Ocon Holds Off Vettel In Hungary For First F1 Victory

There’s been plenty of off-track contentious F1 action over the last couple of weeks, but on-track it was the Hungarian Grand Prix today and after a totally unpredictable turn of events it was Alpine’s Esteban Ocon who resisted racelong pressure from Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel to claim the victory spoils.

The row between Mercedes and Red Bull had continued long after the controversial opening lap clash between Sir Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen at the British Grand Prix a fortnight ago and a week before the Hungarian event all of the teams had been warned about not making unrequested visits to the stewards during races after both Mercedes’ Toto Wolff and Red Bull’s Christian Horner had done so at Silverstone.

In the ongoing war of words Wolff had accused Horner of making overly personal remarks about the behaviour of the Mercedes team, which Horner robustly refuted, criticising how Hamilton and his colleagues had very much celebrated their victory whilst Verstappen was still in hospital undergoing checks. The Dutch driver referred to this behaviour as “disrespectful and unsportsmanlike”, adding that he thought it just showed “how Mercedes really are”. Horner also still felt that Hamilton had very much escaped with an unduly lenient 10 second penalty, which had helped him win the restarted race, and was very much rueing the $1.8m (£1.3m) cost of the accident with annual budget caps now in place and having to be adhered to.

As a result it was no surprise to learn that Red Bull had lodged a request a week before the start of the Hungarian weekend for the stewards to consider a review of Hamilton’s Silverstone penalty for being, as they had adjudicated at the time, “predominantly at fault” for the incident. Under the FIA’s International Sporting Code competitors can request a right of review upto 14 days after a stewards’ ruling if “a significant and relevant new element is discovered which was unavailable to the parties seeking the review at the time of the decision concerned.” As such, the onus was on Red Bull to meet this requirement and representatives of both the Milton Keynes based team and Mercedes were invited to join in a video conference with the stewards from the British Grand Prix at 4pm Hungarian time last Thursday.

The outcome later that evening was that the stewards stuck by their original decision and rejected Red Bull’s request for a review as they considered the new evidence was not “discovered” but “created”. This related to a series of slides Red Bull had produced based on GPS data of the Verstappen/Hamilton clash and the latter’s later clean overtake on Charles Leclerc as well as data from the team’s attempt to recreate Hamilton’s line against Verstappen through Copse using Alex Albon in a 2019 car at a prearranged promotional filming day during the week following the incident. So, that was that and it was time to move on, even if some parties still felt very aggrieved about the outcome and some felt that asking the same stewards to review their own initial judgment was hardly likely to result in a change of verdict. At least the best outcome of this very public spat amidst serious ill-feeling on both sides had been that it had got everyone talking about Formula 1 again and looking forward to the next Verstappen/Hamilton instalment in Hungary, reviving memories of the epic Ayrton Senna/Alain Prost rivalry and their battles on and off track whilst driving for McLaren.

On the subject of this year’s F1 calendar, there was news on the Monday before the Hungarian race that the Dutch government has banned all large-scale festivals in August due to a significant rise in Covid-19 cases and has indicated that a decision will be taken on August 13 about whether the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort on September 5 can still go ahead as planned. It is set to be Formula 1’s first return since 1985 to the coastal circuit, with the massed Verstappen fans due to turn the place into a sea of orange in support of their home hero. Looking to later in the year, Bobby Epstein, the Chairman and CEO of the Circuit of the Americas just outside Austin in the USA, was present in Hungary amidst yet to be confirmed but very strong rumours that the Texan venue might well hold two full Grands Prix rather than just one, but watch this space for more news on that one shortly.

Looking at the F1 driver market, many seats are still to be confirmed for next year, including who will partner Hamilton at Mercedes and who will be alongside Verstappen at Red Bull. Wolff has long indicated that a decision will be made this month about whether Valtteri Bottas will be retained for a sixth season or whether the young British Mercedes protégé George Russell will replace him. Interestingly the Austrian admitted last week that he feels a personal responsibility to find Bottas another decent drive in F1 if he is dropped, saying “If we come to the situation that we wanted to give someone else a go, then it’s not only my relationship with him but the responsibility that he has a great future, because he deserves that.” If Mercedes opts to part company with the Finn, his F1 career may well continue at Alfa Romeo or back at Williams.

