During the 1997 Hungarian Grand Prix, Michael Schumacher started from pole position. Behind him were the Williams Renault of Jacques Villeneuve and the Arrows Yamaha of Damon Hill respectively.
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As the race got underway, Schumacher led from Hill and Villeneuve, but he was struggling. On lap 11 Hill was closing in and soon overtook Schumacher, driving commentator Murray Walker ballistic. Eventually, the British driver found himself leading the race by over 35 seconds from Villeneuve.
After hounding Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari, Damon Hill (Arrows-Yamaha) passed his German rival for the lead into turn 1 on lap 11, sending ITV F1’s Murray Walker delirious. Hungarian GP, Hungaroring, 10th August 1997. #F1 pic.twitter.com/Y3D6p49rPT
— F1 in the 1990s 🚦🏎🏁🏆🍾 (@1990sF1) August 10, 2019
Sadly, disaster struck as, on lap 74, with three laps left, the hydraulic pump failed on Hill’s car. This resulted in the Arrows-Yamaha being stuck in third gear and have an intermittent throttle. Naturally, Damon Hill started losing time and second placed man Jacques Villeneuve ate into the 35-second lead. On the final lap, Villeneuve twisted the knife further as he overtook the ailing Damon Hill and won the race. The good news was that Hill held on to finish second, and Johnny Herbert took the third place on the podium.
Michael Schumacher was a distant 4th, ahead of his brother Ralf Schumacher. The only other point-scorer was Shinji Nakano in a race that witnessed only 13 finishers.
