Recently, Esteban Ocon secured his maiden F1 victory at the Hungarian GP. Surprisingly, he’s not the only driver to end his winning drought at the Hungaroring.
So let’s look at the five drivers who opened their winning account in Budapest.
The first of Damon Hill’s 22 F1 victories came at the Hungaroring. With polesitter Alain Prost stalling on the grid and McLaren’s Ayrton Senna retiring. Hill secured his first victory and become the first son of a world champion to win a Grand Prix.
Fernando Alonso started the race from the pole and led almost the entire race to become F1’s youngest-ever winner. The Spaniard beat Raikkonen by over 16 seconds, and even lapping Michael Schumacher for good measure.
Into his seventh season of F1 in 2006 and still without a win to his name, Button started the race P14. On the very first wet race at the Hungaroring, the Briton made a huge comeback to clinch his first title.
Heikki Kovalainen started the race P2 beside his teammate, Lewis Hamilton. The Finn was considered the third most likely to win the race. But with both Lewis and Massa retired, Kovalainen secured his first and the last F1 win.
Alpine’s Esteban Ocon started the race P8 and was hardly favorable to win the race. However, the Frenchman showcased massive resilience to beat Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton to clinch his maiden F1 victory.