When speaking of remarkable drivers at the Hungarian Grand Prix, one name immediately comes to mind. In eight appearances, Damon Hill finished in the points seven times, making it onto the podium five times in a row. Remarkable, especially when you realise he was in a truly competitive car only half the time.

Back in 1992, Damon Hill ran his debut season for the fading Brabham team. Things were going progressively worse and the fact that Damon made it onto the grid at his home Grand Prix was a feat in itself. So when the circus arrived in Hungary, Hill's fact sheet read seven attendances, one start, one race finished four laps behind the winner. Needless to say, hopes weren't exactly high for Hungary. Added to that, Damon's teammate Eric van de Poele had moved to Fondmetal after the previous Grand Prix, leaving Brabham with just a single driver.

First qualifying left the team with mixed emotions. Hill finished the session in 29th, which was not good enough to qualify. However, his time was just two tenths short of a grid spot. On Saturday morning, the team missed out on the free practice session, in which all drivers went faster than Hill had done the day before. Then in the final qualifying session, somewhat of a miracle happened. Hill managed to somehow find one and a half seconds, which together with Alessandro Zanardi missing the entire session and the Andrea Moda and Dallaras having less progress, brought him 25th position and thus a place on the grid.

As the lights turned to green, total chaos emerged. Somewhere ahead of Hill, the Ligiers of Thierry Boutsen and Erik Comas collided. In a vain attempt to avoid the two, Johnny Herbert spun off. Elsewhere on the first lap, Osella's Gabriele Tarquini collided with Damon's former teammate van de Poele. The Fondmetal driver was able to continue, but Tarquini was out on the spot. In between the mayhem, Hill made a good start, moving past Paul Belmondo and Ukyo Katayama. Thus it happened that Hill completed the first lap no less than six positions higher than where he had started.

Two laps later, van de Poele spun off, now damaging his car more than it could bear. Meanwhile, things weren't going too good for Hill. After thirteen laps it was time for total chaos, act two. In two separate incidents, Aguri Suzuki and Bertrand Gachot as well as Olivier Grouillard and Karl Wendlinger collided. All four were out of the race within a time space of twenty seconds! As an added bonus for Hill, Grouillard hit Jordan driver Stefano Modena on the way out. This moved the Brabham driver into thirteenth.

This by no means meant that Hill was going faster, as he really had to nurse the Brabham to make it go the distance. Car after car passed him as he settled to bring the car home. Others weren't quite doing the same, as was proven by Katayama. The Japanese driver passed Hill, only to retire with a broken engine a few laps later. Another five laps later and Pierluigi Martini retired with his gearbox malfunctioning. After two thirds of the race, Damon caught up with Belmondo in the March. However, he soon had to settle for last again, dropping back further and further. Jordan's Mauricio Gugelmin was, however, dropping back at a considerably faster rate. Sadly for Hill and Brabham, he was still some ten seconds ahead of Damon when the flag dropped. No top ten spot for Hill, but a finished race was quite remarkable after all. As the weeks came and went after the Hungarian Grand Prix, it became apparent that in fact it had been the last race of the legendary team. A potential new, much needed, sponsor went bankrupt itself and that just about closed the door for the team.

For 1993, Hill turned to an entirely different world. From his role as test driver for Williams, he moved into a racing seat, competing for the 1992 champions alongside Alain Prost, who had come out of retirement. Throughout the season, Hill's position on the grid was a steady second behind his teammate. Only in South Africa and Monaco he qualified fourth and in Magny Cours he grabbed his first career pole position. So on Saturday afternoon, it came as no surprise that the front row consisted of Prost and Hill.

On Sunday, things appeared to start as usual. Until the start of the parade lap, that is. In a rare mistake, polesitter Alain Prost stalled on the grid, forcing him to start from the back of the grid. This left Hill with a clear shot at the lead, which he promptly took. While Prost was making his way through the field at an incredible pace, Hill had a fairly easy time up front. Only Ayrton Senna could stay with him initially, keeping the gap within five seconds at first. However, as Hill kept increasing his pace, the McLaren could not. After ten laps, the gap had grown to ten seconds, after which all threat disappeared when Senna's throttle started acting up. When the Brazilian retired after 17 laps, the fighting trio of Schumacher, Patrese and Berger were well over 30 seconds behind Hill. Behind them, a hard charging Alain Prost was already in fifth.

