39 years ago, Formula 1 broke new ground. The first race behind the Soviet Iron curtain took place and 200,000 spectators were treated to a gutsy battle for supremacy, between the two Brazilian masters of Ayrton Senna and Nelson Piquet.
Piquet, a double world champion at this point, had passed Senna once. But a second move, around the outside of the long-radius right-handed first turn, with his rear wheels on the cusp of drifting away from him and smoked billowing from the power-slide, granted him not just the lead but a place in history.
The studious plot and remarkable execution has since become one of the enduring overtakes in Formula 1 history and the blueprint for all tantalising Hungarian Grand Prix battles.
Piquet's weekend drama did not stop there, though. Teammate Nigel Mansell, who posed a greater threat to the Brazilian than most expected, was furious when Piquet kept a car setting to himself which allowed him to be so much quicker that he lapped the Brit.
It was just one instance of the acrimony that existed in this Williams intra-division, both in 1986 but also 1987.
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Race and championship wins
Though the Hungarian Grand Prix always takes place in the heart of summer, championships have indeed been clinched here.
Mansell put behind all of the heartache and close calls to win the 1992 championship, with still five races remaining.
And nine years later, Michael Schumacher tied Alain Prost's record of four world championship wins, as well as the Frenchman's record-setting fifty-one race wins, while Ferrari also clinched the 2001 constructors' championship.
But with the occasions that Hungary has certified the obvious, it has also birthed the peculiar and unpredictable.
A sweeping list of drivers have scored their first Formula 1 victories on this track, including: Damon Hill, Fernando Alonso, Jenson Button, Heikki Kovalainen, Esteban Ocon and Oscar Piastri, but even greater episodes have been seen.
Like in 1997, for an Arrows team that had never won a Formula 1 grand prix in 19 seasons of competition, Damon Hill led the Hungarian Grand Prix by half a minute.
LAP 67/70
— Formula 1 (@F1) August 4, 2019
That was... surprisingly smooth 💅
Hamilton leads, Verstappen just not able to fight for grip#F1 🇭🇺 #HungarianGP pic.twitter.com/70qgDbCyke
After choosing a tyre strategy that warmed to the Hungaroring's demands, he eclipsed Michael Schumacher and led until the final lap, where a hydraulic issue allowed Jacques Villeneuve to pass and win.
A race of strategy
Strategic ingenuity has been where races have been decided in the past. In 1998, Michael Schumacher made an additional pit stop, to jump the two leading McLarens.
After pitting to a lighter fuel load, where he jumped both Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard, Michael Schumacher delivered close to 20 successive qualifying laps, which allowed him to pit and resume the race lead.
With Hakkinen struggling with reliability issues, McLaren incredulous at Ferrari's chancing and Schumacher at one with the stage, a win of mighty excellence was claimed.
In 2019, Mercedes caught Red Bull off-guard and pitted Lewis Hamilton for an additional second time, which saw make up a more than 20-second deficit in around as many laps, hunt down Max Verstappen and pass him for the lead.
Another teammate feud
A rookie Lewis Hamilton and the reigning double world champion Fernando Alonso made headlines, in 2007, when they battled for superiority at McLaren and the world championship itself.
The Brit was on provisional pole for the race, where track position would be pivotal, but had refused an order to let Alonso past on their first qualifying run. In response, the Spaniard held Hamilton up in the pit lane which meant that he could start a final qualifying lap, but the Brit could not.
Alonso claimed pole position until it was stripped from his grasp, following a five-place gird penalty for the pit lane offence.
Hamilton won the next day's race, as tensions between McLaren and their two drivers simmered beneath the infamous 'Spygate' case. What looked to be a run to both championships eventually led with the team claiming neither and them being disqualified from the 2007 constructors' championship.
The drama
For what is, in theory, one of the toughest tracks to overtake at on the entire calendar, the rarity of a driver winning from pole is quite staggering.
Lewis Hamilton, in 2020, was the last driver to convert pole position into the race victory. Of the last 39 Hungarian races, just 16 have been won from pole position.
Part of this is down to the long run towards the first corner, which gives the driver on the inside line (not on pole) an advantage. Other factors include the weather, but also the differing demands between optimising a qualifying lap and a gruelling 70-lap race.
Throw in tight corners, where drivers may be a tad too keen on making an overtake, crashes can be had across the field. It often is one of the most watchable races of the entire calendar.
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