Rain had already started to come down before the cars began to get into position, with Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas at the front of two Red Bulls. The weather forecast was for up to 30 minutes of rain, which suited the two title rivals fine as they like such conditions.
Hamilton got a good start and as his team mate was slow to get off, Max Verstappen shot past him into second. But then came another incident as Lando Norris (McLaren) got bumped by Bottas who must have been too eager to get going, and Norris hit Verstappen before the first corner. The other Red Bull driver, Sergio Perez also went off as Bottas slid into him.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc got bumped by Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, which ended his race, while Daniel Ricciardo was a helpless victim of the collision. Meanwhile, Alfa Romeo ORLEN’s Antonio Giovinazzi had slipped into the pits as the race started to take a gamble on different tyres. However, he was at the back of the pack when he joined the race and 25 seconds behind the leader as the Safety Car zoomed to the front.
When the situation became clearer, at least 4 cars were potentially out of the race as the red flags came out by the third lap, and the race had to be stopped. The Safety Car was in motion while the debris was cleared and the immobile cars removed. Hamilton had managed to escape the collisions, along with Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel.
The Red Bull team was obviously very unhappy – after Silverstone, another incident again, this time with Bottas and Perez (who suggested the Finn had made a ‘big mistake’). Verstappen’s car was fixed in time but he had a lot of work ahead of him as he was in 13th place when the race was stopped.
The race resumed after 15 minutes but only Hamilton seemed to start off as the rest of the cars were in the pits. He returned to change the tyres and when he rejoined on lap 5, he was at the back and Ocon was at the front – a rare instance of an Alpine leading the rest. The early drama had continued in the pits as well, with Nikita Mazepin (Haas) colliding with Kimi Raikkonen’s Alfa Romeo as the Finn suddenly came out of his box. The Russian driver was the sixth retirement of the Hungarian GP. Raikkonen’s team mate, Giovinazzi, got a 10-second penalty for speeding in the pitlane and it was likely that Raikkonen would also get a penalty.
Williams’ George Russell, holding seventh on lap 11, impressed with his spirit of teamwork as he told his team that if his own position had to be compromised, they should go ahead as it was more important for his team mate, Nicholas Latifi, to maintain his third position behind Vettel and Ocon.
Verstappen’s progress through the field was not easy and even to get past Haas’ Mick Schumacher was tricky and the two cars were seen to touch. Hamilton was just two places behind on the 15th lap but experiencing brake problems. It was an unusual race this time with drivers usually further back being up front and battling for the best positions with points.
Hamilton came in again on lap 19 to get onto hard tyres, a strategic move as the track was drying out by then. He only lost one position but was still some 50 seconds behind the leader and had at least 10 cars – including Verstappen’s – to pass before he reached Ocon. Verstappen came in on the next lap and dropped 2 places behind his arch-rival. Ocon had come in before Vettel and was able to do his tyre-change in 2.3 seconds and kept his lead.
The battles up front were between Ocon and Vettel, and about 16 seconds behind, between Latifi and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz. Latifi and Sainz came into the pits on the same lap and the Ferrari raced back out to grab third place, as Latifi lost 4 places. Now it was Sainz who had to defend his position from another Alpine driven by Fernando Alonso.
Halfway through the 70-lap race, Ocon and Vettel were still up front, separated by a second or two. Alonso had passed Sainz and was in a fairly secure position with generous gaps in front and behind. Hamilton had moved up to fifth and was pushing harder than ever.
Vettel came in on lap 37 and lost just one position, giving Alonso the second place. Hamilton was still busy duelling with Sainz to get within range of Alonso. Verstappen, down in twelfth and over a minute from the leader was still unable to move into a points position. On lap 43, he made his fifth visit of the race to the Red Bull pits to switch to medium tyres. His stop took an incredible 1.8 seconds – the fastest pit stop this season.
On lap 45, Sainz was still under attack from Hamilton and thought that the Mercedes-AMG driver would go back into the pits again. However, Hamilton decided his tyres were still good enough and did not allow the Ferrari driver to get any relief.
As 10 laps remained, an announcement was made concerning the Stewards’ findings on the first lap incidents and Bottas was deemed to have been responsible for “causing an avoidable collision in Turn 1”. The penalty for him was a drop of 5 positions on the starting grid for the next race in Belgium as well as 2 penalty points.
While Alonso was trying hard to prevent Hamilton from getting past, Verstappen had managed to finally overtake McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo and get back into a points position at tenth. Less than 10 laps remained so he would only be able to improve his position another one or two places, the only Red Bull driver to bring home some points this time.
As the lap counter got closer to the 70th lap, Hamilton got more desperate to pass Alonso, with at least one instance of contact between cars. Vettel was not under threat from Sainz who was 7 seconds behind so he was focussed on trying to get his first win with Aston Martin.
Despite being a 2-time world champion, Alonso must have let the pressure get to him as he locked up and Hamilton immediately slotted into fourth place on lap 65. The Spaniard had also been having a tough time with his older tyres.
And it was Esteban Ocon’s day as he won the Hungarian Grand Prix, his first ever F1 win too. Vettel also had reason for a celebration in the Aston Martin camp as he finished second, and Hamilton coming in third. However, in spite of the speed of the Mercedes-AMG, it was Pierre Gasly of AlphaTauri’s Honda who got a bonus point for the fastest lap of the day. In the Williams camp too, there was jubilation as both Latifi and Russell finished within the top ten to give the team their first points of the season.
