A look at every single round of the 1992 World Championship - how the feat was accomplished and how the competition fared - with added commentary from Nigel Mansell and Derick Allsop

South African Grand Prix, Kyalami (Round 1) - 1st March

Mansell blitzed the opposition from the outset: quickest during both acclimatisation sessions on Thursday, quickest in Friday morning's free practice and again in the first official qualifying Friday afternoon - over a second clear of Gerhard Berger's McLaren and one and a half seconds quicker that Senna's McLaren during Saturday's free practice - and that was in his spare car!

He had been a trifle optimistic approaching the Nashua left-hander, ending up in the sand trap. Senna set a blistering 1:16.227 but Mansell responded with a 1:15.486 to claim first blood. In fact, thereafter he would only concede two pole positions during the sixteen rounds of the Championship.

Just to compound the pressure, he opted to race the same chassis used to set pole, and Mansell stormed away from the start, leading the entire 72 lap race and recording the fastest lap.

"I didn't want to give anybody a glimmer of hope - especially Ayrton - the World Championship was on offer to anybody else," Mansell explained his need to dominate every session of the opening round. "You can psych people out, and I felt it was vital to dominate everyone, intimidate them so that they knew who was going to win before the race started. I wanted to win the Championship the best way and the easiest way.

"I also remembered what Honda and McLaren did in '91. In the space of six or seven weeks Honda developed fifty more horsepower, until then we were taking the fight to them, but at that point they just stepped on the gas and walked away. I wanted to make sure that this was not going to happen to me. I had made up my mind that nothing was going to stop me in '92 other than a major accident. I was just fortunate that my contracts were solid, that I couldn't lose my drive and we got off to a flying start which couldn't have been better."

Allsop adds: "When he arrived at Kyalami for the first Grand Prix of the '92 season, I think he knew this was the moment as he got in the Williams for first morning practice. He was quickest and I think he was quickest in almost every session that weekend. That set the tone and momentum for the entire season. Every single race he went to he wanted to be quickest in every single session. He wanted to murder them in qualifying and win by a country mile! As we know, that's just what he did in the first five races."

Mexican Grand Prix, Mexico City (Round 2) - 22nd March

The banking at the daunting Peraltada had been flattened in line with the FISA ruling. Mansell - who made that astonishing overtaking move on Gerhard Berger in 1990, on the outside at 190mph - claimed that it was worse now than before. "We've now lost the five degree assistance of the banking. There is a bump on the entry, in the middle and it's a faster exit. It means you're fighting for control the whole time," he said. One of the bumps had even caught out Senna, slamming heavily into the tyre barrier.

Meanwhile, Mansell's hot lap in the first session (1:16.346) was good enough for pole - some 1.562 seconds ahead of Patrese. In the second session it was Patrese's turn to head the time sheets on 1:16.362 - less than three tenths of a second ahead of Mansell. In the race, though, Mansell led every lap from pole to flag, while McLaren's Berger bagged the fastest lap.

Brazilian Grand Prix, Interlagos (Round 3) - 5th April

The tempo was rising in Brazil. World Champions McLaren sent six new chassis to Interlagos - including three long-awaited MP4/7s - in their efforts to narrow the gap to Williams. Patrese was convinced Mansell's car had an advantage so they swapped chassis for qualifying. Within 3 laps, Mansell posted a time 1.888 seconds quicker than his teammate…

Mansell's superiority was awesome that weekend. His pole time was a blistering 1:15.71, but attempting to pass Senna the Brazilian wasn't easy and Mansell spun off into the wall during qualifying.

In the race, Patrese thundered off to lead the first thirty one laps, posting fastest lap in the process. While Mansell pitted, though, Patrese got caught in traffic and when it was his turn to pit Mansell put the hammer down, setting qualifying lap times to give him the lead on lap 32, where he remained to the flag.

