Hungarian GP magic moment – Mansell’s dramatic drive to victory

Many of Nigel Mansell’s 31 Formula 1 wins were struggles against the odds. But when he couldn’t get his Ferrari 640 to work on qualifying tires at the Hungaroring in 1989, and he instead switched his focus to race setup, the odds looked to great. Twelfth on the grid, at a track where it was notoriously difficult to pass, he had surely left himself too much work to do. There seemed little chance of him catching up with the Williams-Renault of polesitter Riccardo Patrese, and the McLaren-Honda of Ayrton Senna.

But ol’ Nige could be relied upon to give it a damn good try. Naturally, the best passing zones were at the end of long straights, and at this stage of the season, the V12 Ferrari was pushing out 630hp, around 60 below the Honda V10, and 40hp from the Renault V10. Fine; Mansell was just going to have to use his car’s superior handling and ease on tires (thanks to his Saturday work with chief engineer Maurizio Nardon) to create passing opportunities elsewhere on the tortuous track.

We apologize for the low quality of the resolution, but are grateful to "The Mansell tribute channel” for putting it up at all. And blurred blobs can’t hide the magnificence of the winning pass…