1990 Hungarian Grand Prix

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1990 Hungarian Grand Prix
Race 10 of 16 in the 1990 Formula One World Championship
Race details
Date 12 August 1990
Location Hungaroring
Mogyoród, Hungary
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 3.968 km (2.466 miles)
Distance 77 laps, 305.536 km (189.851 miles)
Weather Dry
Pole position
Driver Williams-Renault
Time 1:17.919
Fastest lap
Driver Italy Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault
Time 1:22.058 on lap 63
Podium
First Williams-Renault
Second McLaren-Honda
Third Benetton-Ford
Lap leaders

The 1990 Hungarian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Hungaroring on 12 August 1990. It was the tenth race of the 1990 Formula One World Championship. The race was the sixth Hungarian Grand Prix and the fifth to be held at the Hungaroring. It was held over 77 laps of the 3.97-kilometre (2.47 mi) circuit for a race distance of 305.5 kilometres (189.8 mi).

Belgian driver Thierry Boutsen, driving a Williams-Renault, took his third and final Grand Prix win after leading the entire race. Ayrton Senna, driving a McLaren-Honda, finished less than 0.3 seconds behind Boutsen, having survived a collision with the Benetton-Ford of Alessandro Nannini. Nannini's teammate Nelson Piquet finished third. As of the 2022 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, this is the last victory in Formula One for a driver competing under the Belgian flag.

With rival Alain Prost failing to finish, Senna increased his lead in the Drivers' Championship over the Frenchman.

Pre-race[edit]

In the run-up to the race, Camel announced that it was ending its sponsorship of Lotus at the end of 1990 and would be sponsoring Williams and Benetton in 1991.[1]

Qualifying[edit]

Pre-qualifying report[edit]

As at the previous event in Germany, the Ligier drivers were first and second in the Friday morning pre-qualifying session. The positions were reversed, however, with Nicola Larini outpacing team-mate Philippe Alliot. The other two pre-qualifiers were the AGS cars, driven by Yannick Dalmas in third, and Gabriele Tarquini in fourth, the pair nearly two seconds slower than the Ligiers. It was the first time since the French Grand Prix that both AGS cars had pre-qualified, and only the second time this season.[2]

Also for only the second time this season, Olivier Grouillard failed to pre-qualify in the Osella, as he was fifth fastest, less than two tenths of a second slower than Tarquini. There was a big improvement from Bertrand Gachot in the Coloni, now seeing the benefits of the Cosworth DFR engine in place of the Subaru, as he was sixth fastest, just 0.264 seconds behind Tarquini. The EuroBruns were seventh and eighth, Roberto Moreno a couple of seconds faster than Claudio Langes, and bottom of the time sheets as usual was Bruno Giacomelli in the Life, missing the cut by a very wide margin. On this occasion the L190 managed five laps before the engine expired.[2]

Pre-qualifying classification[edit]

Pos No Driver Constructor Time Gap
1 25 Italy Nicola Larini Ligier-Ford 1:21.518
2 26 France Philippe Alliot Ligier-Ford 1:21.710 +0.192
3 18 France Yannick Dalmas AGS-Ford 1:23.227 +1.709
4 17 Italy Gabriele Tarquini AGS-Ford 1:23.406 +1.888
5 14 France Olivier Grouillard Osella-Ford 1:23.582 +2.064
6 31 Belgium Bertrand Gachot Coloni-Ford 1:23.670 +2.152
7 33 Brazil Roberto Moreno EuroBrun-Judd 1:24.386 +2.868
8 34 Italy Claudio Langes EuroBrun-Judd 1:26.514 +4.996
9 39 Italy Bruno Giacomelli Life 1:41.431 +19.913

Qualifying report[edit]

On the tight and twisty Hungaroring, the two Williams filled the front row with Thierry Boutsen 0.036 seconds ahead of Riccardo Patrese. This was to be the only pole position of Boutsen's career. Gerhard Berger was third ahead of McLaren teammate Ayrton Senna, while Senna's Drivers' Championship rival Alain Prost could only manage eighth, behind Ferrari teammate Nigel Mansell, Jean Alesi in the Tyrrell and Alessandro Nannini in the Benetton. The top ten was completed by Nelson Piquet in the second Benetton and Andrea de Cesaris in the Dallara.

