Esteban Ocon wins the fastest and craziest race in F1

The race had been going crazy since before the start. With a rainy morning in Hungary, the teams looked at the sky thinking about the tire strategy for the race. With all the cars with intermediate tires, they were arranged on the starting grid waiting for the traffic lights to go out. In the first corner, the race has become a game of bowling. Valtteri Bottas took the lead over Lando Norris, who ended up on the wing of the Mercedes. The two have been shot off the track. And at that very moment, they did strike on the two Red Bull: Verstappen and Perez have also gone out. A few meters later, Lance Stroll also collided with Ricciardo and Leclerc, who finished far off the tarmac. The amount of car wreckage was unsustainable and the red flag has flown on the circuit. Hamilton was to be the big beneficiary with the multiple accident. With his biggest competitor far from the points zone after the collision (Verstappen has been able to return to the race, but in the last places), the Briton has momentarily maintained the first position, but the worst was yet to come.

The Hungarian Grand Prix has also left another image for history. Hamilton, totally alone on the grid, ready to resume the race. Because? After the training lap all the riders, except the British, went into pits to change tires seeing that the asphalt was dry enough to put the intermediate tires. The Briton, without any grandparents on his team, has been on the track and when he looked in the rearview mirror, he saw himself alone on the asphalt. When the traffic lights went out, the Mercedes came out alone, but at high speed, with the intention of making room with his pursuers, aware that the rest had the right tires to face the Grand Prix. Without achieving his goal, Mercedes has ordered him to pit. His pilot was cross-eyed. After returning to the track, now with the rubbers they played, he did so in last place. The Briton did not embitter his frustration by radio: “This is ridiculous!”.

While Hamilton was cursing himself in the tail of the race, the race leader was totally unusual. Esteban Ocon (Alpine) -first- and Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin) -second-, have reached a non-verbal pact of non-aggression until the end of the race. The two drivers could not miss the opportunity to be on the podium of a Grand Prix given the usual performance of their cars.

Hamilton’s competitive and winning mindset has entered the scene. He was the first rider to change strategy and pitted to change tires again 50 laps from the end. Hoping to take care of them to get to the end, and overtake all the riders as they were making their stops throughout the race. On a very narrow track and where the riders go too close together (and with constant dirty air), advancing was a chimera. Only one mistake by the opponent could lead to a change of position, which did not happen during the race.

Twenty laps from the end, peace at the head of the race is over. Ocon and Vettel have fought with the knife between their teeth while Sainz and Alonso were on the lookout for any mistakes to come close- The Alpine rider, meanwhile, has starred in a titanic battle with Hamilton for fourth place. The power of the Mercedes has put the Asturian driver against the ropes over and over again and it has taken him up to ten laps to overtake the Alpine. And seeing Alonso already in the rearview mirror, it was his turn to move on to Sainz. The Ferrari driver has not shown much resistance and in a couple of corners, Hamilton has been placed in third place.

Ocon, for the first time in his life, has crossed the finish line in first place. The inexperience of the young rider has led to a very funny situation: Ocon has passed the entrance to the pitlane while celebrating with the fans at the end of the race. The Alpine rider parked the car on the curb and ran back, saluting, to the podium area to lift his first trophy.