If Russell does head to Mercedes next year, Williams will need to find a new super quick team leader to replace him. Firstly they will need to decide whether to retain Nicholas Latifi, whose current two year contract also expires at the end of this season. Whilst the Canadian’s performances have been very much overshadowed by Russell’s, he does bring a lot of sponsorship to the team at a time when it is still very expensive to go racing in F1. There are also suggestions that Williams’ power unit supplier, Mercedes, may wish to switch its 26 year old Formula E Series leader and former F2 champion Nyck de Vries to a seat at Williams, with its other Formula E driver Stoffel Vandoorne also not ruled out. With the likes of Dan Ticktum, Nico Hülkenberg and Daniil Kvyat also hoping to be considered, Williams will still be spoilt for choice if Mercedes comes calling for Russell very shortly.

In the Hungaroring F1 paddock there was much speculation about the ongoing relationship between Hamilton and Verstappen as well as between their respective teams and Mercedes admitted that it was braced for a “bruised” Red Bull to fight back. Strategy is always crucial at this tight and often hot and dusty circuit and track position is king. There had only been four Safety Car interventions in the previous ten races, with no Virtual Safety Car periods since 2018, and thus team strategists could not rely on these happening again this time round. They did though have to take full account of the single DRS detection point and two DRS zones down the main straight and between Turns 1 and 2 as well as the fact that, with the circuit only being 2.7 miles long, the Grand Prix was set to run over 70 laps.

When the ontrack action began on Friday morning with the opening free practice session it was Verstappen who topped the timesheets ahead of Bottas, Hamilton and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, with Alpine’s Fernando Alonso, who turned 40 the day before, proving that age is no barrier for the Spaniard as he set the sixth fastest time. At the other end of the scale 21 year old Yuki Tsunoda caused a five minute red flag interruption after putting his AlphaTauri into the barriers at the Turn 4 high-speed lefthander. The air temperature was a scorching 32C for the afternoon’s second practice period which resulted in a Mercedes 1-2, with Bottas just outpacing his team-mate and Verstappen only third quickest and fighting understeer. Ferrari subsequently discovered faults with Sainz’s power unit and opted to ship it back to Maranello, installing in its place the Spaniard’s third and final unit for the season without incurring penalties.

Yesterday’s last practice hour began at midday local time and Hamilton edged out Verstappen by just 0.088s, with Bottas and Sainz the best of the rest. Mick Schumacher caused further red flags after losing the rear of his Haas at Turn 11, the damage caused by the side impact with the barriers raising questions as to whether the young German would be able to participate in the following qualifying session. The answer was no and the rookie also picked up a five place grid penalty for a required gearbox change, not that you can go much further back when already starting last.

With Hamilton and Verstappen so evenly matched, the qualifying hour had been eagerly anticipated, although it was interrupted during its second phase when Sainz lost control at the final corner and had his own excursion to the barriers. Come the top ten shootout Hamilton put in a superb first effort to claim provisional pole position, but further controversy between Mercedes and Red Bull followed when there seemed to be an element of gamesmanship as the reigning champion drove relatively slowly immediately ahead of his main rival in the pit lane and on their out laps before the final pole attempts. Mercedes claimed their driver was simply trying to drop well back behind Bottas so as not to be affected by the turbulent air behind his car, but Red Bull felt Hamilton was deliberately backing up his title rival as much as possible. Verstappen at least managed to start his last flying lap with barely a second to spare, but his team-mate Sergio Pérez missed out on a finaal opportunity to improve his time.

