How Hungary's tortoise and hare grand prix was won
Car-management is common parlance for modern Formula 1 drivers, but 30 years ago today the Hungarian Grand Prix was won by a driver purposefully driving slowly to preserve worn tyres, as a snarling pack tripped over themselves
'They shall not pass'. The choice of headline on Autosport's report of the 1990 Hungarian Grand Prix was entirely apt, for Thierry Boutsen had led every single lap in his Williams-Renault and held off a train of faster cars at various stages headed by Gerhard Berger, Alessandro Nannini and Ayrton Senna.
In some ways, it was a typical Formula 1 race at the Hungaroring. At a track where passing was notoriously difficult, Boutsen had done half of the job by qualifying on pole for the first and only time in his F1 career. However, the other key element required to carry off the win - to deliberately drive slowly, conserving his equipment from lap one in order to avoid making a pitstop - would be anathema to most grand prix drivers.
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James Newbold is Autosport's Plus Editor, responsible for coordinating website feature content.
In a sign of things to come, having completed his Politics and International Relations degree at the University of East Anglia in 2015, he left his graduation ceremony early to catch the last train to Brussels for the following day's Spa 24 Hours.
After a period as a freelancer, he joined the Autosport staff in 2018 and won the Motorsport UK young journalist of the year award. He initially edited Autosport magazine's Performance and Engineering supplements before joining the website team in his current role in 2020.
A keen enthusiast of anything that can be categorised unusual or niche, he enjoys unearthing little-known stories across all branches of motorsport, but has spent most of his career covering sportscars and is a regular part of the Le Mans 24 Hours reporting team.
He lives with his wife and children in Plymouth, England.
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