Hungarian Grand Prix: Memorable Moments

Fernando Alonso celebrates with Flavio Briatore and the Renault team after winning the Hungarian Grand Prix at the Hungaroring on August 24, 2003 in Budapest, Hungary. (Getty Images)

Although Hungary has hosted a Grand Prix regularly since 1986, there haven’t been many notable incidents down the years. So unlike previous races, let us club two parts – both the interesting and controversial incidents – into one for this particular weekend.

The Best Lap Ever

Almost everybody remembers Ayrton Senna’s stunning first lap during the 1993 European Grand Prix at Donington Park where he jumped from 5th to 1st on a wet-dry track. What Fernando Alonso did during the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix definitely stands right up there with Senna’s performance, if not surpassing it.

After starting 15th due to a penalty during free practice, the Spaniard drove an unbelievable lap on a drying track to move up a staggering nine places to 6th before the start of Lap 2. Whether it was the best lap ever in F1 or even motorsport history is debatable but the way he overtook the cars left and right on such a tight layout was a treat to watch.

Mature drive from a young Alonso

Alonso achieved his first win at the 2003 race after starting from pole. He remained the youngest to do so before a German ‘crash kid’ from Heppenheim bettered it at Monza, 2008. Having just turned 23, the young Spaniard put in a performance which any world champion would be proud of. He took full advantage of the overtaking difficulties at the track and never balked under the pressure from behind, finally winning a huge 16-second advantage.

Kimi Raikkonen, who finished second, was the same person who deprived Alonso of a win from pole at Malaysia earlier that year.

Hill stutters at the summit

Damon Hill drove an absolutely spectacular race in 1997 and would have almost given the Arrows their first and only win – they never won a race after that – had it not been for a hydraulic pump failure on the penultimate lap. Hill lost all gears but third, which allowed Jacques Villeneuve to close down a 35-second gap and relegate the Briton to 2nd.

You shall not pass!

At the 1990 Hungarian Grand Prix, Thierry Boutsen did to Ayrton Senna what Senna would replicate almost two years later against Nigel Mansell at Monaco. Boutsen’s Williams was no match for Senna’s dominant McLaren but the Belgian defended brilliantly and finally took the chequered flag ahead of the Brazilian with only three tenths between them.

Ferrari mechanics recover the car of Felipe Massa following his accident during qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix at the Hungaroring on July 25, 2009 in Budapest, Hungary. (Getty Images)

No one can stop the British Lion

Nigel Mansell won just one championship in the all-conquering Williams FW14B. So why do the British fans adore him so much and why is he called the British Lion?

It is just because of performances like the one in the 1989 Hungarian Grand Prix. He started 12th and won the race in dry conditions; that should be enough to sum up what a special drive it was. Mansell took advantage of the misfortunes of drivers around him, which left him with just Senna to pass. Mansell was initially unable to pass but one mistake from Senna was all that was required. The Briton waited patiently and when Senna hesitated while passing the lapped Onyx of Stefan Johannson, Mansell raced past the McLaren and ran off into the distance. The winning margin for the Ferrari driver was 26 seconds!

Now how can you not admire someone like that?

Schumacher and Brawn: the legendary combo

Michael Schumacher and Ross Brawn together won many races and most of them were due to the superior Ferrari as compared to their rivals. Not in Hungary, 1998 though. Being unable to match the pace of the two McLarens ahead, master tactician Brawn made his move by switching Schumacher to a three pit-stop strategy mid-race, which caught McLaren unaware and ultimately handed the win to the German an impressive 10 seconds ahead of David Coulthard.

Dark times for Alonso at McLaren

The 2007 Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying session was one of the darkest in the history of the sport. Things between Alonso and McLaren Team Principal Ron Dennis had turned sour after ‘spy-gate’ and the Spaniard tried to take his revenge by disadvantaging Dennis’s favourite, teammate Lewis Hamilton.

After changing tyres before his final run, Alonso remained stationary in the pit-stop for a long time, which forced Hamilton to queue up. When Alonso deemed that the time left was not sufficient for Hamilton to do a flying lap, he left the pits and set the fastest time to take pole position.

Hamilton’s side of the garage immediately complained and Alonso was dropped from pole to 6th. McLaren were stripped of the constructors’ points for the misconduct.

Did we lose the real Felipe Massa?

Felipe Massa was the victim of one of the worst accidents in the sport in recent times at Hungary, 2009. After a spring from fellow Brazilian Rubens Barrichello’s car hit Massa’s helmet, the Ferrari driver became unconscious and the car struck the barriers at very high speed.

Massa was airlifted to the hospital and the fears of him succumbing to the injuries were very genuine. Luckily he survived but had to carry a big scar over his left eye for the rest of the year. He did get his life back but did that incident suck the mojo out of him?

After analysing his performances over the last three and a half seasons it does seem so. Will we ever get back the Felipe Massa of 2008? Ferrari hope so, we too hope so. But at the ripe age of 32, it is unlikely to happen.