7/27/2019 This week in 1992: Nigel Mansell wins German Grand Prix

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FIA GermanGrand Prix,Hockenheim, Germany

I Heir apparentRecord-tying eighth victory of season puts Mansell on threshold of the throneBy Nigel Roebucktgel Maasell won his eighth nreof the )rr. UIUS quallimg Ayr-m Senna's m r d number ofvictories in a season. With six to go,chances are he soon wtll sn a new

mark of b own; chanw are, too,l h a t h ewd l c lmh th e Worldcham-pmnah tpa tabwt thesamr im.It was closer b a n Stlverslone,perhaps. but a l l you never doutuul

aWdbams-Rcnault would wm.h a l l fourprtrce srss ionsb-sell w a mlu s t v e l y qu~~kea t ,o 11surprised m one to find the No 5W i r a m s a t t h e t o p o f t h e h e mthe warm-up Rather more unex-pected was that Gerhard k rger ' sMcLaM pipped Msmell's tammateR J a a l d o W l r s c f o r s f a d AAa-ward, boIhWlllums driven claimedto be lcss than thnlkd with the han-dltng of thou cars R~vals

IPoor handltng ltke that they wuldwe, theyd.Elsewhere . there was moredrama. Mvhael Schumaeher, h-quenUy off the road on Friday andSaturday. kept the record tncactSunday mornmg. the k n c a o n fin-I

from Patrese, who slmllarly movchI lear of The Rest. Everv timearound. Senna lost a secbnd ormore to the Williams duo: If youwere lwking fw a race, attention atthis time turned to Schumacher,who had detached himself fromB e ~ t t o neammate Marlin Bmndleand was moving in on Berger. Thefirst capacity crowd at Hockenheimin many years really liked that. Notsince the sadly brief career of Stc-fan Bellof has Germany had a gen-uine star for whom to cheer.There had been doubts abwt tirechoice before the race--doubts thatone set of Goodyear's C compoundswould go the distance. Williams.McLaren and Lotus opted for them.and so also did Brundle for hisBenetton and Thierry Boutsen forhis Ligier. Schumacherand Ligier'sm k Comas. by contrast, decided totake no chances, choosing Bs, asdid both Ferrari drivers.Some on Cs planned a pit stop.! mong them the Lotus drivers.Ishing up in a sand trap. This time, ~ o h n n i erbert in after only 13 laps.however, it was no t the conse- - Mika Hakkinen three laps later.qww of going over the limit. As Y.nrll,m bulldlng ~a"se11, 00, at the end of ipp 14-Schumacher braked for the third aftn a waminn linht on the dash in-chicane, the right rcar tire went down. 'lhcvalve cap bad not been fitted. which isRther more cmcial than on your road car.Then. at the end of the h em . Aymn

Senna wrote of f th e monocoque of hisMcLarcn. At the last turn he ran wide.clipped a c u b and spun over awcba one.The curbs arehigh at Hockmhcilll and. as thewmcp ted ,a l l fou rwhcc l swncck . ro f thed e e L . I t m ~ t t h e s p s r c cm f a t h em .So to the p e n light. When it tlashed.Mansell got a little too much wbeelspin.which allowed Pavcv to grab a temporarylead. Indeed. Mansell was quite fortunateto arrive at the first corner with only histeammate ahead, for the wheelspin-andconsequent revs--had fooled the bansmis-sion m thut the gearbox had shifted fromfust straight to third."I realized what hpd happed . " Mansellsaid, "but decided to kave it where it was,in third. rather than uy to find second. Ric-42

cmdo went a bit deep into the fm comerand 1 was able to ge t a good tow fromhim down the following suaight."Into the fm t chicane, the Williams-Ren-aults swapped places. There were no teamorders this dayy-beyond the usual polite re-quest from Pauick Head that neither driverdo anything to jeopardize the team, thatboth cars should finish, if possible, please.The opening lap at Hockenheim is alwaysunsettling. With a full field of cars closelypacked on a nanuw road at nearly 200 mph.there is considerable srope for a major acci-dent. But everyone made it through.As they came through the right-handerinto th e stadium for the f m of 45 times.Mamu was securely Phead of PalEx. theWilliams leading the rest a f to the Ark: twoMcLarens followed, then lhe Bemom . theFenaris, the Ligiers and the Lotuses. As PeterCdl im pointed out, the symmetry of thoseearly laps told you what counts fw most at

- -dicated a puncnrre."Yw may remember Riccardo had a bigtesting at lmola earlier this year, because ofa puncture." Mansell said. "At one point acar in front of me kicked up some din. andI ran over it. Alter that, a warning lightcame on , and at the same time the car heganoversteering. and I felt sure I must have apuncture. You're flat out for long periods atthis place so I though it was better to play itsafe and came in . I t was too early, ofcourse, but there was no choice. After that.I had to work on conserving the tires. be-cause the finish was a long way off."That was not the impression he gave whileovertaking Senna, one of several driven in-lending to go through withwt a i i stop.From th e speed at which the Williams c l o don th e McLaren. it lwked a hwgh Mansellwould not be long delayed, but gening bySenna is never the work of a moment. Forsome laps the two ran in landem. Mansell all

