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Esteban Ocon took a surprising victory at the Hungaroring as he took advantage of early mistakes at the front to hold off Sebastian Vettel for the duration of F1’s action-packed Hungarian Grand Prix.
The Frenchman strung together 70 excellent laps on course to take his and Alpine’s first-ever Formula 1 victory.
Starting Grid
It was a Mercedes front-row lockout as Lewis Hamilton lined up on pole position ahead of Valtteri Bottas.
Red Bull formed the second row with Max Verstappen in third and Sergio Perez fourth ahead of Pierre Gasly and Lando Norris in fifth and sixth.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc followed in seventh with Esteban Ocon, who reached Q3 for the first time in seven races, starting from eighth.
The experienced pairing of Fernando Alonso, who celebrated his 40th birthday earlier this week, and Sebastian Vettel shared row five as they started from ninth and 10th respectively.
Daniel Ricciardo qualified 11th ahead of Lance Stroll in 12th, Kimi Raikkonen in 13th, Antonio Giovinazzi in 14th, Carlos Sainz in 15th, Yuki Tsunoda in 16th, George Russell in 17th, Nicholas Latifi in 18th and the Haas duo of Nikita Mazepin and Mick Schumacher in 19th and 20th.
As It Happened
Before the lights went out, Antonio Giovinazzi boxed for mediums at the end of the formation lap as Alfa Romeo made a gamble with the track still quite greasy.
As the race started, Hamilton got a good start, and his compatriot Norris also had a fantastic launch off the line. Into the first corner, Bottas was too late on the brakes and went into the back of the McLaren man which caused a domino effect.
Norris had nowhere to go and was sent skating into the back of Verstappen’s Red Bull. Bottas himself was a passenger as he slammed straight into the sidepod of Perez’s car forcing the Mexican to retire.
As the carnage at the front ensued, Leclerc and Stroll ended up in a shunt themselves with both drivers subsequently retiring.
The red flag was waved so that the marshals could clear the loose debris on the track During the stoppage, Norris was forced to retire as he became the fifth driver to do so. As well as the Brit retiring, the stoppage meant that the skies around the Hungaroring cleared, presenting teams with the chance to gamble by changing to slick tyres at the end of the formation lap.
At the restart, all cars apart from Hamilton entered the pits, therefore the lone Mercedes man had the whole grid to himself as he drove into turn one with a five-second advantage over the pack.
Mazepin became the latest driver to retire after a collision with Raikkonen in the pit lane as the Finn was unsafely released straight into the path of the Russian.
On the opening lap of the restarted race, Hamilton led ahead of Russell and Ocon in third. Meanwhile, championship leader Verstappen was sat in 12th and with a damaged car.
Later that lap, Ocon and Vettel overtook Russell in sector two as the Brit was told by the FIA to hand back places he gained in pits. Hamilton soon boxed from intermediates to mediums and dropped down to plum last.
Formula 1 had a new race leader as Ocon led the race, ahead of Vettel and Latifi in third over the line on lap five.
At turn one on lap 10, Lewis Hamilton dived up the inside of Giovinazzi and successfully moved himself up to 13th.
Four laps later, Verstappen desperately tried to get past the Haas of Schumacher to claim 10th place. The Dutchman tried to swing around the outside of the German at turn one, however switched to the outside at turn two and made the move stick.
A lap later, Gasly followed his former Red Bull teammate at turn two, and over the line on lap 16, Hamilton overtook the Haas driver with the assistance of DRS.
Hamilton boxed at the end of lap 19, switching from the mediums to the hards. Ricciardo and Verstappen followed the Brit into the box a lap later with both drivers switching onto the same tyre compound.
At the front, Vettel was closing in on leader Ocon with the gap fluctuating between 0.4 and 0.6 seconds heading onto lap 20.
After giving his all on lap 20, Hamilton successfully got the overcut on Verstappen and Ricciardo and got up into 10th.
On lap 23, third-placed man Latifi pitted and dropped to seventh behind Tsunoda who had already boxed.
The Canadian’s luck got even worse at the start of lap 27 as Hamilton slipped up the inside at turn one to drop him down to eighth.
Hamilton made yet another overtake, this time on Tsunoda into fifth place at the fast turn four on lap 32 as he flew around the outside of the Japanese driver.
Russell also made a magnificent overtake around the outside of Schumacher two laps later. The Brit ran around the outside of the Haas driver at turn two, moving up to ninth.
The German lost two more positions over the next lap as Ricciardo and Verstappen made their way past him with the Dutchman’s move being identical to Russell’s overtake a lap earlier.
At the end of lap 36, Vettel boxed but a heart-achingly slow stop meant that he was unable to jump Ocon who pitted a lap later.
After a handful of laps in the lead, Alonso pitted and fell to fifth. Most importantly, this promoted Hamilton to fourth.
The Mercedes man’s title rival Verstappen switched to mediums a lap later as his race became a ‘damage limitation’ affair.
On lap 48, despite him claiming his hard tyres had ‘second wind’, Hamilton pitted to fit a set of medium tyres as he chased down a podium finish after re-joining in fifth.
Fourth-placed Alonso defended superbly through sector one on lap 55, cleanly keeping Hamilton behind. Two laps later, an identical display forced Hamilton to back out at turn two meaning the Spaniard remained in fourth place with 13 laps to go.
Verstappen made a move on Riccardo at turn two on lap 59, leapfrogging the Aussie into the points positions.
Once more, on lap 63, Alonso excellently held Hamilton at bay, despite the Brit taking different lines through the opening sequence of corners. Two laps later, the Spaniard locked up at turn one which gave Hamilton the opportunity to get up into fourth place and set his sights on Sainz.
Just a lap later, Hamilton was all over the rear of the Ferrari driver with a late battle for third finely poised. The Brit was able to make the move stick and the Mercedes man jumped up to third.
Ocon remained in the lead closely followed by Vettel but the Frenchman did just enough to hold on to claim his maiden F1 victory ahead of Vettel and Hamilton in third.
Rounding out the top 10 was Sainz, Alonso, Gasly and Tsunoda, Latifi, Russell and Verstappen.
What’s Next?
Formula 1 now heads into the summer shutdown, so all teams have the chance to take a break before heading to Spa in three weeks time. At the Belgian Grand Prix, new championship leader Hamilton will hope to extend his lead at the summit of the standings ahead of Verstappen.
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