Hungarian GP Preview: Facts & Stats

To most people, Hungary's contribution to Grand Prix racing only began when the Hungaroring hosted the inaugural World Championship Hungarian Grand Prix, in 1986.

However, the influence of this eastern European nation extends all the way back to the very first Grand Prix in history, at Le Mans in 1906. It was in that race (a two-day affair, incidentally) that 32-year-old Hungarian driver Ferenc Szisz carved his name into motorsport history as the first GP winner. In a manner that even Michael Schumacher would be proud of, Szisz beat his nearest rival Felice Nazzaro by 32 minutes!

It was the only victory of Szisz's career, which encompassed only five starts between 1906 and 1914. After this, Hungary slipped off the motorsports radar until 1936, when the first Magyar Nagydij (Hungarian Grand Prix) was held in Nepliget Park in the middle of Budapest. The locals were treated to the sight of Tazio Nuvolari winning for Alfa Romeo, his last victory for two years.

Hungarians would have to wait exactly half a century before the Grand Prix fraternity came their way, on the purpose built Hungaroring circuit. The Istvan Papp-designed track had such a slow average speed that the first F1 race ran to the two-hour limit, with Nelson Piquet taking the flag one lap early as a result.

One reason for this was the discovery of an underground spring during the circuit's construction, which meant an extra chicane was built at turn 3, which remained in place until it was finally removed before the 1989 race.

The 1986 race was held in front of one of the largest F1 crowds in championship history. Local authorities suggested as many as 200,000 people were on hand, and they saw Piquet duel Ayrton Senna in a classic scrap that lasted most of the race. The political magnitude of the race - the first championship event behind the Iron Curtain - was best illustrated by the Zakspeed team, who ran one car with their regular West cigarette logos, and the other in a commemorative "East" livery.

Piquet won again in 1987, although it was one of his more fortuitous victories. Williams-Honda teammate Nigel Mansell led all day until the right-rear wheel nut fell off six laps from home. Instead of being six points behind the Brazilian, Mansell was left 18 points adrift after Hungary, which ultimately led to Piquet's third and final world title success.

Mansell was again in amongst the action at the 1988 race. Suffering from a bout of chicken pox, he still managed to put his normally aspirated Williams on the front row of the grid, just a tenth behind Ayrton Senna in the dominant McLaren-Honda MP4/4. After suffering a high-speed spin, he eventually had to withdraw due to physical discomfort - and he wasn't exaggerating either, because he missed the next two races while he recovered.

Alain Prost was seventh on the grid, the only time the MP4/4 chassis ever qualified outside the top four. Prost didn't make things any easier for himself by dropping two positions at the start, but by lap 47 he was up into second, and even outbraked Senna for the lead at turn 1, only to run wide and let his teammate through again. They crossed the line nose to tail, one of their record-breaking ten 1-2 finishes in 1988.

On a circuit renowned for its lack of overtaking points, and in an era before refuelling, Prost's drive was impressive, but it was nothing compared to what Mansell produced in 1989, when he won for Ferrari from 12th on the grid.

Hungary '89 produced a number of surprises - in qualifying, Riccardo Patrese took his first pole position since the 1983 Italian Grand Prix, and the first pole for a non-turbo Renault engine in F1. An even bigger surprise was the presence of Alex Caffi's Dallara in third place, as he made best use of Pirelli's qualifying tyres.

Nigel Mansell won the 1989 Hungarian Grand Prix from 12th on the grid for Ferrari © LAT

The race was characterized by Patrese holding up Senna, Prost, Berger, and once he'd passed everyone in between, Mansell. After Patrese's shot at a first race win since 1983 was dashed by a water leak, it was Mansell who stole the win from Senna in an opportunist pass when the Brazilian was momentarily baulked by Stefan Johansson's Onyx. It was the second of Mansell's three career wins for the Scuderia.

Hungary's first race in the post-communist era came in 1990, and it followed a similar script to the previous year's drama. Once again a Williams-Renault was on pole, but this time it was Thierry Boutsen, taking his maiden pole in his 115th start, the longest wait in F1 history until beaten by Jarno Trulli, whose 2004 Monaco GP pole came at 117th time of asking. With Patrese alongside, it was Williams's first front row lockout since the 1987 Spanish GP.

