Hungarian GP 1986

Hungarian GP, 1986

The World Championship headed behind the Iron Curtain for the first time to the new Hungaroring, outside Budapest, and there was an enthusiastic welcome for the Formula 1 circus. The track was rather twisty and overtaking would be difficult. Traffic was a problem in qualifying but as usual Ayrton Senna was on pole in his Lotus-Renault with Nelson Piquet second in the Williams-Honda ahead of Alain Prost (McLaren-TAG), World Championship leader Nigel Mansell (Williams-Honda) and Keke Rosberg in the second McLaren. The top 10 was completed by Patrick Tambay in the Lola-Ford, Stefan Johansson's Ferrari, Johnny Dumfries in the second Lotus, Rene Arnoux's Ligier and Alan Jones's Lola.

There was a vast crowd, estimated to be more than 200,000 , on race day and at the start Senna went into the lead while Mansell blasted ahead of Prost and Piquet to grab second place. Piquet soon showed that he was very competitive by passing Mansell for second. Tambay had started well and overtook Prost on the first lap but he was soon repassed by the McLaren and by his team mate Jones.

On lap 11 Prost moved ahead of Mansell and a lap later Piquet took the lead from Senna, who fell back towards Prost's McLaren. Alain soon pitted with an electrical problem and this upset Rosberg's race as he pitted for tires at the same time and had to be waved through. McLaren ceased to be a force. This meant that Mansell was third with Dumfries fourth and Berger fifth.

In the middle of the race Piquet pitted for tires while Senna stayed out and charged hard and so that when he pitted he was able to rejoin in the lead. The gap came quickly down and Piquet went ahead again and the two cars then ran close together all the way to the finish but Piquet stayed ahead with Senna settling for second and Mansell third. Johansson claimed fourth with Dumfries fifth and Martin Brundle sixth in his Tyrrell. The result meant that there were four men covered by 11 points in the World Championship race: Mansell, Senna, Piquet and Prost.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
1 6 Nelson Piquet Williams-Honda  76 2h00m34.508s  2 
2 12 Ayrton Senna Lotus-Renault  76 2h00m52.181s  1 
3 5 Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda  75  4 
4 28 Stefan Johansson Ferrari  75  7 
5 11 Johnny Dumfries Lotus-Renault  74  8 
6 3 Martin Brundle Tyrrell-Renault  74  16 
7 16 Patrick Tambay Lola-Hart  74  6 
8 4 Philippe Streiff Tyrrell-Renault  74  18 
9 26 Philippe Alliot Ligier-Renault  73  12 
10 14 Jonathan Palmer Zakspeed  70  24 
r 25 Rene Arnoux Ligier-Renault  48 Engine 9 
r 15 Alan Jones Lola-Hart  46 Differential 10 
r 20 Gerhard Berger Benetton-BMW  44 Fuel Leak/transmission 11 
r 18 Thierry Boutsen Arrows-BMW  40 Fuel Metering Unit 22 
r 2 Keke Rosberg McLaren-TAG Porsche  34 Rear Suspension 5 
r 19 Teo Fabi Benetton-BMW  32 Spin/clutch 13 
r 24 Alessandro Nannini Minardi-Motori Moderni  30 Engine 17 
r 27 Michele Alboreto Ferrari  29 Accident 15 
r 8 Derek Warwick Brabham-BMW  28 Accident 19 
r 1 Alain Prost McLaren-TAG Porsche  23 Accident/suspension 3 
r 21 Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Alfa Romeo  15 Rear Suspension 23 
r 17 Christian Danner Arrows-BMW  7 Rear Suspension 21 
r 7 Riccardo Patrese Brabham-BMW  5 Accident 14 
r 23 Andrea de Cesaris Minardi-Motori Moderni  5 Engine 20 
r 29 Huub Rothengatter Zakspeed  2 Oil Cooler 25 
r 22 Allen Berg Osella-Alfa Romeo  1 Turbo 26