Watch: Ferrari’s Magic Nigel Mansell defeats Ayrton Senna after qualifying 12th | 1989 Hungarian GP. Nigel Mansell defeats Ayrton Senna in Hungary after qualifying 12th.

On 13th August 1989, Nigel Mansell won the Hungarian Grand Prix. Starting from twelfth, the Englishman took the F1-89 to its second win of the season, after his unexpected victory in the season opener in Brazil. Not that the Hungarian win was a foregone conclusion given that Mansell hadn’t exactly shone in qualifying. However, Sunday got off on the right foot when Nigel was fastest in the warm-up and by the end of the opening lap of the race, he’d already managed to move up to eighth.

It took another six passing moves on track, a retirement for the leader and pole-man Patrese and a pit stop for his team-mate, Gerhard Berger, to take Mansell into the lead. Particularly significant was his duel with Senna: the Brazilian had inherited the lead on lap 53 when Patrese retired and seemed capable of fending off the determined Englishman, but a tiny moment’s hesitation when overtaking Johansson’s Onyx opened up a chink that Mansell bravely, or possible recklessly dived for, thus passing the McLaren under braking.

The Italian fans referred to Mansell as “Leone” the lion and, with that passing move and his climb up the order securing their place in F1 history, the Englishman proved it was well deserved.

 

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