This all didn’t go unnoticed by the many Verstappen fans present and Hamilton received a loud chorus of boos and whistles whilst being interviewed afterwards, responding by simply smiling and saying “I have never felt so great with the booing. If anything, it just fuels me.” In the end the Mercedes team leader took his eighth pole position at the Hungaroring, with Bottas making it a front row lockout for the Brackley based team and with Verstappen and Pérez occupying the second row ahead of AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly and McLaren’s Lando Norris. The latter fittingly took time out early today to pay tribute to all motorsport marshals after a member of the Orange Army, as they are known, had been hit and killed by an out of control car during a race at Brands Hatch yesterday. We all so know the dangers of the sport we love and that it simply would not happen without marshals, giving their services for little or often no recompense.

The Mercedes duo were set to start the race on medium specification tyres, whereas the rest of the top ten, including both Red Bulls immediately to their rear, were going to use the less durable but grippier soft rubber and Verstappen was hoping this might give him an advantage in the sprint towards the first corner hairpin, even if it meant he would have to pit sooner. However, a real curveball came along in the form of gradually increasing rain as the start neared this afternoon, resulting in all 20 drivers switching to intermediate tyres to allow for the precipitation.



When those famous red lights went out Hamilton made a good start and led the field into Turn 1, but carnage was about to ensue to his rear as Bottas had a poor getaway and slipped back before making a major error of judgment as he braked for the opening righthander, ploughing into the back of Norris who in turn then slid into the side of Verstappen. The Finn also managed to hit the other Red Bull, putting Pérez out of the race as well as Norris and himself. At the same time Lance Stroll also got it all wrong as his Aston Martin launched an assault on the side of Leclerc’s Ferrari, forcing them both into immediate retirement. Red flags followed an initial Safety Car intervention to allow for all the ontrack debris and stranded cars to be removed and both Bottas and Stroll subsequently received five-place grid penalties for the next race for causing avoidable accidents.

Red Bull attempted to effect some temporary repairs to Verstappen’s car and at least it was available for the restart, if still clearly damaged and suffering a loss of downforce. By the time the restart neared the rain had eased, the sun had come out and as the field undertook the formation lap to the grid the circuit was dry. As a result we witnessed the extraordinary situation of only Hamilton lining up on the grid for the restart as every other car headed down the pitlane to switch from intermediate to slick tyres. Hamilton was therefore the clear early leader, but had to pit himself after a single lap to make the same change to slick rubber.

Ocon and Vettel had avoided the opening corner problems after the first start and had been the best of the rest behind Hamilton before the race stoppage. Thus they soon found themselves as the front duo after the second start and enjoyed a close battle for the victory for the whole race distance. The Aston Martin often looked to have the edge on the Alpine for outright pace, but Ocon drove superbly without making any mistakes and Vettel had to settle for a well earned second place come the chequered flag.

As for the rest of the field, Hamilton put in a strong recovery drive from last on track to finish third come the chequered flag after following a three-stop strategy, whereas Verstappen spent most of the race running outside of the points earning positions in his damaged Red Bull before eventually finishing tenth, earning him a solitary point. So, it proved to be a very difficult day at the office for Red Bull for a second race running, but a brilliant day for Alpine as Alonso belied his age to finish a strong fifth in support of his victorious team-mate. With only one Ferrari in the restart, at least Sainz earned the Italian team a few points with his fifth place finish and Gasly completed the top six, also earning the extra point for the fastest lap. The Williams team certainly deserves a special mention after at last earning some points, with Latifi and Russell finishing eighth and ninth respectively. A result which must have felt like a race victory for the Grove based outfit.

Formula 1 now enters its four week summer break from racing, with Mercedes benefiting psychologically from having regained the lead in both the Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships, but anything could happen when the action resumes at Belgium’s iconic Spa Francorchamps circuit in late August. The opening 11 Grands Prix of 2021 have been completed and F1 is still very keen to have a 23 race campaign, but there is a real possibility of further pandemic caused calendar changes affecting the second half of what has been the most competitive and thrilling season for many years.