1986 - Hungaroring - Ayrton Senna's pole position lap

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 BBC commentatory by Murray Walker and James Hunt.

[@probablygraham]

This was the first Grand Prix at the Hungaroring and I was lucky enough to be there. I will never forget Senna's pole lap because there were literally only a couple of minutes to go when he came out, did one lap and beat everyone by miles. Real vintage Senna. The grandstands were half empty because the locals couldn't afford to buy seats, but 5 minutes before the race started, the official disappeared and left the gates open so all the Hungarian fans got in for free, which I thought was pretty cool. We went to the race in a coach and drove into an area at the border which was surrounded by barbed wire and armed soldiers. They boarded the coach with their weapons and it was quite worrying. Then all of a sudden they ran off the coach and waved us through. We looked out to see what had happened and all the border guards were in a group around some people who had driven up in a Ferrari and a BMW M1, simply waving everyone else through :-)

[@blueman297]

Where the driver mutter so much, Ayrton take the pole!.

[@mkukulelecoverversions5576]

In this time, the beginning of the brief Golden Age of F1, Lotus and other teams would use a Qualifying engine that would be shot after 3 laps, and put out over 1600bhp. Never again will the world be blessed with men like this, enjoying the fullest possible extent of the nature and materials that God gave us, pushing themselves, engineering, physics and human comprehension to their limits.

[@duneideannaer5990]

Plus, I think at even this late point, they could use whatever fuel they liked? Scary prospect. This Lotus was lucky to finish a race with our Ayrton(or Dumfries) driving? It’s still, for me, the most visceral looking/sounding car for a long while. It’s female curves and paint scheme were meant for each other. And with Ayrton putting it under Quallie stress was like watching a beautiful carnival girl twerking her way down a promenade in Rio....... ............or Adelaide.

[@MMM-wg2vm]

They were not pushing past 1500 bhp, the most they ever made was 1450

[@ducic9095]

​@@MMM-wg2vmu mometu su mogli imati 1600ks ne nonstop, procitaj, a prica i G. Berger u Doku emisij da je to bilo zastrasujuce tolika snaga

[@mitchcoop1]

Even if Senna's car was not at the peak of handling...1986 Qualify Power was what he used to get pole with is huge talent. (Probably why he could kill in the rain also)

[@GrossmeisterB6]

The most beautiful race car of all race series ever made!!

[@dakkan5433]

Wow nearly a second faster that’s insane

[@sennagalisfan]

Senna the GOAT

[@ducic9095]

Senna magicni, kralj kise, kralj Monaca, kralj pola, kralj brzine jednostavno najbolji,

[@Ayrton4everrr]

Legend!

[@fernandotricolor3656]

Esse com certeza é o cara mais rápido que já entrou num carro de F1 pra tirar tempo em pole position com carros que não são os melhores do grid.

[@ducic9095]

Najbrzi ikada 100%, najbolji, Ali nije najuspijesniji Bio statisticki jer je nazalost poginuo to mnogi neshvataju da nisu titule znak najboljeg vozaca. Senna 👑

[@rubenscarvalho8636]

senna com os monstros turbo com mas de 1000hp com câmbio manual

[@ducic9095]

1600ks je bilo u monetu moguce, ne nonstop, bez ikakvih pomagala. To su bili pravi vozaci heroji.

[@myself-ow7ji]

Genius!

[@decoussau911]

The master!

[@evkef322]

Imagine someone driving so well now days!

[@alemao1352]

the BOSS

[@rafabern31]

1:10 Just imagine this scene nowadays 🤣

[@alejandrozuniga1459]

master to get pole on 1lap

[@gaucho5073]

Piquet's fastest lap on the race was 1'31"001s

[@gaucho5073]

Fast enough to leave everyone else far behind - including his teammate Mansell :-D

[@gaucho5073]

yes, including Senna. Piquet overtook Senna on the race sensacionally, on the outside of the first curve. After that, Senna pushed for some laps, then Piquet set the fastest lap 1'31"001.

[@gaucho5073]

So what? What is your point? The 86' Lotus Renault was the best qualifying car, where the Renault turbo put up to 1500cv horse power. However it was not the best in-race car, the Williams Honda was superior. Senna was a superb driver. So were Piquet, Mansell and Prost. Deal with it.

[@gaucho5073]

It seems you're a brasilian fan of Ayrton Senna doing a word-by-word translation from portuguese to english. You said "Piquet said that it was not difficult to catch up Senna because he (Piquet) had the best car. But it was difficult to overtake him". Yes, that is true, Senna fought for his position most of the time (specially in street and/or slow circuits), so others had to work really hard to overtake him.

[@gaucho5073]

Ah, agora entendo teu propósito: bater-boca Senna x Piquet, como muitos outros :-) Bom, eu não fico discutindo isso. Ambos foram excelentes. Sou velho e da área do automobilismo, então quando o Piquet surgiu no cenário nacional, ele impactou uma geração toda com sua dedicação e conhecimento técnico. Muitos brasileiros não conheçem isso, e principalmente, os detalhes da sua carreira. Mas estou em posição privilegiada de tê-lo visto fazer coisas que ninguém fazia. Por isso minha admiração. Já Senna não tinha o mesmo tino técnico dele, mas foi o piloto mais arrojado e habilidoso de todos os tempos. Ninguém dirigia tão rápido, por tanto tempo e com tanta qualidade como ele. That's it for today. Blessings!

[@danielwolfe4169]

8 tenths faster in a slower car

[@neilonaniet]

Imagine Michael Masi seeing Berger's car being moved out of the way like that these days. LOL

[@TheTripol]

A new track.

[@fernandotricolor3656]

As hamilzetes piram quando olham o monstro dirigindo um monstro manual sem nada de eletrônica moderna.

[@jstoli996c4s]

So glad that silly s-curve on the downhill section was removed, it was ridiculously slow.

[@mateuscyber14]

1985

[@jurajslezak2829]

first race was in 1986

[@probablygraham]

No, Mateus. I was there. In 1985 they hadn't even built the circuit.

[@80sf1fan2]

@@probablygraham man you are so lucky