@OconEsteban claims shock maiden victory in dramatic #HungarianGP. #F1

Alpine F1 Team’s Esteban Ocon clinched his maiden Formula 1 victory in an action-packed Hungarian GP, which saw a red flag caused by two opening corner pile-ups with Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel second and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton third.

 

 

The initial crash at turn one was triggered by Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas, who’s error sliding into the back of McLaren’s Lando Norris ploughed into both Red Bull RB16B’s and left Max Verstappen recovering to eventually end the race in tenth place.

 

When the 70 lap Hungarian GP began, championship rivals Hamilton and Verstappen both made great runs off the line on a damp track after rain fell steadily for half an hour before the start, which saw all drivers start on the green side-walled intermediates, whilst Bottas dropped down several spots leaving his grid slot.

 

But it went from bad-to-worse from the Mercedes driver as he misjudged his braking point for turn one, after being overtaken by Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and Norris, with Bottas locking-up and went straight into the back of the MCL35M.

 

 

This had two knock-on effects, as Norris was sent into Verstappen’s right side, the Honda-powered RB16B’s front-right wheel somehow stayed on, whilst Bottas, his front-left broken, continued aquaplaning and clanged into Perez on the outside, with all four ending up in the run-off area beyond the opening corner.

 

Bottas retired, while Verstappen lead Norris and Perez away, around the scattered debris of a second opening corner tangle, which was caused by an out-of-control Aston Martin AMR21 entry of Lance Stroll who went onto the grass on the inside of the right-hand corner and then slid into Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who was set to move up into second place behind Hamilton.

 

Stroll’s mistake saw his front-left against the Ferrari, which was knocked wide and hit McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo, who was been closing up to Leclerc’s outside – with the Australian sent spinning into the back of the reduced field.

 

 

The scattered debris at the first corner initially deployed the safety car, under which Red Bull opted to pit Verstappen, while Alpine’s Ocon benefitted massively from the chaos as he ended up second behind Hamilton and in-front of Vettel.

 

Verstappen lost his right bargeboard exiting the pit-lane, just before the Grand Prix was stopped to allow the debris to be cleared and because Perez, whose RB16B racer was smoking heavily from the whack by Bottas, had stopped on the shorter straight between turns eleven and twelve at the beginning of the third sector.

 

The pack returned to the pits, where Red Bull worked to fix Verstappen’s car, and McLaren was forced to retire Norris due to the damage caused by Bottas.

 

 

After a 30-minute halt, Hamilton lead from Ocon, Vettel, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda and Williams’ Nicholas Latifi back to the grid as the top six runners for the second race-standing start, where Verstappen sat 13^th.

 

But in bizarre circumstances, Hamilton was the only driver to start on the grid and did not come into the pits at the end of the second formation tour – the Grand Prix’s third lap – as all the other drivers stopped for a set of yellow-marked mediums and the track dried under sunny skies at the Hungaroring.

 

Hamilton drove down into the first corner solo, where Ocon was lead out by Williams Racing’s George Russell, who was eighth under the red flag, but jumped up the pit-lane queue thanks to the Grove-based outfit’s position at the end of the pit-lane.

 

But as Russell charged towards Hamilton as the mediums proved to be the better rubber than the intermediates on a fast-drying circuit, the Briton was forced to give back the positions he gained in the pits, which meant Ocon went into the lead clearly when Hamilton stopped for the medium tyres at the end of the fourth tour – the first full race lap completed.

 

Over the next five tours, the Frenchman built a 1.4 second lead over Vettel, meanwhile Latifi was holding up the pack in third place, as Verstappen fought AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly and Alfa Romeo Racing’s Antonio Giovinazzi on the borders of the top ten – with Hamilton catching the fight after emerging in 14^th and last after pitting.

 

Ocon continued to run just in-front of Vettel’s Aston Martin, with the battle for the race lead becoming a two-driver contest as Latifi continued to drop away.

 

Further back in the field, Verstappen made his way by Gasly, then chased Haas F1 Team’s Mick Schumacher for 10^th for several tours as he damage-inflicted Honda-powered RB16B meant he could not bring it’s pace advantage to bear fruit, and behind Hamilton was also annoyed by the time it took the seven-time world champion to overtake Giovinazzi and Gasly.

 

On the 14^th lap, Verstappen hassled Schumacher at the opening corner, but had to run wide on the exit, then the Dutchman went around the outside of the downhill-left long turn two, getting in-front on the exit where the two cars briefly tangled as they raced side-on toward the quick-right turn three.

