OCON WINS IN HUNGARY TO BECOME THE 111TH DIFFERENT WINNER IN FORMULA ONE
In possibly the most unpredictable race since Monza 2020 - Esteban Ocon for Alpine wins his maiden victory at Hungary to become the 111th different race winner in Formula One and the first french driver to win since Pierre Gasly. Sebastian Vettel comes home in second for his second podium for Aston Martin this year. With Hamilton coming from last (14th) to third after an incredible fight with now 40 year old Fernando Alonso (Alpine). With this podium Hamilton takes the lead in the title fight with Verstappen only able to finish tenth and to take one point back to Milton Keynes before the summer break.
The drama started right from the off as Bottas as he came into turn one failed to stop in time causing him to go straight into the back of the McLaren of Lando Norris who in turn smashes into Max Verstappen with Stroll of the Aston Martin also failing to make the first corner going into the side pod of Leclerc (Ferrari) taking the both out of the race. Ricciardo also spun on the exit of turn one.
The yellow flag was instantly put out followed by a Safety Car which then led into a red flag - during this time the track dried completely but on the restart Hamilton was the only driver to restart the race on inters as every other remaining drivers coming straight in so they start from the pit lane.
By lap 2 the top ten was Ocon leading from Vettel in second and Sainz in third followed by Tsunoda, Latifi, Alonso, Russell and Raikkonen in tenth. The cars which would not continue included Perez, Bottas, Leclerc, Stroll and Norris.
The race resumed on lap four with Verstappen attempting to fight back from 13th but ultimately could only manage a tenth place finish.
Lap six - Mazepin (Haas) is retired after a collision with Raikkonen in the pit lane.
By lap 37 Alpine lead one and two and three laps later Alonso pits to give Ocon the lead and Vettel back into second. Alonso is now fifth after the stop just eight laps after that Hamilton pits and comes out behind Alonso which would lead to a fantastic battle between the two former McLaren team mates
On lap 61 Verstappen finally passes Ricciardo for tenth and the final point paying position. On lap 67 with just three laps left Hamilton takes third from Sainz (Ferrari) but after too many laps behind Alonso - a fight for the win was simply not possible.
In other news both Williams score points with Latifi in eighth and Russell in ninth the first time the team has scored points since the 2018 German Grand Prix when Kubica finished 10th.
The next race is the Belgian Grand Prix.
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