1992 Australian Grand Prix

Previous race

Patrese won in Japan for his sixth and final career Grand Prix victory — the last win for an Italian driver for over a decade, until Fisichella won the 2003 Brazilian Grand Prix. Mansell led before ceding the position to Patrese on lap 36, then retired with engine failure on lap 45. Häkkinen also suffered engine failure at the same time.

Between-race developments

Jan Lammers is retained by March for the final two races of the season, returning to Formula One for the first time since 1982 — a gap of more than ten years.

Milestones

Mansell takes his 14th pole position of the season in qualifying, surpassing the record of 13 held jointly by Senna from 1988 and 1989. This is intended to be Mansell’s final Formula One race before moving to IndyCars in 1993.

This is the final race for several notable combinations: McLaren with Honda engines until their return together in 2015; the March F1 team after more than twenty years in the sport; and Mansell, Berger, Patrese, Brundle, Modena, Gugelmin, Grouillard and Lammers with their current teams or in Formula One altogether.

Qualifying

Mansell takes pole ahead of Senna by nearly half a second. Patrese and Berger fill the second row, with Schumacher fifth and Alesi sixth.