Why was Mansell consistently quicker than Patrese in the FW14B? "I think I trusted the active-ride a little more than Riccardo," Mansell replies. "Also, with the cars that we were driving in the '80s and early '90s, you needed to be physically a lot stronger than you do now. Nowadays you have power-steering, you have a lot of driver aids that we didn't have then, so I think the best way to describe it is that I would wrestle the car. The car wouldn't necessarily give the driver what he wanted but the driver could try and wrestle the car to extract that little bit extra."

Spanish Grand Prix, Montmelo (Round 4) - 3rd May

As the pack lined-up for the start of the Spanish Grand Prix, storm clouds threatened to deposit another deluge to the glistening track, still soaked from previous days. There were serious concerns whether or not the race should start, bearing in mind the debacle in Adelaide.

Qualifying was tighter; Michael Schumacher was less than a second adrift of Mansell's pole time while Senna's McLaren was a further tenth behind. In the race, Mansell took the lead with Patrese in hot pursuit. Jean Alesi's Ferrari took third ahead of Schumacher and Senna. Patrese spun off on lap 19, leaving Mansell to claim victory number 4 and fastest lap. With 25 laps to go, the race between Mansell, Schumacher and Senna really heated up and the rain fell harder, just to spice things up. Schumacher was closing on Mansell by 2 seconds a lap and Senna was closing on Schumacher at a similar rate. When the margin got to 4 seconds, though, Mansell hit the throttle and opened up a gap of 2.5 seconds - his Williams bucking wildly all the way to the flag.

San Marino Grand Prix, Imola (Round 5) - 17th May

Since Mansell won first time out for Ferrari in Rio ('89), the tifosi have adored 'Il Leone'. So, with a record of five successive victories in sight and the support of the tifosi behind him, Mansell set the pace once again in practice and qualifying. His pole time of 1:21.8 seconds was one of the best four laps that he had ever done. Mansell took the record fifth victory at the end of 60 gruelling laps with Patrese second, making it another 1-2 for Williams.

Monaco Grand Prix, Monte Carlo (Round 6) - 31st May

Patrese looked set for pole on 1:20.368 - one thousandth ahead of Mansell's time. That was until the Englishman went out for a last run and set an amazing time of 1:19.495. Williams had secured the front row at the most important qualifying session of the season.

At the start, Senna muscled his way past Patrese and tried to hassle Mansell as far as the swimming pool - then the Williams disappeared and opened up a gap of around a second a lap. But drama struck with just seven laps to go. Mansell was heading for the pits - a wheel nut had worked loose.

When Mansell exited the pitlane again, Senna was 5.15 seconds ahead with just six laps remaining. Mansell stormed around the tiny principality reeling in the McLaren at just over a second a lap - it was heart-stopping stuff, pure magic, one hardly dared to breath. In the last couple of laps, Mansell was swarming all over the McLaren's gearbox but Senna played all the tricks in the book to take his sixth Monaco victory, beating Graham Hill's previous record of five victories.

"I was very disappointed not to have won at Monte Carlo," Mansell says today. "To have had such a fantastic racing career and not to have won there was a little bit disappointing, especially having led it on three different times significantly. But that's the way it goes sometimes, call it what you will. But the car worked fantastically for five races, then we had a bit of a hiccup with a wheel-nut on the sixth, and we had just a couple of reliability problems."

Canadian Grand Prix, Montreal (Round 7) - 14th June

Senna headed the time sheets on Friday - three tenths quicker than Mansell. Had McLaren made up the deficit already? Senna was quicker again in the afternoon session with a 1:19.775 to Patrese's 1:19.872, and Berger was fractionally quicker than Mansell. The final qualifying order was Senna on pole, Patrese 2nd and Mansell 3rd.

Senna managed to keep the lead at the start but Mansell had stormed off the grid to pass Patrese and almost challenge the McLaren. Mansell started to press the Brazilian from lap 4 but when he started to overtake him approaching the chicane, the Brazilian gave him little room. Mansell was forced to run over the curbs which ripped off the front wing and spun him out and into retirement.

If Mansell felt aggrieved, he didn't have to wait long for the balance to be redressed, as Senna's McLaren stopped on lap 38 with an electrical fault. Berger took the winner's spoils, with Schumacher second and Alesi third.