AUTOWEEK AUOUST 3. IWZ

7/27/2019 This week in 1992: Nigel Mansell wins German Grand Prix

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.LFormulaomRonndlOOfl6CamanGmdRixHodrenheim.Ocr.190.668 milea,46 lapsJlllrzs,

RkwrdoPamM(1 .pmOfftmlcon t h l ap in hi.dapmt.rtlmptbsmru(MI) 1)KQd LlwN.V 43.14.187nphnP.rpaad:Z)S(aS.nr.-.Q3))ITrWSdwnrtn,-.e.4)y.hBNRbegan to drop back. a. nam-~ord. ) ~nM,kni. S: tq ~ralbeit without losing s4$)-&42,mml&yihis place. The problem m ~ D .-- M. U; cjJ.J.was with the man, L h b . m . 4 4rather than the car.h hik looking. Saw cmaing e M y gap. "I got an awful pain in my back andOn lap 19, howehoweve anivcd nose to tail eventually my right leg was affected, so

at Ihnew chicaw before the Ostkwve. l k badly rhat I couldn't b d e as hard or as lateM c h od; it in mnvcntional fsghoo, bur as I needed--in fact, sometimes I couldhWilliam by-& the second half of ir hardly feel my foot," he said. For him. the-, pbughing swight on a m e race k a m e an end- test.aldr md rubb*. P. Head builds a s m q Once reinstalled in the lead, Mansellm , r m d l a a a q u i c k o n e . drew away. Attention turned to Patrese,& hc exit. Senna was still ahead, but who had Schumacher and Senna to pass if

W p r l l 0 8rbm cut bad betn quicker and he this were to be a seventh 1-2 for Williams-*aptptmhmntotheRentchicane. Rcnault in 1992.Sap thought lhue might have been re- If we expected him to waft by Schu-pauwkms f a k l l rom the incident, macher, however. we were wrong. Gettingbut rwmc ~ s e .No, I'm wc going top cmto Ih si l of Ih&Mtw wasMY nough;tat," M c h n ' s Ron Dennis said after- gelling by it was m.Before his home rowd,wud. "I'll leave it in the hands of the Sch~ma~heranted a place on Ihpodium.rtcwds." And there it stayed. Evcntudly Schumacher lacked his flat-Mansell's move put him up to s s d . spotted lires once loo o h nd gcd crossed

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bee^ 8181anew at th e end of the up. It was all P a vex needed; and he waslap vbcn Pamsc came in for tires. Wtresc past. gone. going now after Senna. hander leading into the stadium. Senna.wm unfomulate to rejoin, m only behind The defending World Champion drove a though, was ready. and closed the door. ItM.osell and Senna, bur also Schumacher. wonderful ran. knowing b e f m he start he was hard, Pavese said later. but fair. SennaBy now Senna's was the only M c h n could win only if the Williams-Renaults had been defending his pasition; he wouldkfl in the Getman Grand Rix.On lap 14 failed but driving really hard throughout, have done the same. As it was, he had to&rsah d topped for lires, after which his M d y to take advantage of any opportunity brake of f he line. where the track was ditly,ar ogan to misfire. Anocher stop. a single 4 oing it, whu's more, on a single set and theWilliams looped into a spin.lap, lhen the ca r was parked. of Cs . By lap 38, when Pavese caught him. "This was noc." he said, with consum-Schumachcr was having anything but an they were long past h e i r best. And Pa- mate understatement. "the result I woulddlly lime of t, this he consequence of an trese, remember, had been in fo r a fresh set. have liked."' h y mistake. ' h o u g hou t he last seven laps, we ex- At the press conference. Mansell said it"1rm ve r a high curb. which damaged a pected to seeheWilliam head the M c k n had been a difficult day, that he neededndLla." he said. "After that. something iao he stadium. "I had nally bad tire vibra- to see a dentist aflcr the tire vibrations hewas s p y i n g onto my left n x ire." Not tion towards the end," Senna said, "but I'd had suffered. Then he said how imps s c d .idul, d l y . at a circuit as quick as Hock- known b e f w the race my best hope of a in his atIempIs to pass Senna. he had beena.s well as that, the engine tem- place was to take a chsnce on going through by the Honda's acceleration, the McLarcn's

soon began to climb, so this was wimoln a tin stop. At the time I was thinking handling. Senna just shook his head.some IW ofWSamt Serks 7 HB. t about it. Berger. khumachcr and Brundk Plainly, he didn't see it thaf way.ncwflaggcd. wen mrrc or less keeping up with me. If I'd Ten races down; 657 racing laps. ofIbr Bruadk. loo. lhcrc w n c m b l e s . He stoppod, they'd have g a ahead. and men's which Mansell has led 524. If hewins at thebdmpde a Mgnif rcnt sun. horn ninth m m way you can ovemkc." Hungamring, he is World Champion.

hc grid, to position himself right b e h i i PIhse was f d i n g that. On the last lap To Senna and the het . Adelaide in Nwhk tanmute. But it wasn't long before he he made a final attempt, into the right- vember must look a very long time away.AVlOWBBK AWUW 3. 1992 43