Esteban Ocon takes first F1 win in high drama Hungarian Grand Prix

There was plenty of drama throughout the whole race.

The rain began to fall minutes before the lights went out which put the whole grid on the intermediate tyre.

It was an adrenaline fuelled start. Hamilton got a clean get away but Valtteri Bottas struggled and was overtaken by Lando Norris. Bottas was then unable to control his car and shunted into the back of Norris’ McLaren which caused a domino effect of crashes. 

Norris hit into Max Verstappen, Bottas collided with Perez, and in a separate incident, Stroll forced Leclerc out of the race as well.

There was major damage to most cars on the grid and Perez, Stroll, Leclerc, Bottas and Norris were all forced to retire from the race due to the damage. Bottas has recived a penalty for causing the pile up.

There was major damage and carbon fibre everywhere which brought out the red flag which gave the teams an opportunity to try and repair some of the damage caused by the lap 1 incident.

At the time of the red flag, Hamilton was running P1, Ocon P2 and Vettel in P3. To add to the excitement, Latifi was up to P6, Russell P8 and Schumacher P10!

As the race get ready to restart, the sun came out and the track was beginning to dry. On the formation lap everyone but Hamilton came into the pits to put slick tyres on.

Hamilton stayed out on the intermediate tyre and was the only car on the grid as the race restarted.

Russell came out of the pitlane in P2 but had to give places back for overtaking in the pitlane so dropped down to  7th. Hamilton then pitted after 1 lap for the dry tyre and came out last, starting an afternoon of overtaking for the Brit.

As the drama settled it was Ocon leading from Vettel and Latifi. The Alpine and the Aston Martin had a good battle at the front of the race.

Mazepin then became the latest retiree after colliding with Raikkonen in the pitlance which knocked his front right wheel off. The Alfa Romeo was given a 10 second penalty for the incident.

On lap 20, Hamilton pitted for the hard tyre which brought in Verstappen on the following lap. The undercut worked. Hamilton was ahead when Verstappen came out of the pits and was now running P9. 

Having pitted a second time for the medium tyre, Hamilton had fresh rubber to attack Alonso for P4. The Spaniard did an incredible job of keeping the Mercedes behind and showed why he is a two-time world champion.

Despite his best efforts, Hamilton passed the Alpine with five laps to go take home P4. A battle truly reminiscent of the 2007 season. 

It didn't then take long before Hamilton passed Carlos Sainz for P3 to secure a good recovery result which sees him take the lead in the drivers championship heading into the summer break. 

Full Results: 

1. Ocon

2. Vettel 

3. Hamilton

4. Sainz

5. Alonso

6. Gasly

7. Tsunoda 

8. Latifi 

9. Russell

10. Verstappen 

11. Raikkonen 

12. Ricciardo 

13. Schumacher 

14. Giovinazzi