The 1992 Belgian Grand Prix at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps was Round 12 of the 1992 Formula 1 season. This race became central to F1 history as it saw seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher claim his maiden F1 victory.
Schumacher, driving a Benetton-Ford, beat legendary drivers such as Ayrton Senna and already crowned 1992 world champion Nigel Mansell just one year after his debut at Spa the year before.
The race was held on August 30th, 1992, and the drivers faced changeable conditions on a rare dramatic weekend in what had been a dominant season for Mansell and Williams-Renault.
Brabham’s decline confirmed
As the team’s arrived in Belgium, Brabham were absent after only fielding one car in the F1 Hungarian Grand Prix, where Mansell claimed his first World Drivers’ Championship.
Financial issues stranded the once F1 giant in Britain, as the team’s sale seemed inevitable.
Dennis Nursey was confident that the team would return at the following F1 Italian Grand Prix, but that wasn’t the case, and instead they faced financial collapse.
Senna’s heroic act
In Friday Practice, Ligier driver Erik Comas crashed heavily at the Blanchimont bend. His car’s front left tyre got disconnected and rebounded back into Comas’s head.
The Frenchman was knocked unconscious but still had his foot on the accelerator. Senna spotted this and stopped his car as he rushed to help extract Comas from the scene.
The Brazilian immediately switched off the stranded car’s engine and held Comas’s head as he knew the medics would soon be on the scene.
The Frenchman slowly regained consciousness and suffered no major injuries. Comas would later go on to credit Senna for likely saving his life by preventing the engine from catching fire.
Who claimed pole position?
Conditions were good for qualifying on Friday as Mansell and Schumacher went out for their first flying laps. However, whilst Mansell put in a solid benchmark of a 1:52.557, Schumacher made contact with the barrier at La Source.
After returning to the pits for repairs, Schumacher went third fastest ahead of his teammate Martin Brundle in fourth. However, Senna bumped them both down a place as he split the Williams cars to go second.
Mansell returned to the track and went even faster as he landed a time of 1:51.826. His teammate Riccardo Patrese, however, was visually struggling as he spun into the barriers at the Bus Stop chicane.
Meanwhile, the anointed world champion went even faster on his next lap as he posted a seriously quick time of a 1:50.545. Senna tried to match the Briton, but on his final lap, he lost the rear of his McLaren and spun at the Bus Stop chicane.
Saturday’s qualifying was a washout as heavy rain hit the circuit, meaning Mansell’s strong pace on Friday was enough to give him pole position for Sunday’s Belgian GP.
Senna would start alongside Mansell in second, albeit with a time over two seconds slower than the leading Williams. Schumacher qualified third ahead of Patrese in fourth. Jean Alesi in the Ferrari and Gerhard Berger in the McLaren completed the top six.
Mixed fortunes for McLaren at the start
On the grid, the conditions were calmer than Saturday as the threat of heavy rain didn’t affect the race start with all drivers deciding to start on the dry tyres.
The race began on schedule, but there was an immediate problem for Berger in the McLaren who failed to get off the line from sixth. He retired from the race with a transmission issue.
Meanwhile, the sister McLaren of Senna got a great launch from second as he past Mansell to take the lead of the Belgian GP on lap one.
Schumacher had dropped to fourth, now behind Patrese, but managed to successfully fend off Alesi’s advances who was in fifth.
Mansell fights back
At the end of lap two, Mansell passed Senna through blanchimont to retake the lead of the race.
Then, in the run up to the Bus Stop chicane, Patrese followed suit to move into second as it seemed the pattern of the 1992 season was playing out once again.
With the rain overnight still affecting some areas of the circuit, the Williams cars could achieve more traction than Senna’s McLaren who was struggling in the dampest section of the track in sector three.
The rain hits
At the end of lap three, the rain arrived, and it was immediately getting too heavy for dry tyres as Mansell made the first move, pitting for wet tyres. However, he suffered a slow pit stop and was passed by Alesi’s Ferrari in the pit lane.
Schumacher pitted a lap later and briefly came out ahead of Mansell before being passed by the Briton by the end of his out-lap.
Patrese was the next of the leaders to pit as he waited it out until lap six which meant he also came out the pits briefly ahead of his teammate. But once again, Mansell reclaimed the position, this time in the run down to Eau Rouge.
Senna tries a gamble
The track was still dry in many places and with the rain slowly easing off, Senna and Johnny Herbert in the Lotus-Ford decided to stay out on slick tyres.
