36th, From 14th to Glory: Jenson Button's Sensational Rise in the Rain at Hungaroring

2006 Hungarian GP
August 6, Hungaroring

Much of that water had been turbulent, but he’d survived the rapids with dignity intact. After all, he always had been good in the wet.

Amid the turmoil of an increasingly political Ferrari versus Renault championship battle, F1 arrived in usually balmy Budapest only to discover meteorological storm clouds too. The weekend started badly for Button and his Honda team, a spectacular engine failure landing him a 10-place grid penalty. He would start 14th.

But in mixed conditions, Button stealthily climbed the order while others lost their heads: Kimi Räikkönen dozed off and slammed into the Toro Rosso of Tonio Liuzzi; Michael Schumacher raced erratically on poorly performing Bridgestone tyres, eventually breaking a track rod after starting a penalised 11th; while Fernando Alonso, who started a place behind Button after also being docked places for brake-testing Robert Doornbos in practice, lost a wheel after a botched Renault pitstop.

But despite the travails of others, few could begrudge Button his first victory since Formula 3, especially as he had won through intelligence, racecraft and that uncanny knack of reading the trickiest conditions.

With what we know now, how strange it seems that until 2009 and the Brawn GP phenomenon Button looked set to be remembered as a modern equivalent of Jean-Pierre Beltoise: one GP win scored, on a day of days when rain levelled the playing field. Just as well for Jenson that water kept flowing. DS

1st Jenson Button (Honda)
2nd Pedro de la Rosa (McLaren-Mercedes)
3rd Nick Heidfeld (BMW)
Winner’s time & speed 1hr 52min 20.94sec, 101.76mph
Pole position Kimi Räikkönen (McLaren-Mercedes), 1min 19.59sec, 123.11mph