The recent chaotic race is outlined by our regular contributor in Europe Nick van der Meulen in his report F1 Review Hungary 2021.

The eleventh round of the 2021 F1 world championship was staged at Hungaroring, Hungary. The inaugural race took place in 1986 and the event became notorious for being one of the slowest circuits on the calendar, without many overtaking opportunities. Generally, as in Monaco, the driver who claims pole position will be difficult to beat on race day. In this race, however, it was all to change…

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Fightin’ words

In the two weeks following the British Grand Prix, Red Bull Racing management has been pulling no punches with regard to the collision between their driver, Max Verstappen, and Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes). It reached fever pitch by the Thursday before the race weekend, when Red Bull insisted on a re-review of the incident at Silverstone. The FIA threw out the appeal, which disgruntled the Austrian team’s management even further, the furore creating much ill feeling between the teams, as well as millions of fans.

Mind games

Gamesmanship in qualifying saw Mercedes lock out the front row of the grid, keeping the Red Bull drivers behind them in the final run, further intensifying the animosity between the two teams. The race had the potential to be a snooze fest, but it became one of the most unusual Grands Prix in recent memory.

In wet conditions, Hamilton made a decent start from pole position when the lights went out, with Verstappen slotting in behind the Englishman. Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) botched his start from the front row and he slipped behind a flying Lando Norris (McLaren-Mercedes), but the Finn misjudged his braking into Turn 1… 

Chain reaction

The Mercedes driver punted Norris from behind and catapulted him into Verstappen. Bottas himself clattered into Sergio Perez (Red Bull Racing-Honda) after breaking his suspension when hitting Norris. Behind them, Lance Stroll (Aston Martin-Mercedes) also missed his braking point and clouted Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) who, in turn, tagged Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren-Mercedes).

The debris strewn across the circuit forced the race to be stopped. This gave teams the opportunity to repair damage to vehicles. By the time the race was due to restart, the entire grid barring Lewis Hamilton dived into pit lane to switch to slick tyres and start from pit lane. Bizarrely, Hamilton, on intermediate tyres, was the lone starter on the grid. This proved to be a costly error by Mercedes strategists, as Hamilton pitted at the end of the first lap and rejoined stone last.

Surprise leader

This left Esteban Ocon (Alpine) as the surprise race leader, shadowed by Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin-Mercedes). Vettel exerted pressure throughout the race in an attempt to force the Frenchman into a mistake, but Ocon managed to keep the multiple world champion at bay to take his debut Grand Prix victory, the first for a Frenchman since Pierre Gasly’s memorable victory at Monza last season.

It is felt that Ocon’s team mate, Fernando Alonso, had a big role to play in the Alpine’s victory as he was feisty in his defense of his position over Hamilton, the Englishman severely delayed by the Spaniard’s strong showing. Hamilton managed to recover to finish third, while Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) carved his way from 15th on the grid to finish a fine fourth, losing his podium place to Hamilton with three laps to go. Alonso followed his fellow Spaniard home ahead of teammates Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda (Alpha Tauri-Honda), Nicolas Latifi (Williams-Mercedes), George Russell (Williams-Mercedes) and Verstappen.

Working overtime

There were some interesting decisions by the stewards this weekend. Both Alfa Romeo drivers were penalized in the race: Kimi Raikkonen was penalized for an unsafe release in front of Nikita Mazepin (Haas-Ferrari), while Antonio Giovinazzi was slapped with a 10-second stop-and-go penalty for speeding in pit lane (!).

A number of drivers were admonished by the stewards post-race, namely, Ocon (not adhering to Race Director’s rules and parking at the end of pit lane), Vettel, Stroll and Sainz (for not removing their T-shirts before the national anthem ahead of the race). Sainz and Russell were brought before the stewards for radio “coaching” before race start, while Vettel’s second place was under threat at the time of writing, as his mount did not have 1 litre of fuel available for testing (they only managed to extract 300 ml). Bottas and Stroll were both penalised five grid positions for the next round for their roles in the first-lap incident.

Updated: Aston Martin Racing’s Sebastian Vettel was disqualified after his car fell foul of a technical infringement in the post-race inspection. This means that Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton inherits second place, with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz classified third. The rest of the top 10 behind Sainz also inherit a place each, with Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen promoted into the final points paying position of P10.

The circus goes on summer holiday for three weeks and will reconvene at Spa-Franchorchamps, Belgium, on 27 to 29 August 2021.