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