Best seats at the Hungaroring: the Hungarian Grand Prix grandstand guide

Sit in the covered main-straight stands if you want shade, the grid and the podium. Sit at Turn 1 if you want to watch overtaking. Sit at Apex 1 if you want to spend as little as possible and still see the cars properly.

That's the whole decision at the Hungaroring, and it comes down to two things about this track. Turn 1 is the only corner where anyone overtakes. And the main grandstand is the only one with a roof, at a race held in the last days of July.

Every grandstand at a glance

The main straight

Everything happens in front of these seats. The cars line up on the grid here, the race starts here, the pit stops happen across the track, and the podium is here at the end of the day. No other seat gives you all of that.

Grandstand Hungaroring and Grandstand Hungaroring Platinum are also the only stands with a roof, and that matters more than it sounds. The race is at the end of July, the circuit sits in a valley that holds the heat, and it's regularly over 35°C. Everywhere else, you're in full sun for three days.

What you give up is a corner. You'll watch cars go past in a straight line all afternoon, and follow the race itself on the big screen.

Turn 1

If you want to see one car pass another, sit here. Turn 1 is the hardest braking of the lap at the end of the main straight, so passes happen at this corner or they don't happen at all.

Grandstand T1 sits on the outside of the corner. Try to get a seat in the sectors nearest the corner itself, because the ones at the far end face back up the straight and you lose the braking zone. Get row 10 or higher too. The catch fencing cuts across the view from every row below it.

Pit Exit 1

I sat here for a race. It's halfway between the pit lane exit and Turn 1, and the cars come past near the top of the gears.

That sounds better than it is. They're past you in a blink, so what you get is speed rather than driving. You can see Turn 1 from here, but it's a long way off. Watching cars come back out of the pits is good fun on the first stop and completely ordinary by the twentieth.

The stand is only 12 rows deep, so you sit low and everything looks flat. If you do book it, take a seat in sector A or B, which face the corner.

It's a decent seat. I wouldn't book it again, because it usually costs nearly as much as T1, and T1 is the better view.

Apex 1

The last corner is a long right-hander, and Apex 1 looks straight at it. For the money, that's a good deal, and I'd take it again over Pit Exit 1.

You should know what you're not getting, though. The ground drops away towards Turn 1, so the far end of the straight is hidden, and a line of sponsor banners blocks most of what the slope doesn't. The same slope cuts off the view to your right. What's left is the corner in front of you, which is genuinely good, and not much else.

Nobody overtakes at the last corner either. Sit as high as you can, because the lower rows look straight into the catch fencing.

Getting in

The gates are spread right around the circuit, and walking in through the wrong one can cost you 45 minutes. Gate 8 for T1 and the Pit Exit stands. Gate 7 for the covered main-straight stands. Gate 6 for the Grid, Podium and Apex stands. Gate 2 for the Chicane stands. Gate 3 for the Fan grandstand and general admission.