One of the enduring ironies of the Hungarian Grand Prix is that the country, then firmly under communist rule, replaced South Africa for reasons not unconnected to apartheid. No fundamental truck with that, although it must be said that at the time motorsport was about the only non-racial sport being practiced in South Africa, while the eastern European country had absolutely zero feel for the sport.

Whatever spectators presented themselves at that first race on 10 August 1986 were either hardline petrolheads from nearby Austria or neighbouring socialist states, or bussed in by the ‘party’ to fill the place. Ask F1 drivers or media members present at that inaugural Hungarian Grand Prix to relate their experiences, and they twist their eyes in horror, then rapidly change the subject.

By contrast, South Africa was a firm favourite amongst F1 personnel, having just six years previously celebrated Jody Scheckter as world champion – three years before Finland could pull out the champers for Keke Rosberg, itself three years before France could toast Alain Prost, and a whopping 13 years before the country which invented the car first feted Michael Schumacher.

However, that was then and this is now, but it was still somewhat of a shock to realise that the Hungarian Grand Prix was celebrating its 25^th anniversary this weekend past. Since Bernie Ecclestone took that brave and far-sighted decision back in the days of the Cold War to embrace the eastern bloc, at a time when Williams-Honda dominated proceedings, Lotus was the real deal and teams such as Tyrrell, Benetton and Minardi made up the numbers, the event has been a calendar regular – and is firmly entrenched in the minds of grand prix aficionados across the world.

Thus it was fitting that F1 celebrated Hungary’s silver anniversary by delivering a cracker of a race. Before the start the omens did not, though, look good, with fellow front row starter Mark Webber, himself half a second down on Red Bull Racing team-mate Sebastian Vettel but 0,80 seconds ahead of third-placed man Fernando Alonso (Ferrari), suggesting after qualifying that it (the race) could be ‘be interesting in terms of trying to stay awake’...

For 20 laps or so it seemed that way, what with Vettel disappearing so far into the distance that the closest car to the 23-year-old German was a backmarker ahead, and about the only excitement being the tussle between Alonso and Webber, the latter having lost out in the drag race to Turn 1 on account of being on the ‘dirty’ side of the track.

Then it all changed: an identified piece of debris on the track caused the Safety Car to be deployed, and pit action followed thick and fast. In the melee Nico Rosberg lost a wheel – which narrowly missed Sauber’s crew but struck a Williams technician, fortunately without serious injury – after his Mercedes team failed to secure a nut, and Robert Kubica’s crew released the Renault driver into the path of Adrian Sutil’s Force India, causing a crash. In both instances the perpetrators were fined $50 000 (R400 000).