Esteban Ocon wins 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix ahead of Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton.
This will be Ocon’s fist ever Formula 1 grand prix win and first ever victory for French team in Alpine name. The Frenchman becomes 111th Grand prix winner in Formula 1.
“What a moment! It feels so good!. It’s fantastic, what can I say? Congrats to Fernando as well, I think the win is also thanks to him with the fight that he did. It’s teamwork, it’s been a fantastic day!”– said race winner Ocon after picking up his first win in Formula 1.
Sebastian Vettel comes home in P2 to pick his second podium for Aston Martin, he also finished P2 in Baku earlier in the season.
During podium interview Vettel said, he is disappointed for not winning the race as he felt he is faster than Ocon.
“Esteban didn’t do a single mistake, he stayed on track, so well-deserved for him to take his first victory. It’s a great result for us, but when it’s that close, for sure you’re always looking at the win rather than second place”.
Lewis Hamilton comes home in P3 to after falling to back of the grid at the end of first lap after red flag restart. Unlike other teams Mercedes failed to bring him into pits for dry tyres at the end of formation lap.
Once again Lewis was booed by Hungarian crowd in the stands during his podium interview, The Brit said he is happy with P3 finish considering the circumstances.
“I want to say congratulations to the Alpine team and to Esteban for his first win – he’s been a shining star for a long time. It was a tough race and I had nothing left at the end. Considering how things went overall, we have to be happy with P3.”
Carlos Sainz picks up P4 after starting 15th on the grid, he was in the contention for podium until Lewis overtook him in the 67th lap of the race. Driver of the day winner Fernando Alonso comes home in P5 after holding charging Lewis Hamilton for couple laps to help his team mate to win the race.
P5 is his best finish this season and it is best points scoring weekend for Alpine in 2021 season so far.
AlphaTauri duo Gasly and Tsunoda clinches double point finish with P6 & P7 ahead of Williams duo Latifi in P8 and Russell in P9. Max Verstappen picks up P10 to closeout the final point scoring position.
Williams claimed their first points since the 2019 German Grand Prix, and this is first ever Formula one point score for their driver Latifi and first point with Williams for George Russell.
Bottas and Lance Stroll are first lap culprits
Hamilton makes a great start, but behind him there is a big train of car crashing into each other into the first corner.
Bottas was the first culprit, braking far too late after a slow getaway. He went into Norris, who went into Verstappen. The Finn himself by that point was a passenger in a damaged car as he also hit Perez.
Further back, Lance Stroll took to the inside grass at Turn 1, but couldn’t avoid running into Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari, who then spun around Daniel Ricciardo’s McLaren.
So Bottas, Leclerc, Stroll, Perez and Norris all forced to retire from the race, as first a Safety Car then a full red flag was pulled, the stop helped Red Bull to make repairs on Max Verstappen’s car.
Both Bottas and Stroll later handed a five-place grid drop for next race at Belgium for their part in the first lap carnage.
Bizarre re-start
After a 25 minutes brief red flag stop, top 10 at the Lap 4 restart are Hamilton from Ocon, Vettel, Sainz (who’d started P15), Tsunoda (who’d started P16), Williams’ Latifi in sixth, Alpine’s Alonso P7, the second Williams of Russell in P8, Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen P9 while Mick Schumacher found himself 10th for Haas.
Gasly P11 and Ricciardo P12 were ahead of Verstappen in P13, who has been forced to pit after his contact with Bottas with major damage to his right-hand barge board.
Hamilton led the field round on the warm-up lap, while the track having dried dramatically in the intervening time. Hamilton opted not to pit ahead of the restart, but behind him the other 14 drivers still in the race all stopped for mediums.
As the five lights went out Hamilton was left alone on the grid creating one of the Bizarre scenes , as the rest of the field changed tyres and waited at the end of the pit lane.
Nikita Mazepin joins the long list of retires, making contact with Raikkonen in the pits, for which Fin was handed a 10-second penalty.
Raikkonen, Ricciardo, Schumacher and Antonio Giovinazzi rounded out the order to finish the race in point less position from 11th to 14th.
Mercedes takes 10 point lead in the 2021 Constructors Championship over Red Bull going into the important summer break. While Lewis Hamilton also takes 6 point lead in the Drivers championship battle over Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
[…] Valtteri Bottas comes home in disappointing eighth position, but the Fin will start the race from P13 on the Grid due to five place grid penalty handed to him for causing collision in 2021 Hungarian GP. […]