	20	Martin Brundle	Benetton-Cosworth	53	1h34m25.056s	13
4	4	Andrea de Cesaris	Tyrrell-Ilmor	52		9
5	27	Jean Alesi	Ferrari	52		15
6	23	Christian Fittipaldi	Minardi-Lamborghini	52		12
7	32	Stefano Modena	Jordan-Yamaha	52		17
8	10	Aguri Suzuki	Footwork-Mugen Honda	52		16
9	21	JJ Lehto	Dallara-Ferrari	52		22
10	22	Pierluigi Martini	Dallara-Ferrari	52		19
11	30	Ukyo Katayama	Venturi Larrousse-Lamborghini	52		20
12	28	Nicola Larini	Ferrari	52		11
13	17	Emanuele Naspetti	March-Ilmor	51		26
14	24	Gianni Morbidelli	Minardi-Lamborghini	51		14
15	9	Michele Alboreto	Footwork-Mugen Honda	51		24
r	5	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Renault	44	Engine	1
r	11	Mika Hakkinen	Lotus-Cosworth	44	Engine	7
r	29	Bertrand Gachot	Venturi Larrousse-Lamborghini	39	Accident	18
r	26	Erik Comas	Ligier-Renault	36	Oil Pressure	8
r	16	Jan Lammers	March-Ilmor	27	Clutch	23
r	33	Mauricio Gugelmin	Jordan-Yamaha	22	Accident	25
r	12	Johnny Herbert	Lotus-Cosworth	15	Gearbox	6
r	19	Michael Schumacher	Benetton-Cosworth	13	Gearbox	5
r	3	Olivier Grouillard	Tyrrell-Ilmor	6	Accident	21
r	25	Thierry Boutsen	Ligier-Renault	3	Gearbox	10
r	1	Ayrton Senna	McLaren-Honda	2	Engine	3