Alpine’s Esteban Ocon secured his maiden win at the Hungarian GP on Sunday, after a lap one incident brought about a welcomed shake up.
Joining him on the podium was Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel in P2 and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton in third.
Lap one featured another chaotic start for the front of the field, and only that Hamilton got away clean, he too could have been a casualty of Bottas’ late braking.
After the red flag was summoned, six drivers were out of the race because the damage sustained was too serious to continue today’s battle.
Here’s what happened from lights out:
Highlights
It was a dream start for Hamilton, who got away well as a nightmare ensued further back that resulted in heavy damage for the Red Bull of Verstappen alongside six retirements.
The red flag was summoned on lap 1 after the start saw several drivers tangle with each other, ending up in the gravel, and closing the curtain on Charles Leclerc, Lance Stroll, Lando Norris, Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas’ race.
Bottas braked far too late into Turn 1 and caused havoc as the safety car took to the track. Hamilton was up in first followed by Alpine’s Ocon in second and Sebastian Vettel in third.
For the restart, Carlos Sainz was in fourth, Yuki Tsunoda 5th, Nicholas Latifi was in sixth and Fernando Alonso in seventh.
Closing out the re-shuffled top ten this afternoon was Williams’ George Russell, Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen and the Haas of Mick Schumacher ahead of a remaining 68 laps.
Once the huge amount of debris was removed from the track racing resumed at 2:32 pm with Lewis taking off from the grid on his own as every other driver pitted for dry tyres.
Hamilton pitted for dry tyres after one lap and fell down the order to 14th, while Alpine’s Esteban Ocon led the pack in first, followed by Sebastian Vettel in second and Nicholas Latifi in third.
Max Verstappen was now battling his way up the field from 11th with a heavily damaged Red Bull, while Pierre Gasly was closing in on him by Lap 6.
Nikita Mazepin became the sixth retirement of the day after a pitlane collision with Kimi Raikkonen. The Finnish driver was released into the Russian’s Haas causing damage to the VF21.
By Lap 10 Ocon was 1.3s in the distance in the Alpine, while Nicholas Latifi was 8.6s off the pace in third, as Hamilton made his first overtake after pitting and falling to last place.
The Mercedes got around the Alfa Romeo of Antonio Giovinazzi on the medium Pirellis and was charging up the field, with Pierre Gasly now in his sights for P12 – although the world champ was struggling with grip.
His closest competitor, Max Verstappen was also trying to battle his way back to the podium places and was in 11th by Lap 12 with Schumacher next on his radar.
Schumacher, who did an incredible job holding off the better performing Red Bull, became the victim of Verstappen’s aggressive style as he made his move on Lap 15 for P10 – next up ahead was the McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo .3s ahead.
By Lap 17, Ocon continued to lead the race, .8s ahead of Vettel in second while Latifi remained in third, 12s off the pace.
Hamilton remained in 11th and told the team he couldn’t get near the Alpha Tauri of Pierre Gasly – a much slower car on these tyres and in these conditions.
He pitted for a fresh set of hard tyres and managed to get the undercut on Verstappen and Ricciardo, and only minutes later managed to get around the Williams of George Russell for ninth as his charge to the front continued.
Nicholas Latifi then pitted from third place, pushing Carlos Sainz into the final podium position.
On Lap 27 Hamilton overtook Latifi for seventh on the main straight with Tsunoda now in his sights just 1.2s up the road.
Verstappen meanwhile was struggling in 12th behind former teammate Daniel Ricciardo in the McLaren, as Ocon was 1.9s in the lead with Sebastian Vettel in second and Carlos Sainz in 3rd.
After being lifted to sixth as Pierre Gasly pitted, Hamilton then put his Mercedes into 5th after successfully overtaking AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda.
At the halfway mark, Ocon was still in the lead 2.5s ahead, followed by Vettel in second and Alonso holding onto third, 14.7s off the pace.
Ocon then pitted from the lead on Lap 37 and returned to the track after a 2.3s stop in second, just ahead of the Aston Martin of Vettel who was closing the gap quickly in a fight for 2nd.
With 27 laps to go, Red Bull switched Verstappen onto medium tyres in an attempt to finish higher in this race. Ocon was back in the lead now, 1.3s ahead of Vettel with Ferrari’s Sainz in third – however, Hamilton was closing in and was just .9s behind the Spaniard.
Lap 48 saw Hamilton pit for the final time for fresh medium Pirellis, and returned to the race in fifth – he had 22 laps to find the podium steps – meanwhile, Vettel was challenging Ocon for the lead.
Fernando Alonso held his own against Hamilton on Lap 55 fending him off as the pair went wheel to wheel for 4th – the British driver remained .9s off his pace.
Ocon was still leading the pack ahead of Vettel who was 1s behind now, and Sainz remained in third in the remaining Ferrari.
Verstappen was still back in 11th, struggling in a damaged RB16B, and was only ahead of lapped drivers Raikkonen, Schumacher and Giovinazzi.
The Dutchman finally made his way back into the points in tenth after overtaking the McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo on Lap 61 into Turn 2.
With 5 laps to go, Hamilton’s battle with Alonso finally came to a close after the Spanish driver locked up coming into Turn One giving Hamilton the advantage to lift his Mercedes into 5th – he was now just .1s off Sainz in third.
Moments later, he got around the Ferrari for third and was now into the podium positions, hunting down Vettel’s Aston Martin 7.8s ahead.
Sainz didn’t have enough tyre life left to keep the Mercedes at bay at this point and so Hamilton glided ahead on the main straight on Lap 67.
After an impeccable fight to the finish, Alpine’s Esteban Ocon landed his maiden F1 victory with 1.8s to spare.
Joining him on the podium today was Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel in second and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton in third.
