Esteban Ocon finished first, Hamilton upstream at Hungaroring

After six consecutive races behind rival Max Verstappen on the individual rankings, Hamilton has returned to the top of the table. This is a great motivation for the Mercedes star before entering the summer break to prepare for the second half of the season. After the race, Hamilton admitted he had been physically exhausted since contracting Covid-19 in December 2020.

The Mercedes duo has a great advantage thanks to the first position right above the two Red Bull drivers. Starting with medium tires compared to the other group’s soft tires gives the two W12s a tactical advantage in the context of the relatively high summer heat in Hungaroring (Budapest).

However, before the race started, a light rain upset the teams’ plans. The slippery road surface forced all 20 cars to change to the start with intermediate tires. A perfect start for Hamilton as he held on to No. 1. However, in the back, teammate Valtteri Bottas, as usual, got off to a slow start and was overtaken by both RB16Bs and Lando Norris’s car as the team. The race has just left the starting line.

As the team reached Turn 1, Bottas’ late brake caused the W12 to hit the rear of Norris’ car, causing the MCL35M to lose control and crash into the right side of Verstappen’s RB16B. After colliding with Norris, Bottas continued to hit the side of Sergio Perez’s car. Another accident also occurred when Charles Leclerc was sandwiched between Lance Stroll and Daniel Ricciardo while the three were cornering. The Canadian driver’s AMR21 crashed hard into the side of the Ferrari driver’s SF21.

Two accidents caused chaos in the race on Turn 1. Bottas, Stroll, Leclerc, Perez and Norris had to give up because the car was badly damaged after the collision. Verstappen and Ricciardo continued to race but suffered significant damage and fell to the bottom of the race. Esteban Ocon and Sebastian Vettel took the opportunity to jump to second and third place right behind Hamilton.

The accident in the first round caused the red flag to be raised, the cars had to return to the pit lane for the organizers to clean up the consequences of the collision on Turn 1. Bottas lost five places to start on the next leg due to the accident. serious.

After nearly 30 minutes of pause, the race was restarted. By this time the rain had stopped and the track was dry. After the warm-up lap, almost the entire crew returned to the pit to switch to dry-weather tires. At this time, only Hamilton still uses an intermediate set of tires. So on the main straight road, only the W12 left. However, a few minutes later, the British driver also had to return to the pit to change tires like the competitors.

The delay caused Hamilton to drop to the bottom of the race. Verstappen ranked in 12th place. Leading the team at this time were Ocon and Vettel. The Mercedes driver struggled for nearly 20 laps behind Antonio Giovinazzi and Mick Schumacher. Then, finding it difficult to easily pass Pierre Gasly and Verstappen at the top, Mercedes called Hamilton to change tires in lap 19 to jump over the rivals.

Taking the initiative to change tires early, the W12 has free space to break through. The British driver continuously set the fastest-lap. When Verstappen came in to change tires on the next lap, the Dutchman fell behind his rival. Mercedes’ proactive tactics helped Hamilton go up three steps and continuously close the gap with the first group.

By lap 32 when the race was less than half past, Hamilton had climbed to fifth and was only 36 seconds behind the lead, while Ocon and Vettel had not yet returned to the pit to change tires. The terrible speed of the W12 helps Hamilton be evaluated as a potential owner of the leading position. By round 47, Hamilton was less than six seconds behind the first place when he was fourth behind Ocon, Vettel and Carlos Sainz.

The early tire change and continuous breakthrough caused Mercedes to call Hamilton to change the tire in lap 48 due to fear of the old tire not being able to complete the remaining 20 laps. When the tire change was completed, the British driver dropped to fifth behind his former teammate Fernando Alonso. The gap of more than 10 seconds between the two veteran riders was soon leveled due to the tremendous power of the W12.

However, Alonso is more than adept and skilled to hold back his former teammate to help his teammate Ocon avoid danger at the end. Hamilton struggled for 10 rounds to beat the old one. Taking advantage of Alonso’s wide opening on Turn 1 on lap 64, the Mercedes driver rose to fourth. The time remaining was not enough for Hamilton to attack the two leads. The British driver was only able to overtake Sainz to take third place.

At the bottom, with the car badly damaged after the collision on Turn 1, Verstappen struggled throughout the race in the last group and took a long time to get past his old teammate Ricciardo to get a point from the first place. Meanwhile, in the first group Ocon successfully defended the No. 1 position despite Vettel’s pursuit throughout the race. This is the first time Alpine has won since Kimi Raikkonen won first place in Melbourne (Australia) when the French racing team was still named Lotus.

After the race was over, the inability to get enough fuel samples for testing caused Vettel to cancel the race results. If Aston Martin does not successfully appeal, the cars behind are automatically moved up a step and this result helps Hamilton 8 points more than Verstappen after 11 stages have passed.

Hungarian Grand Prix results

Rank on one’s own	Racer	Team	Location start	Number of tire changes	Fastest personal laptop	Achievements	Point
first	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	8	3	1:21,421	1 hour 40 minutes 12,200 seconds	25
2	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	ten	3	1:21,459	+1,859 seconds	18
3	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	first	4	1:18,715	+2.736	15
4	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Ferrari	15	3	1:21,423	+15,018	twelfth
5	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	9	3	1:20,359	+15,651	ten
6	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	5	4	1:18,394	+63,614	9
7	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	16	3	1:22,450	+75,803	6
8	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	18	3	1:22,831	+77,910	4
9	George Russell	Williams	17	3	1:22,112	+79,094	2
ten	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	33	5	1:20,945	+80,244	first
11	Kimi Raikkonen	Alfa Romeo	13	4	1:21.518	+1 round
twelfth	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	11	3	1:22,802	+1 round
13	Mick Schumacher	Haas	20	3	1:22.711	+1 round
14	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo	14	5	1:22.736	+1 round
15	Nikita Mazepin	Haas	first	3	–	Skip the race
16	Lando Norris	McLaren	6	2	–	Quit the race
17	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	2		–	Quit the race
18	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	4		–	Quit the race
19	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	7		–	Quit the race
20	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	first		–	Quit the race

+) Fastest-lap: 1 minute 18,394 seconds do Pierre Gasly (Alpha Tauri) made in round 70.

Driver rankings after stage 11

Order	Racer	Team	Point
first	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	192
2	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	186
3	Lando Norris	McLaren	113
4	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	108
5	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	104
6	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Ferrari	80
7	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	80
8	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	50
9	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	48
ten	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	48
11	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	39
twelfth	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	36
13	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	18
14	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	16
15	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	4
16	George Russell	Williams	2
17	Kimi Raikkonen	Alfa Romeo	first
18	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo	first
19	Mick Schumacher	Haas
20	Nikita Mazepin	Haas

Team rankings after stage 11

Order	Racing team	Point
first	Mercedes	300
2	Red Bull	290
3	McLaren	163
4	Ferrari	160
5	Alpine	75
6	Aston Martin	66
7	AlphaTauri	sixty four
8	Williams	6
9	Alfa Romeo	2
ten	Haas

Minh Phuong