 

Five tours later, with Ocon now running over a second ahead of Vettel upfront, Mercedes brought Hamilton in from behind Gasly in 11^th place, swapping from the mediums to the hards.

 

His brilliant out-lap pace meant he found his way in-front of Verstappen and Ricciardo, who was running just ahead on the track, when they came in on the following lap after Hamilton.

 

Several rivals, including Russell, stopped shortly afterwards, which assisted Hamilton’s path through the field, but the Mercedes driver continued to lap much quicker than the rest – posting a series of fastest laps between lap 20-30.

 

Over this part of proceedings, Ocon came under intense pressure from Vettel before building his gap up again, reaching 2.3 seconds by the mid-way point.

 

With Verstappen was held up behind Ricciardo as they caught the drivers who were yet to make their stop – along with Schumacher again – Hamilton flew clear and made short work of Latifi after the Williams pitted on the 23^rd tour.

 

Hamilton then swifted up to Tsunoda, who under-cut past Latifi by stopping a tour earlier and overtook the AlphaTauri around the outside of the rapid fourth corner fast-left.

 

Once Hamilton made it up to fifth place, Ferrari then pitted Sainz, who ordered to remain out when Tsunoda and Latifi stopped earlier so the Spaniard could run in clear air, which he used to eat into the large gap behind Vettel.

 

This ended Hamilton’s surge, just as the focus returned back to the frontrunners when Vettel was called in switch the mediums for harder rubber on the 36^th tour.

 

A 3.3 second stop due to a slow left-rear change meant went Ocon pitted on the following tour for a set of hards, despite Vettel putting in a solid out-lap as he put his white-branded harder compound up to temperature, the Aston Martin was unable to get alongside the Alpine as it emerged from the pit-lane and headed down to the first corner.

 

Ocon then continued touring around a second clear of Vettel over the next stage of the Grand Prix, but Sainz and Hamilton – who was soon complaining of the state of his rubber – were soon nearly six seconds off the lead as they ran in the low 1:21’s and the leaders were setting high 1:21’s and low 1:22’s.

 

Alpine F1 Team’s Fernando Alonso found his way into first place when the frontrunners stopped, but the Spaniard came in to put on the harder tyres at the end of the 40^th tour.

 

After this, the Grand Prix settled down for a period as Hamilton was stuck behind Sainz and Ocon remained in control over Vettel – other than a moment at the beginning of the 48^th lap where Vettel came close to contacting the rear of the Alpine as Ocon lapped Alfa Romeo Racing’s Antonio Giovinazzi at the first corner.

 

The tour before this, Mercedes brought in Hamilton for a second green flag pit-stop, putting the reigning world champion back onto medium rubber and set up a thrilling hunt for the final third of the Grand Prix, as he had a 22.6 gap to Ocon to catch.

 

The Briton – much like he did to beat Verstappen at the 2019 event – set a strong pace as he emerged in clear air behind Alonso and seven tours after he stopped, he was under ten seconds off the lead and right with the other Alpine.

 

On the next lap, Alonso locked up overlapping Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen at the opening corner, which gave Hamilton the opportunity to attack around the outside of turn two, where Alonso aggressively held the inside line to remain in-front, and also ignored Hamilton’s advances at the fourth corner moments later.

 

The battle lasted over the next ten tours, with Hamilton pushing in similar happenings at turns two and four on a few occasions, frustrated by Alonso’s solid defending, all the while his former McLaren team-mate was closing in on Sainz and then running in the Ferrari’s dirty turbulent air.

 

On the 65^th tour, Alonso’s defending came to an end when he suffered a left-front lock-up again at the first corner and ran deep, which allowed Hamilton to run alongside the Spaniard on the exit and then shot by using DRS on the rundown to turn two.

 

Hamilton then rapidly caught Sainz, who resisted the Mercedes drivers’ initial attack, but could not stop the Briton taking third place as they flew down the main straight on the 67^th tour while lapping Ricciardo’s McLaren.

 

Alonso’s strong defence meant Hamilton only caught the front two right at the end, with Ocon ending his race-long charge to clinch the Hungarian GP victory in-front of Vettel by 1.859 seconds, with Hamilton a further 0.8 seconds off in third place.

 

Gasly came home sixth behind Sainz and Alonso after being allowed to get by AlphaTauri team-mate Tsunoda approaching the races’ final third, with the latter spinning at the second corner later on, which meant the Japanese driver finished the Grand Prix well behind his team-mate.

 

Latifi and Russell scored Williams first points since the 2019 campaign taking seventh and eighth respectively – the former closed in on Latifi throughout the second stint after being held up by Haas F1 Team’s Schumacher after his only green lap pit-stop.

