The 2021 Formula 1 season is shaping up to be one of the most exciting in years, and this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix only continued that with wet weather drama, a new race winner, and against-all-odds comebacks.
The race started in the rain, with all 20 drivers running on intermediate tires. A massive crash at Turn 1 took out Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas, McLaren’s Lando Norris, Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll all in one go, red flagging the session.
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Under the red flag period, Red Bull was able to partially repair Max Verstappen‘s car, which had taken some damage in the incident and dropped a significant amount of positions from their original third place as a result. On the formation lap of the race restart, everyone switched to slick tires except for Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, leading to the Briton being the only one to restart the race from the actual grid rather than in the pit lane. Hamilton of course took the lead, but quickly lost it after coming into the pits for slick tires that same lap.
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This put Alpine driver Esteban Ocon in first, followed by Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel in second, then Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz in third. Thanks to some impressive driving and clever team strategy, though, Hamilton was able to claw his way back from last place (14th at the time since 6 cars were out by that point) all the way to the podium, but not without a bit of a struggle behind the incredible defense of Alpine’s Fernando Alonso for over 10 laps. After that, Hamilton passed Sainz, who was on much older tires, with relative ease, securing him his third place finish.
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In the end, it was a thrilling 1-2-3 finish of Ocon, Vettel, and Hamilton, with AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly snagging the fastest lap point from Hamilton right before the end. This marked Ocon’s first ever Formula 1 victory, Vettel’s second podium finish this season (although P2 and P3 have since been given to Hamilton and Sainz after a fuel sampling issue with Vettel’s car), and Aston Martin‘s second podium finish ever. Williams also had a great afternoon, claiming their first points finish since 2019 and moving up to 8th place in the Constructors’ Championship. Additionally, it was both Nicholas Latifi and George Russell’s first-ever points finish with Williams, as well as Latifi’s first points ever in Formula 1.
Red Bull unfortunately didn’t encounter the same success, as after a DNF for Sergio Perez, a damaged car for Max Verstappen, and some unlucky strategy choices, they only managed to score a single point this race. On top of that, Verstappen’s engine was actually the same that endured a 51G impact just two weeks earlier, so despite the go-ahead to use it in the race, it’s entirely possible that the car could have been lacking in power a bit.
Verstappen and Red Bull now trail Hamilton and Mercedes in the Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships by 6 and 10 points respectively, and we can’t wait to see what happens next in this exciting title fight as they head to Spa-Francorchamps in one month’s time.