The lap after Senna's retirement, Berger came in for tyres. The Austrian dropped back to twelfth. Another lap later and it was time for Prost to come in. That pitstop marked the end of whatever progress Prost had made that afternoon. In a stop that appeared to have no end, the Frenchman dropped all the way back to last once again, this time with no way back up. A few laps later, yet another number two dropped out of sight, as Schumacher retired with a broken fuel pump. Patrese was now in second, nearly 40 seconds behind Damon Hill, who had made his stop. The Williams driver once again put the pedal to the metal and come time for his second stop, his lead was nearly a full minute. After that, nothing much happened and in the end Hill celebrated his first victory. Patrese finished second, nearly 72 seconds behind the winner, while Gerhard Berger completed the podium.

The next visit to Hungary had quite a different setting. World Champion Alain Prost had retired and Formula One was in the aftermath of Senna's death. The battle for the Championship was that of the next generation: Hill vs Schumacher. Qualifying saw Hill somewhat disappointed in second, behind his German rival. As the race started, Schumacher took full profit of his pole position, while Hill got away quite well from the dirty side of the track. Behind them, Rubens Barrichello played a nice game of bowling, hitting both his teammate Eddie Irvine and Ukyo Katayama's Tyrrell in one go. Three corners down, three cars out. Meanwhile, Hill and Schumacher showed they were the class of the crop, as they moved away quickly. Schumacher then was the first of the leaders to stop for fuel and tyres, after 16 laps. Hill quickly grabbed the lead, until it was time for his own stop, nine laps later. After that, things were done. Schumacher moved away and Damon had no chance whatsoever to catch the Benetton driver.

1995 saw the same duel, with the difference that Benetton and Schumacher were now, like Williams, powered by Renault. This caused sheer domination by the German early on in the season. However, no such thing happened in Hungary. On the tight and twisty circuit near Budapest, Damon Hill was on the ball all weekend. Friday qualifying saw both Williams take the front row, Hill seven tenths ahead of Coulthard, with Ferrari driver Gerhard Berger closely following. Schumacher was surprisingly over a second behind in fourth. While the Benetton driver found almost two seconds on Saturday, it proved not to be enough. Damon Hill went yet another six tenths faster than Schumacher's 1:17.558. As an added bonus, fellow Williams driver David Coulthard grabbed second place, to secure a Williams front row.

In the race, the fact that Coulthard was ahead of Schumacher proved vital. The three were away in qualifying order and with Coulthard keeping Schumacher behind him, Hill was able to move away at the rate of a second per lap. Once Schumacher made his way past Coulthard, after 11 laps, he was able to match Hill's speed, but nothing more. Both Hill and Schumacher stopped after 17 laps, allowing Hill to keep the lead. Schumacher, on the other hand, was quite a bit quicker after the stop and quickly decreased the gap to five seconds. However, nine laps later it became clear why. Schumacher was pitting for a second time, after he had not received enough fuel the first time around.

Hill's lead was now quite comfortable, but Schumacher was pushing hard to keep up. Once Hill noticed this, he pushed his car to the maximum to be able to stay ahead after his second stop. After 38 laps the moment arrived and as the Williams moved out of the pitlane and the Benetton moved down the straight, the Briton just about got his car ahead of that of his rival. Eight laps later it was time for Schumacher's third and final stop, after which Hill once again increased his speed in order to create a safe gap for his own stop to take place in. He succeeded, but after 73 laps his worries proved to have been unjustified. Schumacher's engine failed close to the finish and Hill's second win at Hungary was a fact.

The following year, Williams were in fact without competition. Hill was now teamed up with Indy 500 winner and CART champion Jacques Villeneuve, while Schumacher had moved to the rebuilding Ferrari team. Another difference was in qualifying. From this year on there was just a single Saturday afternoon session counting for grid positions, increasing the pressure on the drivers to perform in that session. For Hungary, this resulted in a close session between the Williams and Schumacher. The end result was that Schumacher claimed pole by the smallest of margins. Damon Hill was second, just 0.053 of a second behind the German, while Villeneuve followed in third no more than 0.130 of a second behind pole.

However, as it happens so often in racing and life in general, such a small thing had a huge impact on the final outcome of the race. Being in second meant that Hill had to start on the dusty side of the track. When things got underway, it was Hill who scrawled away like Bambi on ice. While one side of the grid moved ahead, the other side was hopelessly trapped behind the Williams driver. The whole situation meant that Damon dropped back to fourth, behind the much slower Jean Alesi. Schumacher and Villeneuve quickly opened up a lead as they gained over a second each lap on the rest of the field.

No matter how hard Hill tried, he couldn't squeeze past Alesi on the tight circuit. He moved up a spot after 18 laps, when Schumacher pitted. However, when the Ferrari driver rejoined, he was just two seconds behind Hill with a stop in hand. In quick succession, Villeneuve and Alesi pitted too, temporarily handing Hill the lead. His own stop after 26 laps meant he dropped back to fifth. This time he had a much easier time getting past Alesi, as the Frenchman braked too late into the first corner, nearly losing his Benetton on the dirt.

