RACE REPORT: The Hungaroring is a very ...
Published on 11 August 1996 by Verstappen Info Page
RACE REPORT: The Hungaroring is a very windy and bumpy circuit. It isn't used too much so the track is dusty and on the whole the circuit is physically demanding for the drivers. The tyres wear very fast on this circuit so the teams will be on 2 to 3 pit stop strategy. The circuit isn't planned on the provisional race calendar for next year so this may be the last time a Grand Prix is held here.
The start of the race went reasonably well. Schumacher led the race at the start followed by Villeneuve and Alesi. Hill had a bad start and was 4th before Irvine and Berger. Jos immediately overtook Salo and Diniz at the start and was 15th. In one of the first corners Diniz spinned hitting Salo and Jos Verstappen. Salo had to give up immediately and Diniz shortly after after coming into the pit. In lap 5 Martin Brundle misjudged a corner and ruined his front wing in the gravel.
Jos was now 14th. Meanwhile Jos was closing in on Panis and Katayama, approaching them to 8/10 of a second. Then in lap 10 it was suddenly over for Jos after his car suddenly broke away in a corner. Afterwards Jos declared that he didn't know what happened. He was approaching a corner and then suddenly the car broke away, hitting the guard rail at the side of the track. His car had been hit by both Diniz and Salo in their lap 1 incident so the most propable cause is that the back of his car had been damaged then.
Meanwhile numbers 1 and 2, Schumacher and Villeneuve, created a large gap to numbers 3 and 4, Alesi and Hill as Alesi was clearly keeping Hill up. In lap 14 Frentzen commenced the series of pit stops, followed by Herbert in lap 16. Meanwhile Eddie Irvine spinned his car but came back on the track again. In lap 18 Schumacher had his first pit stop and in lap 20 Jacques Villeneuve had his first coming back on the track in front of Schumacher who was held up by Berger. In lap 22 Alesi and Katayama had pit stops. In lap 23 the race was over for David Coulthard, most propable cause a broken gearbox. In lap 23 Berger and Barrichello had pit stops, in lap 24 Hill, Irvine and Lamy had pit stops. Lamy's pit stop was a terminal one as he got out of his car and retired. In lap 26 Ricardo Rosset went through the gravel but gets back on the track again. He immediately has his pit stop afterwards.
In lap 27 Hakkinen went into the pit and in lap 28 Lavaggi had his first pit stop. To celebrate this event the 38 year old Giovanni Lavaggi immediately got a penalty for pit lane speeding. After a small error of Alesi in lap 31 Hill is finally able to overtake Jean Alesi so the first six are now: Villeneuve, Schumacher, Hill, Alesi, Barrichello and Irvine, though Irvine retires the next lap due to gearbox problems. In lap 33 Frentzen comes in for his second pit stop and in lap 35 Herbert retires with engine problems. From lap 40 onwards Schumacher, Villeneuve and Hill all have their second pit stop. Hill constantly improves the fastest lap time in this period of the race as he has a clear stretch of track in front of him and closes in on Schumacher. After pit stops from Panis, Alesi and Berger Hill is right behind Schumacher in lap 50. Frentzen has his third pit stop and comes in again the next lap and retires. Barrichello, Hakkinen, Schumacher and Rosset now all have pit stops. Schumacher gets back on the track behind Villeneuve. In lap 57 Villeneuve comes in for his last pit stop but the wheel nut of his rigth back wheel causes problems, due to which pit stop last almost 15 seconds and Hill closes in on him. In lap 63 Hill has his last quick pit stop and gets back on the track behind Villeneuve with a 7 second gap. In lap 64 Berger's engine again blows up completely in exactly the same way as it did last race in Germany.
The gap between Villeneuve and Hill shrinks to 1 second and for a while it looks like Hill is about to overtake Villeneuve. Schumacher in the mean time parks his car besides the track as the Ferrari engine has again failed to complete a race. The race is finally won by Jacques Villeneuve, Hill is second and Alesi third. Hakkinen, Panis and Barrichello also receive points. Williams secures the contructors championship and it is certain that one of the Williams drivers will become World Champion though it is still not decided between Villeneuve and Hill. See Hungarian Grand Prix results for the complete race results.
