Thrilling maiden F1 victory for Esteban Ocon: Race Analysis

By Malhaar Khaladkar

Esteban Ocon unexpectedly won a thrilling race at the Hungaroring circuit, his first career win as Sebastian Vettel finished second but was later disqualified for a technical infringement. Subsequently Lewis Hamilton got the second spot and Carlos Sainz was promoted to the podium spot in third.

New Delhi, 2 August 2021: Esteban Ocon achieved his first career victory as he led the whole race ahead of Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton. Later the German getting disqualified due to a technical infringement as race officials could not extract the required amount of fuel sample from his car. This promoted Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz on the podium, his second podium of the year after Monaco. Ocon’s Alpine teammate Fernando Alonso finished P4 who played a pivotal role in helping his teammate win. AlphaTauri duo of Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda finished in P5 and P6 respectively. Both Williams drivers Nicholas Latifi and George Russell achieved points for the first time, crossing the line in P7 and P8. Max Verstappen could only manage P9 in his heavily damage Red Bull and Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen rounded out the top 10.

Ricciardo was unable to finish in the top 10 as he nursed his McLaren throughout the race with Haas’ Mick Schumacher and Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi the last two race finishers.

Valtteri Bottas collided with two cars of Lando Norris and Sergio Perez with all three retiring atthe start due to terminal damage. Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll skidded onto wet grass and took out Charles Leclerc and both were unable to continue in the race. An unsafe release by Alfa Romeo meant that Raikkonen tagged Nikita Mazepin in the pits, with the Russian’s car having suspension failure due to contact.

The forecasted rain arrived before the race start as everyone changed to intermediate tyres. The race got underway, and Hamilton was cleanly off from the pole. His teammate Bottas got a less than ideal start as he fell prey to Verstappen and Norris. Bottas overcooked his breaking point in turn 1 and speared into Norris who in turn damaged the right side of Verstappen’s car. Meanwhile, Bottas lost his front wheel and tagged Perez. The Mexican carrying on for another sector before his engine shut off due to damage. Stroll tried to get on the inside of Leclerc’s Ferrari in turn 1, but he lost control on the wet grass and collected Leclerc who tagged Ricciardo’s McLaren because of the knock-on effect. Leclerc and Stroll retired on the spot. Several cars retiring on the grid and debris meant the race was red flagged.

When the race got underway, a bizarre sight was witnessed as only Hamilton started on the grid and everyone else on the grid pitted for dry tyres. Hamilton and Mercedes later realizing their mistake and pitting one lap after the race was underway as the Briton slotted into last position. Ahead briefly Russell lead the grand prix in his Williams before being asked to give the positions back due to overtaking in the pitlane. Ocon assumed the race lead with Vettel close behind followed by Sainz.

Hamilton passed Giovinazzi and Schumacher but was stuck in a train as it is notoriously difficult to overtake at this track even if the car has superior pace. Mercedes pitted Hamilton again for hard tyres on lap 19. Both Ricciardo and Verstappen pitted a lap later trying to cover Hamilton, but his undercut was superior as he got past both of them and releasing the Briton in free air. By lap 32 Hamilton was up to P5 passing the likes of Schumacher, Latifi and Tsunoda in the process.

To cover Hamilton’s undercut, Ferrari pitted Sainz on lap 32 and the Spaniard emerged in front of the Mercedes driver. Ahead Ocon was still in the lead defending from the relentless pressure of Vettel with Alonso in third. All three yet to pit. Vettel was the first to pit among the race leaders as he attempted an undercut with Ocon following suit for hard tyres a lap later. Ocon just about managed to stay in front and resume his defense for the victory. Alonso pitted on lap 39 emerging behind Sainz and Hamilton but on fresher tyres.

Mercedes pitted Hamilton again on lap 47 for medium tyres, trying to do the ‘Hungary 2019’ strategy again with even Toto Wolff assuring Hamilton on the team radio. Hamilton quickly caught up to Alonso and Sainz. Hamilton and Alonso had a titanic duel as Alonso defended hard but fair with the Briton attacking lap after lap. This battle being reminiscent of the past two decades between this pair. Finally Hamilton managed to get past Alonso by lap 65 and overtaking Sainz by lap 67. But he could not challenge for the win as the battle with Alonso had cost him too much time.

The day belonged to Ocon as he triumphed at Hungary for his first Formula 1 victory with Vettel getting another podium in his decorated career- later being disqualified. Hamilton had to settle for P3 but was happier of the two title rivals as he retook the championship lead alongside Mercedes.

The Formula 1 circus heads for a well-deserved summer break as racing will resume at the end of August for the Belgian Grand Prix. See you then!

Mercedes upgrades confirmed that they have clawed back performance compared to Red Bull. Hungaroring was expected to suit Red Bull’s car characteristics, but Mercedes got pole position by over four-tenths of a second, securing a front row lockout and had the fastest race car. If not for Mercedes’ strategy error, they would have won. Red Bull had a miserable weekend as they unexpectedly lost to their German rivals in qualifying. Already on the backfoot, both drivers’ race was ruined due to the turn 1 melee started by Bottas as they managed to salvage two points for this weekend. They lost both championship leads.

AlphaTauri had an encouraging race weekend as the Gasly out qualified both McLaren and Ferrari cars. They also achieved a double-points finish which will help them in the fight for P5 in the constructors championship. The Hungaroring circuit suiting the characteristics of the AT02 as it requires high downforce. McLaren had a dismal race weekend scoring no points as they were caught up in the turn 1 incident and therefore it is difficult to judge how they would have done in the race. Ferrari had a positive race with Sainz as they managed to achieve a podium. Ferrari had decent qualifying pace and very close to Gasly and Norris’ pace as they were just separated by 0.013s in qualifying.

This was a mega result for Alpine as Ocon got his first win. Qualifying pace wise they were behind the top three midfield teams this race but made most of the opportunity in the race. Ocon’s performance boosted in the last few races as he swapped his chassis. Alonso played a key role in Ocon’s victory as he held off Hamilton for more than 10 laps. Aston Martin arguably had a faster car in race trim than Alpine unable to pass Ocon for the race lead as it was difficult to overtake. Vettel’s car was later disqualified, and he lost P2 as the race stewards could not extract the required amount of fuel sample from his car. Aston Martin have lodged an appeal against this.

Williams finally achieved double points finish which helped them jump to P8 in constructor’s standings. They showed mediocre qualifying pace as Russell was knocked out of Q1 for the first time this season but made full opportunity of the incidents at the start to achieve points. Alfa Romeo lacked race pace to challenge Williams but still managed P10 with Raikkonen. Haas were unable to make full use of the race incidents to achieve points with Schumacher and admittedly lacked pace to do so.

Saturday Qualifying Results were: