On this day in 1986 first Hungarian GP in F1 was held near Budapest which was the only race behind the Iron Curtain and which was won by Nelson Piquet who overtook Ayrton Senna with a brilliant move into Turn 1.
First Hungarian GP, albeit not in Formula 1, was held on June 21, 1936, on a 5 km long circuit in Nepliget, a park in Budapest, and the Hungarians had to wait for 50 years for the next Hungarian GP.
The first F1 race was held on August 10, 1986 and was the 11th race of the championship. It was also the first race held behind the ‘Iron Curtain’, which was visited by the record 200,000 spectators from the Eastern European Communist countries. The race will be remembered for the brilliant fight between Brazilian drivers Nelson Piquet and Ayrton Senna who started from pole positions and led for 32 laps.
Nelson Piquet, Williams Honda FW11, Hungarian GP 1986. (Photo: Williams)After one unsuccessful attempt, Piquet succeeded spectacularly in passing the Senna in the Lotus on the outside of the first bend, with the steering wheel counterclockwise and loose rear end. Also, Piquet has been criticized because teammate Nigel Mansell did not know about the advantages of the new differential that offers a better fit on the slick and dusty track of Hungaroring.
But later it turned out that Mansell had actually tried a new differential in training, but he liked the old one more and used it in the rest of the weekend.
Piquet celebrated 17 seconds ahead of Senna and Mansell in second Williams who was already the whole lap behind winner, and points were also won by Stefan Johansson in Ferrari, Johnny Dumfries in Lotus and Martin Brundle in Tyrrell.
According to the FIA president Jean-Marie Balestre, more than 200,000 people visited the first race on Hungaroring.
