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    Hungarian GP: Ocon claims first F1 win in crazy wet/dry race

    Esteban Ocon became Formula 1’s newest Grand Prix winner with a brilliant victory in Hungary on Sunday.

    The Alpine driver emerged at the head of the field following a crazy opening few laps in wet conditions and held off a race-long challenge from Sebastian Vettel to take the top step.

    Vettel had to settle for second in the Aston Martin, as Lewis Hamilton recovered from being last on Lap 5 to complete the podium.

    Race Review:

    Rain before the start saw all drivers switch to intermediate tyres, negating Red Bull’s planned soft tyre advantage on the run to Turn 1.

    The slippery conditions then caused chaos as Valtteri Bottas, who had a poor launch, considerably misjudged his braking and slammed into Lando Norris. who in turn swiped Max Verstappen.

    The McLaren would then hit Max Verstappen, who had got up to second, with the Dutchman suffering heavy damage to his car.

    Fortunately, Max was able to continue, whereas teammate Sergio Perez, who was also hit by Bottas, was forced to retire.

    Behind, Lance Stroll also went too deep into Turn 1, taking out Charles Leclerc meaning five drivers were eliminated on the opening lap.

    A bizarre restart saw Hamilton as the only driver to take the lights as the rest of the field pitted for dry tyres.

    That meant, when the Mercedes stopped a lap later, the Briton went from first to last on track in 14th.

    Esteban Ocon led the race for Alpine ahead of Sebastian Vettel and Nicholas Latifi third for Williams!

    Failing to make progress, Hamilton pitted again for hard tyres, undercutting both Daniel Ricciardo and, crucially, Verstappen in the damaged Red Bull.

    The Briton was then able to unleash his pace on those ahead moving up into the top five and back into race win contention.

    Meanwhile, Verstappen was struggling to simply score points, as he sat behind Ricciardo in P11.

    After all the drivers had stopped for hard tyres, Ocon continued to lead with Vettel on his tail.

    Sainz ran third ahead of Hamilton, who had Alonso chasing him down on much fresher tyres.

    Lewis would change the dynamic by pitting again for fresh mediums, with his pace being several seconds per lap over the cars in front.

    However, Alonso was more than up to the task of holding off the Mercedes until a small lock-up was enough for Hamilton to pounce.

    Next up was Sainz, but the Briton was able to get the high ground with DRS into Turn 1 and managed to claim a podium place in third.

    At the front, however, Ocon was peerless as he held Vettel at bay to claim his first F1 win and Alpine’s first since the team was Lotus in 2013.

    Vettel claimed his second podium of 2021 in P2 for Aston Martin with Hamilton rounding out the top three.

    Sainz held onto fourth from Alonso ahead of the two AlphaTauri’s as Pierre Gasly, who took the fastest lap on the final lap, led teammate Yuki Tsunoda.

    Nicholas Latifi scored his first F1 points in eighth and George Russell finally claimed his first points for Williams in ninth.

    Verstappen would claim the final point in 10th, as he fell behind in the championship standings for the first time since Spain.

    Outside the points, Kimi Raikkonen was 11th, passing Ricciardo late on as the Australian disappointed again in 12th.

    Mick Schumacher enjoyed an epic battle with Verstappen early in the race but would ultimately slip to 13th as Antonio Giovinazzi was the final finisher in 14th.

    Nikita Mazepin joined the five retirements on the opening lap in the dash for dry tyres after making contact with Raikkonen in the pit-lane.

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