Qualifying classification[edit]

Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap
1 5 Belgium Thierry Boutsen Williams-Renault 1:19.691 1:17.919
2 6 Italy Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault 1:19.419 1:17.955 +0.036
3 28 Austria Gerhard Berger McLaren-Honda 1:18.127 1:18.703 +0.208
4 27 Brazil Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 1:20.389 1:18.162 +0.243
5 2 United Kingdom Nigel Mansell Ferrari 1:18.739 1:18.719 +0.800
6 4 France Jean Alesi Tyrrell-Ford 1:19.042 1:18.762 +0.843
7 19 Italy Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Ford 1:19.300 1:18.901 +0.982
8 1 France Alain Prost Ferrari 1:20.309 1:19.029 +1.110
9 20 Brazil Nelson Piquet Benetton-Ford 1:21.109 1:19.453 +1.534
10 22 Italy Andrea de Cesaris Dallara-Ford 1:21.675 1:19.675 +1.756
11 11 United Kingdom Derek Warwick Lotus-Lamborghini 1:21.154 1:19.839 +1.920
12 29 France Éric Bernard Lola-Lamborghini 1:21.692 1:19.963 +2.044
13 21 Italy Emanuele Pirro Dallara-Ford 1:21.070 1:19.970 +2.051
14 23 Italy Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 1:21.242 1:20.197 +2.278
15 3 Japan Satoru Nakajima Tyrrell-Ford 1:21.449 1:20.202 +2.283
16 16 Italy Ivan Capelli Leyton House-Judd 1:21.512 1:20.385 +2.466
17 15 Brazil Maurício Gugelmin Leyton House-Judd 1:22.198 1:20.397 +2.478
18 12 United Kingdom Martin Donnelly Lotus-Lamborghini 1:21.324 1:20.602 +2.683
19 30 Japan Aguri Suzuki Lola-Lamborghini 1:21.577 1:20.619 +2.700
20 8 Italy Stefano Modena Brabham-Judd 1:22.024 1:20.715 +2.786
21 26 France Philippe Alliot Ligier-Ford 1:22.701 1:21.003 +3.084
22 9 Italy Michele Alboreto Arrows-Ford 1:22.909 1:21.758 +3.839
23 24 Italy Paolo Barilla Minardi-Ford 1:22.784 1:21.849 +3.930
24 17 Italy Gabriele Tarquini AGS-Ford 1:23.827 1:21.964 +4.045
25 25 Italy Nicola Larini Ligier-Ford 1:22.584 1:22.078 +4.159
26 10 Italy Alex Caffi Arrows-Ford 1:22.986 1:22.126 +4.207
27 18 France Yannick Dalmas AGS-Ford 1:23.116 1:22.263 +4.344
28 7 Australia David Brabham Brabham-Judd 1:23.923 1:22.488 +4.569
29 36 Finland JJ Lehto Onyx-Ford no time 1:22.647 +4.728
30 35 Switzerland Gregor Foitek Onyx-Ford 1:24.361 1:24.863 +6.442

Race[edit]

Race report[edit]

At the start, Boutsen led away while Berger moved ahead of Patrese. Mansell and Alesi both passed Senna at the first corner, while de Cesaris shot past both Benettons and Prost. The top four started to pull away, while Alesi held up the cars behind him.

Nannini soon re-passed de Cesaris, but the Dallara driver kept ahead of Piquet and Prost before retiring on lap 23 with an engine failure. Senna passed Alesi on lap 21, only to suffer a puncture which dropped him to tenth. Nannini passed the Tyrrell driver shortly afterwards and quickly caught up to the top four, followed by Prost. On lap 36, Alesi collided with the Minardi of Pierluigi Martini, putting them both out; Prost retired at around the same time with a gearbox failure.

At the halfway point of the race, the top five remained Boutsen, Berger, Patrese, Mansell and Nannini, with Senna back up to sixth and closing fast. He moved ahead of teammate Berger when the Austrian pitted for new tyres. On lap 52 Mansell made an attempt to pass Patrese, only to fall behind Nannini and Senna. Patrese pitted a few laps later, falling to seventh behind Berger and Piquet.

On lap 64, Senna attempted to pass Nannini at the chicane. The two collided, putting the Benetton driver out. Then on lap 72, Berger attempted a similar move on Mansell, taking both drivers out. This left Boutsen and Senna nearly half a minute clear of Piquet. Senna tried to find a way past Boutsen, but the Belgian held him off, crossing the line 0.288 seconds ahead. Boutsen would later claim that if the race had continued for any longer his brakes would likely have failed.[3] Piquet finished four seconds ahead of Patrese, with Derek Warwick in the Lotus and Éric Bernard in the Larrousse-Lola completing the top six.