French Grand Prix, Magny-Cours (Round 8) - 5th July

The status quo was resumed at Magny-Cours, with the Williams duo heading the time sheets yet again. Mansell took pole with 1:13.864, Patrese was second with 1:14.332, and Senna was in third on 1:15.199.

The pack stormed away at the start, although this time Patrese led the field until lap 18, when the race was red-flagged because of the appalling wet conditions. A 'quiet word' was given to Patrese by Patrick Head, telling him not to hinder the team leader, so when the race resumed Mansell swept past and drove a masterful race, leading the remaining 51 laps and recording the fastest lap on lap 37 (1:17.070). Yet another vital victory; yet another step closer to his goal.

British Grand Prix, Silverstone (Round 9) - 12th July

The Silverstone atmosphere was buzzing with excitement as Mansellmania took over the Northamptonshire circuit for the British Grand Prix. A capacity crowd of 120,000 had gathered to watch their hero chalk up yet another 'home' victory and edge tantalisingly closer to the World Championship title.

"When he came to Silverstone," Allsop recalls, "he 'milked it' for all it was worth. He not only won the race by a distance but he did the same in qualifying. That was the point - he wrung every last drop out of that car in qualifying."

Mansell blitzed the opposition with a shattering 1:18.965 to take pole, almost two seconds quicker than Patrese and nearly three seconds ahead of Senna. Silverstone was one of his favourite circuits and he was revelling in pushing the FW14B to its limits.

He stormed away at the start of the race at a blistering pace and led the entire 59 lap race, setting a fastest lap in the closing stages at 1:22.539. As he took the chequered flag, armies of fans climbed over the fences and invaded the track. Police, marshals, officials, everyone was powerless at that moment. You couldn't move for people, and Mansell was even forced to park his Williams out on the track and was lifted out by the jubilant fans. A service van was swiftly dispatched to take him to the podium ceremony.

"The best moment of 1992 was delivering the goods to the fans at Silverstone and how they responded," Mansell says today, still emotional at the recollection. "It was a magical day, a magical moment and a magical weekend. I think the fans will remember it, I will remember it and hopefully the press will too.

"I think people can relate to honest people trying to do their job and sometimes when it's a struggle and it doesn't come easy, people can relate to that. Then when success finally arrives it is much more enjoyable and so much sweeter."

German Grand Prix, Hockenheim (Round 10) - 26th July

Both Williams drivers used the new Renault RS4 engine for qualifying to great effect, Mansell posting a time of 1:38.340 - two seconds clear of his teammate - on Friday. On Saturday, after Riccardo's engine expired, Mansell offered him the spare. The result: Mansell on pole on 1:37.960, Patrese 2nd on 1:38.310 and Senna 3rd on 1:39.106.

In the race, Patrese was first off the blocks but within seconds Mansell surged by into the lead, Senna tucked behind in third. Later on, after the pitstops, Mansell had to muscle past Senna in a move that echoed the one in Canada, only this time he pulled it off to take victory number eight. Patrese spun out of the race on the final lap, trying to pass Senna into the stadium who had driven a brilliantly tactical race to finish 2nd ahead of Schumacher.

Tension was mounting, as Mansell was drawing closer to realising his lifetime's ambition.

Hungarian Grand Prix, Hungaroring Round (11) - 16th August

Both Williams occupied the front row of the grid, but it was Patrese who had pipped Mansell to pole on 1:15.476 to Mansell's 1:15.643. Drama struck in the race as Mansell picked up a left-rear puncture. The cars were fitted with a detection system that warns if the attitude of the car alters, so he was called in for a tyre change. That dropped him down the order.

Mansell needed to finish 3rd to secure the title, but Patrick Head thought it was 2nd and told him so, and thus Mansell set off to climb this one last hurdle to realise his dream. He carved his way through the backmarkers and made a do-or-die move on Berger - this time he was through to 2nd and become the 1992 World Champion.

