McLaren v Ferrari harks back to the old days

Although the morning's rain did not reappear — some forecasts suggested it might — as the Hungarian Grand Prix started on Aug 3, for a significant chunk of the event it seemed that Charles Leclerc and Ferrari might be about to rain on McLaren's parade.

- David Tremayne

This was a weekend for round numbers. And that really would have upset the apple cart as McLaren chased down a special landmark.

The enthusiastic and dedicated Hungarians had rebuilt the infrastructure of their great circuit in seven months — the time it had taken them originally to create the hugely popular 4.381km Hungaroring in the first place back in 1985.

And they held a rather quaint 40th-race anniversary party — the Jubileumi Unnepseg — on July 31. The idea was to share and to celebrate the people who made it, organised its events, looked after the safety aspects and the marketing, and even those of us hacks who have been around a long time and supposedly helped them to publicise it.

The star guest, looking very fit and healthy and still possessed of a strong handshake and razor-sharp wit, was one Bernard Charles Ecclestone.

The man whose far-sighted imagination had led Formula One behind the Iron Curtain all those years ago in Budapest, after giving up trying to persuade Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, that Moscow should stage a race.

Russia's loss most definitely became Hungary's gain, spiritually and commercially.