 

Russell also had to resist Verstappen’s attacks at the end as the Dutchman wound up just 1.1 seconds adrift in 10^th place, after he had stopped with 30 laps remaining in a successful attempt to get in-front of Ricciardo, who was holding position ahead since their unsuccessful bid to halt Hamilton’s undercut.

 

Verstappen passed Ricciardo with a brave move around the outside of turn four with ten tours left and was set to close in on Russell to the flag.

 

Raikkonen – who was hit with a 10-second timed-penalty for being unsafely released into the path of Haas F1 Team’s Nikita Mazepin when the field piled into the pit-lane on the second formation tour, with the tangle breaking the VF-21’s front-right suspension and made him the Grand Prix’s only other retiree in addition to those eliminated due to the chaos at the first corner – also passed Ricciardo in the latter stages to finish in 11^th place.

 

Schumacher ended the race in 13^th in-front of Giovinazzi, who was also slapped with a 10 second timed penalty for speeding in the pit-lane – the Italian taking a chance for slick rubber on the initial formation lap not paying off due to the red flag.

 

Click here to see Esteban Ocon’s moment of when he claimed his maiden F1 victory at the Hungarian GP.

 

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2021 Hungarian GP – The Top Three

 

 

2021 Hungarian GP Winner – Esteban Ocon, #31, Alpine F1 Team-Renault, A521:

“Just a big thank you for the trust that everyone is putting into me. When you are out of Q1, you are P17, you don’t know where you are, but the team put their trust in me, and we are back where we belong. With Fernando, we are forming a real strong duo, we are pushing the team on. I tell you; we are going to have a great Monday!”

 

2^nd Place – Sebastian Vettel, #5, Aston Martin Cognizant F1 Team-Mercedes, AMR21:

“I’m a little bit disappointed, I felt I was faster, but he didn’t make a single mistake and it’s a tricky track to overtake on. I had a very, very bad start but it turned out to be the best place to be. I found myself at the front of the pack, it definitely made our race today.”

 

3^rd Place – Lewis Hamilton, #44, Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team, F1 W12 EQ Performance:

“A huge congratulations to the Alpine team and to Ocon, it’s been a long time coming and I’m really happy for him. And Aston Martin up there too. it was definitely tough, we made it difficult for ourselves. Crazy to think we were the only ones of the grid for the restart. I was telling the team how the track was, but they said rain was coming so I thought they had other information, Considering the circumstances today, I’ll take it.”

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Formula 1 Rolex Magyar Nagydij (Hungarian Grand Prix) 2021 Race Results Classification (70 Laps)

 

POS	NO	DRIVER	CAR	LAPS	TIME/RETIRED	PTS
1	31	Esteban Ocon	ALPINE RENAULT	70	2:04:43.199	25
2	5	Sebastian Vettel	ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES	70	+1.859s	18
3	44	Lewis Hamilton	MERCEDES	70	+2.736s	15
4	55	Carlos Sainz	FERRARI	70	+15.018s	12
5	14	Fernando Alonso	ALPINE RENAULT	70	+15.651s	10
6	10	Pierre Gasly	ALPHATAURI HONDA	70	+63.614s	9
7	22	Yuki Tsunoda	ALPHATAURI HONDA	70	+75.803s	6
8	6	Nicholas Latifi	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	70	+77.910s	4
9	63	George Russell	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	70	+79.094s	2
10	33	Max Verstappen	RED BULL RACING HONDA	70	+80.244s	1
11	7	Kimi Räikkönen	ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI	69	+1 lap	0
12	3	Daniel Ricciardo	MCLAREN MERCEDES	69	+1 lap	0
13	47	Mick Schumacher	HAAS FERRARI	69	+1 lap	0
14	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI	69	+1 lap	0
NC	9	Nikita Mazepin	HAAS FERRARI	3	DNF	0
NC	4	Lando Norris	MCLAREN MERCEDES	2	DNF	0
NC	77	Valtteri Bottas	MERCEDES	0	DNF	0
NC	11	Sergio Perez	RED BULL RACING HONDA	0	DNF	0
NC	16	Charles Leclerc	FERRARI	0	DNF	0
NC	18	Lance Stroll	ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES	0	DNF	0

https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2021/races/1073/hungary.html

 

Click here for the Formula 1 World Driver’s (Top 10) and Constructors Championship Standings

 

The 2021 FIA Formula One World Championship season returns after its traditional four-week summer break on Friday August 27-Sunday August 29, for round 12 at the legendary Circuit De Spa-Francorchamps in Stavelot, Belgium for the Formula 1 Rolex Belgian Grand Prix 2021.

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