Friday, August 1, 2008

The Hungarian Grand Prix


The Hungaroring circuit is 19 km from the centre of Budapest, alongside the M3 motorway at the border of the village, Mogyoród. The track is in a natural valley, surrounded by 50 hectares of rolling hillside. With this exceptional natural advantage, almost 80 percent of the racetrack is visible from any point. This is the reason why it is called "The Shallow Plate", it is because the spectators are watching races sitting by the side of an imaginary plate.


At the Grand Opening, the total length of the Hungaroring was 4013,786 metres. A minor correction was made during 1989, as a result of cutting an S-curve combination, the circuit became faster, giving an extra overtaking opportunity to the drivers; hence, the full track length was reduced to 3968 metres.


The smallest radius of a curve is 20 metres, while the largest is 400 metres. The full length of the start-finish line is 788 metres; the top speed here is approximately 320 km/h. The track is at its widest here: 15 metres, elsewhere the width varies between 10 and 11 metres, relative to the possible highest speed.

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