Boutsen proceeded to lead the race from start to finish, despite the attentions of several other drivers, and took what remains the last victory for a Belgian driver in Formula One. Ayrton Senna repeated Boutsen's feat to win the 1991 race, while his 1992 victory was overshadowed by Nigel Mansell's world championship success.

Mansell's title came in his 176th start, making him the most experienced driver ever to win a maiden title, and he only raced in 11 more Grands Prix in his career thereafter. Another F1 stalwart was making its last appearance that day, as the Brabham team raced in their 394th and final Grand Prix.

Racing their garish pink and blue Judd-powered chassis was Damon Hill, in only his second Grand Prix start. By the time of the 1993 race, Hill had replaced Mansell at Williams, and at the Hungaroring he became the first "second-generation" driver to take a Grand Prix victory - 24 years after Graham Hill took his last win at Monte-Carlo. Second-placed Riccardo Patrese took the last of his 37 career podiums, while Derek Warwick took his last career points for fourth.

Michael Schumacher scored his first Hungarian GP win in 1994, and in the closing stages he backed off enough to allow his teammate Jos Verstappen to unlap himself. This move would prove crucial when third-placed Martin Brundle suffered a mechanical failure on the last lap, allowing Verstappen to pass the Englishman and become the first (and still, only) Dutch driver to stand on the F1 podium.

Hill scored his second Hungary win in 1995, when he became one of just 20 drivers in history to record the rare "grand slam" of leading every lap from pole position, and recording the fastest lap. It would be the only time the '96 World Champion would achieve the feat in his 115-race career.

For all of Damon's successes on this circuit, it is perhaps his failure to win the 1997 race that is most people's lingering memory of previous Hungarian GPs. Driving the unfancied Arrows-Yamaha, Hill qualified third and passed erstwhile championship rival Schumacher for the lead on lap 11.

He looked set to deliver simultaneous maiden victories for Arrows (after 19 years of trying), Yamaha engines and Bridgestone tyres, only to be thwarted by a throttle problem on the final lap, handing victory to Jacques Villeneuve. Second place was still enough to give Arrows their last-ever podium in the sport, even though they competed for another five years. Yamaha pulled out of F1 at the end of '97, while Bridgestone wrapped up a century of victories last weekend at Hockenheim.

Fernando Alonso becomes the youngest ever F1 winner in the 2003 Hungarian GP. Kimi Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya made it the youngest ever average podium age © LAT

In 2001, the Hungaroring was the scene of another championship triumph, as Michael Schumacher became the only driver to score back-to-back titles in different decades, having already won the 1994/95 titles. By winning the race, he tied Alain Prost's all-time wins record of 51, which had stood since the Frenchman's last win at the '93 German GP. Schumacher didn't waste any time surpassing the record, doing so at the very next race at Spa.

Schumacher was soon dealing with the threat from the new generation of drivers such as Fernando Alonso, Kimi Raikkonen and Juan-Pablo Montoya, and it was those three drivers who made up the podium at the 2003 event - the youngest average age of a podium in history.

At 24 years, 7 months and 12 days, it remains the only time in F1 history that the average age of the top three was less than 25. It was the third time that year that the record had been broken, as the Malaysian and Brazilian GP podiums were both inside the previous mark, set by Emerson Fittipaldi, Jody Scheckter and Niki Lauda at Nivelles in 1974.

Alonso himself became the youngest F1 winner that day at age 22 years and 24 days old, breaking one of the longest-standing F1 records. Bruce McLaren won the 1959 US Grand Prix, and remains the only other man to win a championship F1 race before his 23rd birthday. Lost in the mix was the first win for a Renault chassis since the 1983 Austrian Grand Prix, although the team did not compete from 1986 to 2001.

Michael Schumacher suffered the indignity of being lapped in 2003, so uncompetitive was his Ferrari (or more pertinently, his Bridgestone tyres). A year later, and he turned the tables on the field, scoring the same "grand slam" that Hill managed in 1995.

It was his 12th win of the 2004 season, breaking his own single-season record from 2002, and he became the first man ever to win seven consecutive Grands Prix in the same year. It was the second-longest streak in history, beaten only by Alberto Ascari's nine in a row, set across the 1952/53 seasons.

Last year's race wasn't quite as dramatic statistically, but Kimi Raikkonen's win from fourth place was only the second Hungaroring race to be won from outside the top three on the grid, following on from Mansell's epic 1989 triumph.