Damon then drove for all he was worth, but the loss at the start appeared to have closed the door on success. The pitstops brought him back into the lead for a short while again, but with another stop to go, that was just a mirage. What Hill did get was second place. After his final stop he managed to come out ahead of Schumacher, and closed in on the leader. When the flag dropped, less than a second separated winner Villeneuve and his teammate.

1997 saw quite a surprise, with World Champion Damon Hill moving to the tiny Arrows team. Apart from a ninth spot on the grid in Brazil and a sixth place at Silverstone, the car was bound to be in the second half of the order. Enter a big surprise in Hungary. Damon was more competitive than he had been all season, right from the start of Friday practice. Or rather the end of it, as the Briton had been out with gearbox problems for most of the time. With just one timed lap on the sheets, the Arrows finished the session in a surprising fifth place. On Saturday, things kept going Hill's way. The World Champion pulled a lap out from nowhere and there it was: an Arrows third on the grid.

This time, Damon was on the right side of the track and luckily for him, the other side had the same problem he had had the year before. Villeneuve got off the line like a snail, dropping to fifth. Much to the surprise of everyone, Hill was then able to match Schumacher's pace, pass him, and even increase the pace as the Ferrari driver pitted earlier. Villeneuve, meanwhile, was making his way back up. The Canadian drove similar times to Hill, but was unable to close the gap. Both drivers went into the pits at the same time, after which the gap remained steady until lap 35. After that, Hill was somehow able to push harder than his former teammate, extending his lead to no less than twenty seconds.

After 51 laps, the two again entered the pits on the same lap, after which the pace was once again the same. With just a few laps to go, Hill had a certain maiden victory for Arrows in hand. However, with three laps to go came the big shock. Hill's car was quickly deteriorating, with both the throttle and gearbox acting up beyond belief. For a minute it appeared that he could hold on to his win if the car would carry him to the line, but with less than half a lap to go, Villeneuve landed on Hill like an eagle on his prey. Going on the grass with over half of his car, the Canadian showed no mercy and demoted the unfortunate Arrows driver to second.

The following season had Damon Hill in a more competitive car, this time at Jordan. After a difficult first half of the season, things were slowly improving by the time of the Hungarian Grand Prix. Qualifying proved a new season high, as Hill was able to squeeze himself between the Ferraris, scoring a brilliant fourth place on the grid. Come raceday, Irvine was quickly past the Jordan. However, the Ferrari broke down early in the race, putting Hill in a comfortable fourth place until his first stop. Once the others had stopped too, Damon moved back into his fourth spot. His second stop, however, put him behind Villeneuve and into fifth, where he had his hands full with Villeneuve's teammate Heinz-Harald Frentzen. The German was right under the Jordan rear wing each and every lap and Damon needed hands and feet to keep his position. In the process, the two passed the limping McLaren of Mika Hakkinen, moving them up to fourth and fifth. When the flag dropped, Hill had a little over a second on Frentzen, grabbing a well deserved fourth place.

1999 was Damon's final year, a year of few ups and many downs. One thing that Damon said ahead of this Grand Prix might well give a hint on what his mindset was at this point. Speaking about what he liked about the Hungarian Grand Prix, he said: "Everyone says Budapest is a beautiful city, but I must admit I have never had the chance to explore it." Hill was thinking about retirement all season and was more and more busy with other things than racing. However, there was a race and it was at his track, so on with business as they say. First business was qualifying. This was quite pleasing for Jordan. Both cars qualified in the top six, showing good potential for points. Frentzen beat Hill, albeit by a very narrow margin. Between the two Jordan drivers was exactly 0.003 of a second! In distance, this comes down to about 15 centimeters, which means that in real to life size, both nosecones would have fitted on your computer screen!

On Sunday, the start involved yet another slow getaway. However, this time the turtle was on the clean side of the track. David Coulthard had about his worst start of the season, allowing both Fisichella and Frentzen past. Hill got stuck behind his former teammate and remained sixth for quite some time. Only when Fisichella stopped did Hill move up a place, only to drop three when he himself stopped on the next lap. Pitstops from Alesi and Barrichello moved Damon back into sixth, where he remained until his second stop. This time the drop was to ninth. A lap later it was eighth, when Alexander Wurz stopped for fresh rubber and fuel. Another lap later it became seventh, when Fisichella retired and yet another lap later, Hill was back in the points because of Alesi's pitstop. With his thorough knowledge of the track and all his experience, Damon Hill brought home this point in his seventh consecutive top six finish in Hungary.