Was Fernando Alonso’s first lap at the Hungaroring as good as Ayrton Senna’s legendary first lap at Donington in 1993? A bit of a debate seems to be starting.
Nigel Roebuck doesn’t think Alonso’s lap can be compared with Senna’s:
The majority of the work was done in the opening seconds – literally away from the grid. Ayrton at Donington was a different thing.
But F1Fanatic says:
Alonso’s start was wholly reminiscent of Senna’s, in that once he’d passed one car he’d decimate the gap to the next then pass it as if it were standing still. To my mind, he demonstrated exactly the same intuitive grasp for the levels of grip on a changing and inconsistent surface that Senna did on that celebrated day.
I don’t know if Alonso’s lap was really as good as Senna’s. But I definitely disagree with the idea that Alonso made all of his places at the start. Infact, I initially thought that Alonso had completely blown his chances at the start, particularly when Schumacher made so many places before turn 1.
If you look at the footage of Alonso’s start, I reckon he only makes — at the very most — two or three places before the first corner — and only just! But the real magic happens on the rest of the lap. Judge for yourself by watching the onboard video:
Unfortunately, the footage of Alonso’s first lap isn’t quite uninterrupted. But we see more than enough to grasp the fact that Alonso was quite simply on another level compared to everybody else on the circuit. By the end of the first lap Alonso had made his way up to 6th position having started 15th on the grid.
This was not down to Alonso’s car. By the end of the first lap he had taken Felipe Massa in the Ferrari with a truly incredible and brave move. Alonso went on to overtake his teammate (who had started from 7th) on lap two.
By lap three Alonso was all over the back of Michael Schumacher, and on lap four (at the very end of the video) we see Alonso overtake Michael Schumacher on the outside of the corner. By the end of that lap Alonso was in 3rd position.
This is a wonderful display of driving. I now feel that Alonso fully deserves to be compared with Ayrton Senna.
Funny how watching a grand prix entirely from onboard cameras and without commentators serves to make it seem all the more dramatic.
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