OCON WINS IN CHAOTIC HUNGARIAN GP

Esteban Ocon has taken an unlikely victory for Alpine in a chaotic Hungarian Grand Prix.

The French driver held off a near race-long challenge from Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel to take the first Formula 1 win of his career.

The race started on a damp circuit with light rain arriving at the Hungaroring while the cars were on the grid just prior to the start of the race, prompting the entire field into a late switch intermediate tyres while on the grid.

However the unknown grip caused chaos at Turn 1. Valtteri Bottas was unable to stop his Mercedes after making a slow start skittled into the McLaren of Lando Norris and both two Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez.

In a completely separate incident at Turn 1, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll collided with Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) and Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren).

The two crashes left the circuit covered in debris, triggering a red flag to allow for the lengthy cleanup process.

Of the damaged cars, only Verstappen and Ricciardo were able to be somewhat repaired during the interruption to resume the race.

Chaos at the start – Image: Motorsport Images

The restart was just as chaotic. While the cars had been parked in the pitlane, the sun had returned and dried out the circuit with the entire field heading out for a full restart still on intermediate tyres.

After the sighting lap everyone, with the exception of Hamilton, returned to the pits to switch back the slick tyres. While the Mercedes driver restarted the race on his own.

Hamilton dropped to the rear of the field when he finally stopped for slicks, a lap later the rest of the field leaving Ocon, the biggest beneficiary of the chaos, in the lead of the race.

The reigning champion put in a determined drive to charge his way back through the field.

Fernando Alonso, who led the race briefly during the pitstop cycle, in second Alpine did his teammate a world of favours holding up Hamilton’s progress in a lengthy 10 lap battle over fourth place.

Hamilton would eventually get past and chase down Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) to steal the final spot on the podium.

Sainz and Alonso claimed fourth and fifth ahead of the two AlphaTauri’s. Pierre Gasly just ahead of Yuki Tsunoda.

Williams was able to score points with both of its drivers. Nicholas Latifi finished just ahead of George Russell who had to fight his way back after handing back several places following creative use of the team’s pitlane position during the chaos of the restart.

An extremely hampered Verstappen was able to salvage a single point in tenth place ahead of Kimi Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo).

Ricciardo drove his damaged McLaren to 12th ahead of Mick Schumacher (Haas) and Antonio Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo) who rounded out the finishers.

The podium for Hamilton saw enough to move the Mercedes driver back into the lead of the driver’s championship standings.

Formula 1 now heads into their summer break and will resume at the end of August with the Belgium Grand Prix.

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