Senna increased his lead over Prost in the Drivers' Championship to ten points, 54 to 44, with Berger on 29 and Boutsen on 27. McLaren also increased their lead in the Constructors' Championship, with 83 points to Ferrari's 57, followed by Williams on 42 and Benetton on 35.

Race classification[edit]

Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 5 Belgium Thierry Boutsen Williams-Renault 77 1:49:30.597 1 9
2 27 Brazil Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda 77 + 0.288 4 6
3 20 Brazil Nelson Piquet Benetton-Ford 77 + 27.893 9 4
4 6 Italy Riccardo Patrese Williams-Renault 77 + 31.833 2 3
5 11 United Kingdom Derek Warwick Lotus-Lamborghini 77 + 1:14.244 11 2
6 29 France Éric Bernard Lola-Lamborghini 77 + 1:24.308 12 1
7 12 United Kingdom Martin Donnelly Lotus-Lamborghini 76 + 1 lap 18
8 15 Brazil Maurício Gugelmin Leyton House-Judd 76 + 1 lap 17
9 10 Italy Alex Caffi Arrows-Ford 76 + 1 lap 26
10 21 Italy Emanuele Pirro Dallara-Ford 76 + 1 lap 13
11 25 Italy Nicola Larini Ligier-Ford 76 + 1 lap 25
12 9 Italy Michele Alboreto Arrows-Ford 75 + 2 laps 22
13 17 Italy Gabriele Tarquini AGS-Ford 74 + 3 laps 24
14 26 France Philippe Alliot Ligier-Ford 74 + 3 laps 21
15 24 Italy Paolo Barilla Minardi-Ford 74 + 3 laps 23
16 28 Austria Gerhard Berger McLaren-Honda 72 Collision 3
17 2 United Kingdom Nigel Mansell Ferrari 71 Collision 5
Ret 19 Italy Alessandro Nannini Benetton-Ford 64 Collision 7
Ret 16 Italy Ivan Capelli Leyton House-Judd 56 Gearbox 16
Ret 30 Japan Aguri Suzuki Lola-Lamborghini 37 Engine 19
Ret 1 France Alain Prost Ferrari 36 Gearbox 8
Ret 4 France Jean Alesi Tyrrell-Ford 36 Collision 6
Ret 8 Italy Stefano Modena Brabham-Judd 35 Engine 20
Ret 23 Italy Pierluigi Martini Minardi-Ford 35 Collision 14
Ret 22 Italy Andrea de Cesaris Dallara-Ford 22 Engine 10
Ret 3 Japan Satoru Nakajima Tyrrell-Ford 9 Brakes 15
DNQ 18 France Yannick Dalmas AGS-Ford
DNQ 7 Australia David Brabham Brabham-Judd
DNQ 36 Finland JJ Lehto Onyx-Ford
DNQ 35 Switzerland Gregor Foitek Onyx-Ford
DNPQ 14 France Olivier Grouillard Osella-Ford
DNPQ 31 Belgium Bertrand Gachot Coloni-Ford
DNPQ 33 Brazil Roberto Moreno EuroBrun-Judd
DNPQ 34 Italy Claudio Langes EuroBrun-Judd
DNPQ 39 Italy Bruno Giacomelli Life
Source:[4]

Championship standings after the race[edit]

  • Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Grand Prix Results: Hungarian GP, 1990". Grandprix.com. Retrieved 2 June 2017.
  2. ^ a b Walker, Murray (1990). Murray Walker's Grand Prix Year. Hazleton Publishing. pp. 87–94. ISBN 0-905138-82-1.
  3. ^ "How Hungary's tortoise and hare grand prix was won". autosport.com. Retrieved 11 November 2020.
  4. ^ "1990 Hungarian Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 21 December 2014. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  5. ^ a b "Hungary 1990 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 18 March 2019.


Previous race:
1990 German Grand Prix
FIA Formula One World Championship
1990 season
Next race:
1990 Belgian Grand Prix
Previous race:
1989 Hungarian Grand Prix
Hungarian Grand Prix Next race:
1991 Hungarian Grand Prix