1992 Canadian F1 Grand Prix Race Report & Results
Event: Canadian Grand Prix
Track: Circuit Gilles Villeneuve
Weather: overcast, mild, dry
Gerhard Berger won his 7th F1 World Championship race at the 1992 Canadian F1 GP. The McLaren driver started from the second row and won on the Montreal circuit for the first time. It was also his 1st win of the season and the 96th win for the McLaren F1 team.
Ecclestone plots at Maranello, Ligier under threat
Between Monaco and Montreal, Bernie Ecclestone held a FOCA meeting at Maranello, the choice of venue alone gave the news. The Williams hegemony was costing television audiences across 1992; Ecclestone proposed regulation changes (narrower rear tyres, wider cars, mandated tyre stops, single-fuel rules) that all targeted Williams's specific advantages. Frank Williams refused to sign the meeting's conclusions after consulting Renault and Elf. The Concorde Agreement required unanimity. Without Williams, the FISA World Council on 24 June would have nothing to approve.
Ligier-Gitanes faced its own coup attempt on Friday at Montreal. Jean-Paul Driot (DAMS) and François Lafon (pharmaceutical industrialist) presented a takeover bid in Guy Ligier's absence (he had remained in France). Dany Hindenoch alerted Ligier and contacted Jean Glavany, Mitterrand's sport adviser who was conveniently in Quebec. Driot and Lafon retreated. The episode revealed how fragile Ligier had become.
March announced its team finances via a small classified advertisement in a Montreal newspaper, eight Canadian companies responded, paying $45,000 in total to put their logos on the cars. Andrea Moda's fifth episode involved an incident at Sassetti's discotheque where the proprietor was almost shot, and the team arrived in Quebec without its Judd V8 engines (allegedly because an aircraft had needed weight reduction); the team borrowed a Brabham V8 for the weekend, McCarthy did not even attempt to drive, and director Frédéric Dhainaut resigned.
Senna's 61st pole, Williams's first non-pole of 1992
Friday qualifying was the grid-deciding session. Senna took the 61st pole of his career at 1m19.775s, 0.09s ahead of Patrese, Williams's first failure to take pole in 1992. Mansell only third after a tête-à-queue in the first chicane. Berger fourth, Schumacher fifth, Herbert sixth in the new Lotus 107, Brundle seventh, Alesi eighth, Capelli ninth, Häkkinen tenth. The Lotus 107 was looking like a credible mid-grid car.
Sunday opened under low cloud with no rain expected. 130,000 spectators came in. Tarquini's new Fondmetal lasted 50 metres before its transmission failed. The race opened with Senna leading, Mansell jumping Patrese for second, and the entire top eight running within four seconds of each other through the opening laps. Brundle passed Herbert at the hairpin, then both Lotuses ran in the train of leaders.
Mansell's lap-15 launch off Senna
The race's defining moment came on lap fifteen. Mansell had been hounding Senna for ten laps and growing frustrated. Approaching the last chicane he committed to a late-braking outside-line move. He braked far too late; the Williams hit the chicane sideways, broke the front wing, and slid to a halt across the start-finish straight. He reversed to clear the racing line, stalled, and stayed in the cockpit for two minutes with what he later admitted was a slight back twinge but visibly an emotional reaction. Marshals lifted him out under the armpits. He then sprinted to the McLaren pit to scream at Ron Dennis: "Senna is a bastard! He squeezed me! It's not my fault!" Dennis shrugged. Senna's measured comment afterwards: "He came in too fast and couldn't turn." On lap nineteen Capelli crashed heavily at the first chicane after a suspension failure, his helmet hit the wall but he was unhurt.
From lap twenty Senna held a slender lead over Berger, Patrese and Schumacher, with Brundle attacking Schumacher constantly. On lap thirty-eight Senna's transmission cut at the Pont de la Concorde and he coasted to a stop. Berger inherited the lead. Patrese's gearbox started skipping ratios from lap forty-two onwards, first sixth gear, then fourth and fifth; he pitted and retired. Brundle was running second on lap forty-five with the race in his sights when his Benetton's transmission also failed on lap forty-six and he parked at the Pont de la Concorde.
Berger's quiet victory, Comas's first Ligier point
Berger crossed the line for his 7th career grand prix victory, his first ever at Montreal, his first for McLaren in a season-deciding race, McLaren's 96th. Schumacher second 8 seconds back. Alesi third for Ferrari, the team's first podium of 1992. Karl Wendlinger an extraordinary fourth for March-Ilmor, the team's best result of the year. De Cesaris fifth for Tyrrell-Ilmor on a brake-failing afternoon that still produced points. And Erik Comas sixth in the Ligier-Renault, Ligier's first F1 point since the 1989 French Grand Prix, ending a three-year drought.
"It's my best day in F1," Comas said quietly. "It had to happen eventually. I'd say it was programmed." Berger's win was discussed in clinical terms: "It was very hard at the start. I was fourth and could have gone faster but it was impossible to overtake. When I found myself behind Ayrton, I was clearly faster, but still impossible to pass. The Williams remain the cars to beat." Berger's front-wing endplates were measured at one millimetre over the 50cm overhang regulation, but the stewards ruled the assembly an honest mounting error and let the result stand.
Mansell flew out by helicopter to a chorus of British-press derision. "Only Mansell can stop Mansell becoming champion," Gérard Crombac wrote. The championship after seven races read Mansell 56, Patrese 28, Schumacher 26, Berger 18, Senna 18, Alesi 11. Williams-Renault led the constructors at 84 to McLaren's 36. The pressure on Mansell at Magny-Cours, three weeks away, was very real, his home French press would be merciless if he repeated the Montreal carelessness. The 1992 championship was a long way from being mathematically decided; Mansell now had to make sure his own conduct did not become the threat.
Classification 1992 Canadian F1 GP
Fastest lap: 1:22.325 min by Gerhard Berger (McLaren MP4-7A) in lap 61
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