Esteban Ocon wins action-packed Hungarian Grand Prix

Esteban Ocon took a maiden F1 victory, and the first for the rebranded Alpine team, in an extraordinary Hungarian Grand Prix that saw everything – smashes and crashes, disqualifications, bad strategic decisions, strong recovery drivers and a race order that could have been pulled from a hat.

Sebastian Vettel crossed the line in second place after pushing Ocon all the way, but he was later disqualified for a fuel irregularity – there is currently an appeal by his team. In his place, Lewis Hamilton was upgraded to second, regaining the lead in the championship in the process, while Carlos Sainz came third.

The weather hung over the start of the race, with the track neither particularly wet or dry, and the drivers were unsure how to approach the first corner. Things went south fast – Valtteri Bottas misjudged the breaking point, and hit Lando Norris, who in turn hit Max Verstappen. Bottas then careered into Sergio Perez. Elsewhere, Lance Stroll made a mistake, smashing into Charles Leclerc, which sent Daniel Ricciardo into a spin. Bottas, Norris, Perez, Stroll and Leclerc were all out of the race, with Verstappen’s car heavily damaged, and the race order had been completely shaken up by the time a red flag was thrown.

When the race restarted, Hamilton was the only driver on the grid as everyone else pitted for dry tyres. This was a huge blunder – the Mercedes driver had to come in the next lap, and was back of the pack in 14th when he emerged. Overtaking is difficult in Hungary, but Hamilton made up places admirably – he pitted for fresh tyres on laps 19 and 46, and was fifth when he left the pits. As the fastest car on track, his hope was the pace would somehow allow him to take an unlikely win.

Ocon has been a shining star for a while now and it’s been a long-time coming so really happy for him

– Lewis Hamilton

He hadn’t reckoned on Fernando Alonso in fourth, who put out a solid defensive drive, holding off Hamilton for 10 laps – at every turn, Alonso employed his experience to hold off his fellow world champion. It is no understatement to say that the amount of time Alonso kept Hamilton in fifth helped secure his teammate’s position at the lead, cutting off the potential for a Mercedes victory. Ocon lead the race from Hamilton’s first stop, and built an incredible lead, showing great temperament to take the win.

With many of the usual point-scorers out of the race on lap one, it was a great opportunity for some of the other drivers to rack up some points. Nicholas Latifi and George Russell scored their first points for the Williams team, finishing in eighth and ninth and then moving up a place after Vettel’s disqualification. Yuki Tsunoda achieved his best ever F1 result in sixth (upgraded to sixth), while Verstappen did a solid recovery drive to finish in the points in tenth (upgraded to ninth). Pierre Gasly came sixth (fifth), and received the bonus point for fastest lap.

Ocon said: “What a moment, it felt so good. We had some difficult moments this season but we overcame them together with the team. We came back to a fantastic place and victory today! What can I say, it’s fantastic. Congrats to Fernando as well, thanks to him it was possible because of the fights that he did. That’s teamwork. I think it’s been a fantastic day.”

Hamilton said: “First of all a huge congratulations to the Alpine team and Ocon has been a shining star for a while now and it’s been a long-time coming so really happy for him. Today was definitely tough, we always make it difficult for ourselves. Crazy to think we were the only ones on the grid at the start, but these things happen and we learn from them. I gave it everything and I have nothing left in the end.”

After the excitement, thank goodness we’ve got a bit of a break! F1 returns on 29 August for the Belgian Grand Prix – this season has seen the tension ramp up with each race, so who knows what may happen when we return?