Five Years Ago, Hamilton Equals Schumacher's Single GP Victory Record

Hungaroring Circuit In Mogyorrod (Ist)

JAKARTA - The Hungaroring Circuit in Mogyord, Hungary, is one of the historical locations in the career of British Mercedes racer Lewis Hamilton.

Because, there, exactly five years ago, Hamilton managed to match the record for the most wins in a Formula 1 Grand Prix (GP) which previously belonged to Michael Schumacher.

Prior to the checkered flag of the Hungarian GP flying in Hungaroring, July 19, 2020, Schumacher was the owner of the record for the most wins for a Formula 1 GP with eight times being the best at the French GP in 1994, 1995, 1997, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2004, and 2006.

After eating a 4.381 km long track of 70 rounds in 1 hour 36 minutes and 12,473 seconds, Hamilton came out as the winner of the 8,702 second-long Hungarian GP away from the rising Dutch Red Bull racer, Max Verstappen.

It was Hamilton's eighth win at the Hungarian GP after the 2007, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2016, 2018, and 2019 editions, equaling the most winning number of Schumacher's Formula 1 Grand Prix.

The record lasted quite a long time, before Hamilton made his name twice with England's eighth GP win in 2021, followed by full control of the record alone three years later at Silverstone.

Not enough to break just one record, the 2020 Hungarian GP is also another Hamilton gold ink canvas. Right when Hamilton completed his 70th lap, he also recorded the fastest lap time of the Formula 1 race in Hungaroring with 1 minute and 16.627 seconds.

Hamilton took over a similar record set by Verstappen with 1 minute and 17,103 seconds a year earlier, when he was still in the Toro Rosso-Renault uniform.

The official record for the fastest lap time of the Hungarian GP is divided into three eras based on the length of the Hungaroring track. The first is owned by the three-time Brazilian world champion, Nelson Piquet, with a record round time of 1 minute and 30,149 seconds at the Hungary GP 1987 when the Hungaroring still had an original track length of 4.014 km.

Hungaroring then underwent modifications in 1989 which changed the track length to 3.975 km. Right at the end of the period, in the 2002 Hungarian GP, Schumacher broke record fastest lap times with 1 minute and 16.207 seconds.

So, after the modification of the second circuit in 2003, the record time for the fastest lap of the Formula 1 race in Hungaroring belongs to Hamilton through the 2020 Hungarian GP which still lasts at least five years.

Pandemic anomaly

Like most sports competitions and the lives of mankind in general, the 2020 Formula 1 racing season is heavily influenced - if you don't want to be disturbed - by the spread of the corona virus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV-2) which has recently caused the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020.

On February 12, 2020, China's GP in Shanghai, which was originally scheduled to take place on April 17-19, was officially canceled after a joint agreement between the FIA, Formula 1 and local promoters.

Although the Chinese GP was canceled and teams from Italy had raised concerns about the threat of COVID-19 transmission, the FIA and Formula 1 continued to hold pre-season testing sessions at Barcelona on February 23-28, 2020.

It seems that the opening race for the Australian GP season will still be held as scheduled for March 15, 2020, based on the green light of the Victoria state health authorities as well as the statement by Formula 1 Managing Director Ross Brawn that the race will only be postponed if a team is forced to enter the country where the race is located.

Hamilton was one of those who criticized this. He admitted that he was surprised that he and other Formula 1 groups could be in Australia holding a press conference on March 12, 2020, just a day after WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic situation.

"It's really good that we can race, but still I'm surprised we all sit in this room," Hamilton said at the time, saying that the NBA had taken a more serious decision by suspending the season.

Hamilton's concern came true because a few hours later, McLaren announced his resignation from the Australian GP because one of their team members tested positive for COVID-19.

The announcement was responded to by an emergency meeting of all team principals, forcing the FIA and Formula 1 the next day to announce that the Australian GP was canceled just hours before the first training session took place.

Bad news then came repeatedly, because still on the same day, Formula 1 also decided to postpone the Bahrain GP and Vietnam GP which were supposed to be a follow-up race after the Australian GP.

News of delays and cancellations has continued to emerge for at least two months since the Australian GP was canceled, until finally on May 30, 2020, Austrian Health Minister Rudolf Anschober conveyed good news in the form of approval of Formula 1 holding the opening two races for the 2020 season at Spielberg on July 5 and 12.

Formula 1 overhauled the 2020 season racing calendar. As a result, the Vietnam GP, which was originally scheduled to make its debut, was completely canceled, as well as the Dutch GP, was not re-entered in the Formula 1 calendar.

The calendar change also practically affected the Hungarian GP which was supposed to be the 13th race of the 2020 season and was held on August 2, advancing into the third race and being held on July 19. For Hamilton, it actually made him make a new record faster.