Before this Sunday’s race, let’s rewind the clock and take a look at Essaar GP’s Top 5 Hungarian GPs.

1989

McLaren’s 17 race stranglehold on pole position came to an end in Hungary. Formula One’s most experienced driver Riccardo Patrese put his Williams at the top of the timing pages in qualifying ahead of Ayrton Senna.

Patrese and Senna pulled away from the rest of the field at the start. Nigel Mansell made an excellent start in the Ferrari, his qualifying tyres having proved problematic caused the Englishman to start 12th but he was eighth by the first corner. Mansell proceeded to charge through the field. Alain Prost notably fell victim to one of Mansell’s sling shot manoeuvres and the Ferrari moved into third.

Patrese’s great weekend came to a premature end when a holed radiator forced him into retirement, handing the lead to Senna with Mansell closing fast. As the pair approached the slow Onyx of Stefan Johansson exiting turn three, Senna hesitated and lifted off. Mansell swooped past and firmly shut the door. The Englishman soldiered on to take his second victory for the Scuderia.

1997

After such a miserable season, 1996 champion Damon Hill surprised everybody by qualifying his Arrows third, just behind the championship protagonists Michael Schumacher and Jacques Villeneuve.

Hill made an excellent start and passed his former Williams team mate for second going into the first corner. The Bridgestone shod Arrows clearly had the upper hand on the Hungaroring, as evident by how quickly the Goodyear’s degraded. Schumacher began to struggle holding up a train of cars. On lap 11 Hill pulled out of the slip stream to take the lead into the first corner. Following the disaster of the early season, the champion was back to what he knew best, leading convincingly.

Villenueve also passed Schumacher and found himself locked in a battle with David Coulthard’ McLaren for most of the afternoon until the Scotsman retired with an electrical problem. The Canadian was determined to close down Hill but with a 35-second lead the Arrows was heading for a fairy tale. Sadly it wasn’t to be, with just three laps to go Hill’s throttle began to cut out and Villeneuve closed right up, passing on the grass on the final lap. Hill survived to take second ahead of Johnny Herbert. As for Villeneuve he had inherited a fortunate victory with his rival Schumacher in fourth.

1998

Everyone expected the two McLaren’s to dominate in Hungary and claim an easy one-two finish. The combination of Michael Schumacher and Ross Brawn had other ideas.

Hakkinen and Coulthard led away but Brawn’s master plan came into play when he called Schumacher into the pits, switching to a three-stop strategy. The German set about pushing hard all day and leapfrogged both McLarens for the lead after the two Mercedes-powered cars completed their stops.

The race wasn’t over as Schumacher still had an extra stop to make while the McLaren’s could go to the end. As the Ferrari built up enough of a lead to rejoin in first, catastrophe hit McLaren when Hakkinen began to slow, a shock absorber problem making his car almost uncontrollable. It became a case of damage limitation for the Finn as he was lapped Schumacher and salvaged a point for sixth place. Just as his championship chances seemed to be slipping, the German leaped back into contention with one of his greatest ever victories.

2006

20 years after the inaugural Hungarian Grand Prix, 2006 marked the first time that the race was run in wet conditions. There was controversy before the race as both title rivals Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso received grid penalties for separate incidents and lined up 11th and 15th respectively.

Both Alonso and Schumacher quickly made light work of the field when the race started. Alonso memorably passing the German round the outside of turn five for third place. Schumacher’s race was compromised when he hit Alonso’s team mate Giancarlo Fisichella and pitted for a new front wing. Both McLaren’s of Kimi Raikkonen and Pedro de la Rosa led until Raikkonen hit the back of Vitantonio Liuzzi’s Toro Rosso as he came up to lap him, bringing the Safety Car out.

That played into the hands of Jenson Button who was promoted to second behind Alonso. The Brit challenged the Renault until after Alonso’s stop when his right-rear wheel nut detached and he crashed out of the race. Button was left free to lead the race. Schumacher had not changed his worn intermediate tyres and was hounded by de la Rosa and Nick Heidfeld’s BMW, a collision with his fellow German damaged Schumacher’s suspension and he crawled back to the pits. He would be classified eighth. At the front however, in his 113th Grand Prix Jenson Button finally took his first ever Grand Prix win.

2015

Formula One made an emotional visit to Hungary in 2015 following the sad news that Jules Bianchi had passed away a week prior to the race. Drivers and teams paid tribute to the Frenchman and a minute silence took place before the start.

As usual both Mercedes’ locked out the front row but it was the two Ferrari’s that got the better start and Vettel took the lead ahead of Raikkonen. Hamilton tried to pass Rosberg but ran wide at the chicane dropping back to eleventh as the Ferrari’s pulled out a comfortable lead.

On lap 43 Nico Hulkenberg crashed after his front wing failed spectacularly, bringing out the safety car. Raikkonen began to suffer problems with his kinetic electrical system and the subsequent loss of power caused him to drop back when the Safety Car headed back to the pits. The Finn retired on lap 57. Rosberg and Ricciardo had closed on Vettel. The Red Bull tried a move on the Mercedes at turn one and the two collided, Rosberg came off worse with a puncture and the resulting pitstop dropped him behind, ironically Hamilton.

Sebastian Vettel was left free to take his second victory for Ferrari ahead of the two Red Bulls of Daniil Kvyat and Ricciardo. The German dedicated his win to the former Ferrari junior driver, Bianchi, in a perfect tribute race.