Esteban Ocon celebrates victory a top the podium with second place Sebastian Vettel and third place Lewis Hamilton. Photo@F1/Twitter.
Esteban Ocon has won his first Formula One Grand Prix at the Hungarian Grand Prix leading the race from lap four until the end.
Ocon had a perfect performance, holding off Aston Martins Sebastian Vettel who followed closely behind him in second for the majority of the race.
Following a huge collision at the start of the race, Ocon snuck up to second. The crash resulted in a red flag and the race being paused which allowed for the track to dry up from the rain earlier in the day.
This proved a deciding factor as all the drivers switched tyres from the intermediates to the normal racing tyres used in dry weather.
Hamilton was the sole driver to not do so, which meant he had to pit the following lap the allowing for Ocon to steal first place.
It was a career-best result for Ocon whose previous best finish was second at Sakhir last year.
The win moves Ocon up the Drivers Standings from 14th now to 11th on 39 and ahead of his teammate Fernando Alonso. Alonso also had a very strong race finishing in fifth and was instrumental to holding Hamilton off for a handful of laps not allowing him to get in reaching distance of Ocon.
Alpine now sit in fifth place in the Constructors Championship overtaking Aston Martin.
Turn One incident
The Hungary Grand Prix got off to the worst possible start for five drivers when Valtteri Bottas caused a massive collision on the first turn.
Bottas was late to brake on the first turn, crashing into the back of Lando Norris. This resulted in Norris smashing into Max Verstappen with multiple other cars affected in the process.
Due to the collision, Verstappen was knocked down the order from second to 13th.
The crash also forced Bottas, Charles Leclerc, Sergio Perez, Lance Stroll and Norris to all retire due to damage and a red flag as debris was littered all of the track.
With Norris out of the race, this ended his 15-race streak of scoring in the points, the longest ever by a McLaren driver.
For causing the incident Bottas received a five-place grid penalty for the next race which will be at Spa for the Belgian Grand Prix.
Hamilton reverses Mercedes costly mistake
Mercedes decision to be the only team to not change Hamilton’s tyres ultimately was the reason the seven-time world champion was unable to secure victory in Hungary.
Had Mercedes not made this crucial error Hamilton would have stayed in first place and most likely won the race with most of his competitors out or driving a damaged car.
However, following the tyre change Hamilton exited the pits in last place, but had 66 laps to make something of the race and he made sure to do so.
One by one Hamilton picked off driver after driver, slowly climbing up the grid and towards the podium.
Once Hamilton got behind Alonso, he had some difficulty with the Spaniard doing an excellent job defending and slowing Hamilton.
On lap 65 Hamilton finally was able to get past Alonso and into fourth position, giving himself five more laps to get a podium finish.
On lap 67 Hamilton got past Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and into third place on the podium where he finished the race.
The win puts Hamilton six points clear of rival Verstappen in the Driver Standings.
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Ricciardo Watch
It was another uneventful day for Aussie Daniel Ricciardo who was unable to get a point a finish, with a 12th place result.
In the chaos of the first turn, Ricciardo was hit, spinning his car and dropping him down one position.
From there he worked hard to try and salvage something able to move as high as ninth shortly after the race restart but then dropped back down the grid.
This marks Ricciardo’s third race of the season where he has been unable to secure a points finish.
Record breaking day for Williams
Williams secured their first points of the season and first points since 2019 with Nicholas Latifi and George Russell finishing eighth and ninth.
This is the first time for both men scoring in the points for Williams and the team’s first double points since 2018.
Williams now sits eight in the Constructors Championship on six points, overtaking Haas and Alfa Romeo.
Formula One will now go on the summer break with no racing for the next four weeks.
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