Herbert quickly came under threat from Alesi’s train of cars. The Briton defended aggressively from the Ferrari but eventually decided to head for the pits.
Senna now led the race as the only car at the front of slick tyres, but behind him Alesi locked up into La Source and Mansell collied with his rear left tyre. The Ferrari spun off at turn one and stalled the engine whilst Mansell continued relatively unscathed having lost a place to Patrese.
Too wet for dry tyres
Mansell passed Patrese into the Bus Stop chicane to retake second as he had dropped to 11 seconds off Senna’s lead.
However, it soon became clear that the track had become unsuitable for dry tyres as Mansell, Patrese, Schumacher and Brundle all gained on the Brazilian by a rate of three seconds a lap.
On lap 11, Mansell took the lead as he passed the McLaren into the Bus Stop chicane. Patrese passed Senna at Fagnes, Schumacher at Rivage and Brundle and Mika Hakkinen also moved past the McLaren.
Senna finally made the move to wet tyres at the end of lap 14, exiting the pits down in P13.
Herbert and Senna move through the field
Having pitted for wet tyres before Senna, the Lotus of Herbert was making an impressive charge through the field.
He eventually arrived at the rear of Ivan Capelli’s Ferrari in the battle for the final points scoring position, P6, but the Ferrari’s engine suffered a blow-up on lap 25, causing the Italian to retire from the race.
Meanwhile, Senna made moves on Gabriele Tarquini’s Fondmetal-Ford, who later retired with an engine issue, and JJ Lehto’s Dallara-Ferrari.
Senna moved up to P7 when home driver Thierry Boutsen became the first driver to pit for slick tyres. However, he crashed exiting Stavelot and proved that the track was still too wet for dry tyres.
Schumacher’s race winning strategy
Despite briefly losing third place to his teammate Brundle when he slid off the track at Malmedy, Schumacher headed to the pits for dry tyres.
Senna had also pitted for slick tyres, one lap after Boutsen, but the Brazilian spun around in a failed overtake on Lehto at La Source.
Brundle was undercut by his German teammate when he pitted a lap later for the slick tyres, dropping him back into fourth position.
Williams weren’t decisive enough in their tyre strategy as they left their drivers out too long which meant that if Mansell pitted for the slick tyres, then he would be passed by Schumacher’s Benetton for the lead of the race.
After pitting for dry tyres, the Williams drivers rejoined in second and third, with Mansell ahead of Patrese, but both fell behind Schumacher.
The closing stages
Mansell had a six second gap in front of him to catch Schumacher if he wanted to take his ninth win of the season.
Meanwhile, Senna moved past Herbert for sixth with the latter facing retirement from the race on lap 43 with an engine failure.
Senna showed off even more pace as he closed down a seemingly impossible 17 second gap to Hakkinen in fifth. In doing so, the McLaren driver had managed to break the lap record and would pass the Lotus on the penultimate lap to take P5.
As Mansell closed on the Benetton, his Williams began to lose power which enabled Schumacher to ease his way to a maiden F1 victory.
One of 91
Shumacher crossed the line at the end of lap 44 to win the Belgian Grand Prix and take his first ever F1 victory, just one year after his debut at Spa in 1991. This would be the future seven-time world champion’s first victory out of 91 all-time first place finishes.
The German, winning in just his 18th F1 start, finished over 36 seconds clear of a limping Mansell in second who managed to stay ahead of Patrese as the Williams pair completed the podium places.
Brundle finished in fourth, making it a good day for Benetton, ahead of Senna and Hakkinen who completed the top six.
With both championships effectively wrapped up, the most interesting battle was for second in the World Constructors’ Championship. Schumacher’s maiden victory moved Benetton-Ford passed McLaren-Honda on 64 and 60 points respectively with four races remaining in the 1992 F1 season.
What did Schumacher have to say at the time?
After the race, Schumacher said: “I had a good feeling this weekend, I do not know why, but when I was in the motorhome, I was thinking of a possible victory, but I was only third or fourth, but everything changed!
“I got in the dry tyres at the perfect moment, I had a chance to win and decided to try. I was really happy to win without someone having an accident or a car problem, it was a direct fight. Car was better than in qualifying and I thank my team for that.
“When I went wide in Stavelot, I missed the apex and I turned too late. I was lucky I did not hit the barriers, Martin passed me and I saw that his tyres were blistering so I decided to get in the pits for new tyres right away. Tonight we will have a great celebration for Camel Benetton-Ford!”