"It was a very special day to share my success with the fans worldwide and especially my family because we went through so many difficult times," he says today. "I still believe that to become World Champion in Formula One you have to have a lot of luck, you have to have so much support behind you - especially from the manufacturers and the sponsors, because of the amount of money involved to even participate at this level. Therefore, to actually become a World Champion in Formula One unlike it was many years ago, it is as though you have to be almost more chosen than ever before."

Belgium Grand Prix, Spa-Francorchamps (Round 12) - 30th August

While there were many uncertainties surrounding next year's driver contracts, one thing was certain: no-one would get near Mansell and the Williams at Spa. A monsoon swept across the Spa-Francorchamps circuit on Saturday, so that anyone not posting a time on Friday would not qualify for the race. Erik Comas had crashed heavily at Blanchimont and the session was red-flagged while they removed the stricken Ligier driver and sent him off to hospital for a brain scan. Although he would not be racing that weekend, he suffered no more than a cerebral concussion.

As a number of drivers had complained about the new apex kerb - which meant that cars were throwing dirt onto the track at a particularly difficult corner - the authorities worked overnight to remedy the matter. All was well. The Brabham team was missing from the race weekend - as their main backers, the Landhurst Leasing empire, had recently collapsed. Therefore everyone was assured of a grid slot for Sunday.

Mansell claimed pole with Patrese next, but the Briton's time was a mesmerising 1:50.545 - a full 2 seconds ahead of everyone.

Race-day dawned grey but dry, with rain forecasted for early afternoon. It was debatable whether or not to deem it a wet race, so FISA Race Director Roland Bruynseraede came to Mansell to ask his opinion after the formation lap. After consultation, the race started as dry with the majority kitted out on slicks.

Senna stormed at the start to head Mansell into La Source, and although Mansell was much quicker than the McLaren driver through Blanchimont, he couldn't find a safe way past. They both put the hammer down for the next two laps, neither one giving an inch to the other, and they even touched as they charged down the run to Blanchimont. This time, however, Mansell was through and Patrese tucked in behind.

Three laps later the rain was chucking it down, and tyre stops were imminent. Mansell and Alesi pitted three laps later but the Ferrari got out ahead of Red 5. While the majority pitted for wets, Senna was pounding around on slicks providing another mesmerising spectacle. Mansell made his move on Alesi on the approach to La Source, but the Ferrari driver - not wishing to concede his place without a fight - locked-up and his left rear tyre thumped Mansell's right front.

Alesi spun into retirement, as Mansell thundered on - albeit with modified toe-in just to add spice. The next lap Mansell surged past Patrese at Blanchimont as though he was a fixture. Soon Mansell had overhauled the slick-shod Senna, followed by Patrese and the Benettons of Schumacher and Martin Brundle.

Fourteen laps later Senna conceded and pitted for wets. The action heated up again around lap 29, when slicks were the order of the day once again. Schumacher was suddenly setting the pace on slicks, and the young driver - a year in Formula One that day - went on to claim an emotional first victory and claim the fastest lap. Mansell was second, and the first to congratulate the young German. Patrese was third, Brundle fourth and Senna fifth.

At the official press conference for the top three qualifiers, it seemed incredulous that Mansell could not answer whether or not he had a contract for the following season. It was suggested that the press ask Williams and then come and tell Mansell. What bittersweet irony that within weeks of clinching the 1992 World Championship, he could be in this extraordinary position of uncertainty.

Behind the scenes the rumblings of disquiet had smouldered out of control. All along Mansell had sensed that Prost had signed a contract to drive for the team for '93 earlier in the year. To add to the intrigue, Senna had reportedly offered his services to drive for Williams as well, even jokingly stating he would drive that car for free. The Brazilian then told members of the press that it wouldn't happen in '93 because a veto in Prost's contract would prevent Senna from joining the team while the Frenchman was driving for the same team.

Italian Grand Prix, Monza (Round 13) - 13th September

It was business as usual as far as Red 5 was concerned. Mansell took pole at 1:22.221, ahead of Senna on 1:22.822, Alesi on 1:22.976 and the second Williams of Patrese on 1:23.022.

But the Monza weekend took on a surreal atmosphere come race-day morning, when Mansell dropped a bombshell: The Williams No 1 and 1992 World Champion, the first British driver to win a Formula One world title since James Hunt in 1976, announced his retirement from Formula One.

As he read from a prepared statement at a press conference, a Williams aide-de-camp arrived and whispered to Mansell - alledgedly agreeing to his driver's demands. It was too little, too late. Mansell continued reading from his statement suggesting that he might consider racing in the IndyCar World Series the following year. The on-track dramas almost paled into insignificance compared to what was happening off-track.

On the track Mansell stormed off the grid, chased by Alesi and then Senna, who charged past the Ferrari going into the first chicane. Patrese caught and overtook Senna by lap 14. Mansell had a comfortable 10 second lead but on lap 20 he suddenly posted a time of 1:41 and waved Patrese through. The team could not give any answers for Mansell's slowdown, and the prevailing assumption that day was Mansell repaying Patrese for his help through the year.

Either way, Patrese led for the next 28 laps until his Williams slowed, stuck in fourth. Senna swept past on lap 48 where he remained until the flag. Patrese soldiered on to take fifth at the end - a cruel blow for the Italian who looked set to take a victory on home turf.

Meanwhile, on lap 41, Mansell had slowed exiting the Ascari chicane, his Williams suffering from a suspected hydraulic pump failure. He toured in and was wheeled into the garage.

But the off-track drama continued, the press full of the Mansell story with The Sun newspaper launching a 'Save our Nige' campaign. Outraged fans would be soon pounding on the Williams headquarters doors - the Mansell army did not want to lose their man to the States!

Portuguese Grand Prix, Estoril (Round 14) - 27th September

Mansell claimed his 12th pole of the season, posting a time of 1:13.041 with Patrese next on 1:13.672.

Red 5 stormed from the start and commanded the race, leading the entire 71 laps. The most remarkable moment was when Berger pitted at the same time as Patrese was attempting a passing move on him - the Williams driver clipping the back of the McLaren, which launched it into a terrifying high-dive skywards that eclipsed anything before or since. Mercifully the Williams did not flip on its back and Patrese escaped, shaken but unhurt.

Japanese Grand Prix, Suzuka (Round 15) - 25th October

Mansell predictably took pole, equalling Senna's record of 13 in one season. Mansell was eight tenths of a second ahead of Patrese and 2.5 seconds clear of anyone else in the monsoon conditions of Saturday afternoon at Suzuka - only eight cars ventured out. Once again the two McLarens, headed by Senna, were next with Schumacher in fifth.

Race day dawned bright and sunny - Patrese and Mansell flew off the start, but Mansell really had the hammer down to pull out a 3 second lead after the first lap. Senna's last race for Honda ended on lap two with engine failure. Meanwhile, Mansell smashed the track record by two seconds.

However, Mansell once again visibly slowed down, allowing his teammate through, as he had done at Monza. On this occasion, though, Patrese would make it all the way while Mansell pulled off the circuit as his Renault provided spectacular fireworks as it expired with just nine laps remaining.

Australian Grand Prix, Adelaide (Round 16) - 8th November

Mansell took the 31st pole of his career and the fourteenth of the season with a time of 1:13.7, set on Friday afternoon, as the heat on Saturday prevented anyone getting near their Friday times - except Senna, who was just two tenths away, topping the Saturday time sheets by seven tenths.

Race day was overcast with rain forecasted for the afternoon, but fortunately it held off. Mansell stormed away from the start chased by Senna, the two trading places and setting race fastest laps alternately. As they hit backmarkers, the McLaren was just one second adrift. On the approach to the final hairpin, the McLaren slammed into the back of the Williams - both cars spinning out into retirement. Each driver blamed the other for the mishap, and Mansell was further aggrieved at his team's lack of support over the incident.

The 1992 season had provided fireworks on and off the track. In their finest season, the Williams/Mansell partnership had reached rock-bottom with both sides reeling from the consequences - harmony had turned to acrimony and still to this day it smarts.

< < Part I: The Champion

Part III: Patrick Head > >