© Vladimir RysFirst Corner Chaos In Budapest For BullsMax finishes P10 as Checo crashes out on first lap.
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In drizzly conditions and on intermediate tyres, Bottas made a poor getaway from P2 on the grid and was passed by Max, Sergio and by McLaren’s Lando Norris, who moved in front of the Mercedes driver.
Bottas attempted to recover but when Norris appeared to brake slightly early, the Mercedes driver locked up and went into the back of the Englishman’s car. Norris was pitched to the right and cannoned into the side of Max’s RB16B. Bottas, meanwhile, went straight through turn one and hit Sergio.
All Out Action In Hungary© Getty Images
Seeing the incident unfolding, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll tried to move to an inside line for turn one but Charles Leclerc was already turning and the pair collided with the Ferrari driver exiting the race. The safety car was quickly deployed.
Both Bulls were able to continue but within a few corners Checo was forced to retire. Max limped back to the pits and soon after the red flags were shown.
In the pit lane the Dutch driver was now in P13. At the front pole position man Lewis Hamilton held P1 for Mercedes ahead of Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel. Carlos Sainz was fourth ahead of AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda and Williams’ Nicholas Latifi was P6. Alpine’s Fernando Alonso sat in seventh, ahead of Williams' George Russell, the Alfa Romeo of Kimi Räikkönen and the Haas of Mick Schumacher, while ahead of Max at the restart would be AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly and McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo.
Race control soon informed the teams that a standing start would take place and the cars were led out of the pit lane by the safety car. The entire field went out for the formation lap on intermediate tyres but with the sun now beating down it quickly became apparent to all but Hamilton that slicks would be required. The race leader made his way to the front of the grid but behind him the entire field pitted to take on slicks. Hamilton was left alone on the grid to restart the race on his own.
As Hamilton passed the safety car line the rest of the order then filed out of the pit lane and took up position behind him. Mercedes immediately told Hamilton to pit at the end of the lap and Ocon soon took up the race lead ahead of Vettel and Latifi.
Max Ahead Of Gasly After The Restart© Getty Images
Hamilton dropped to P14 and last as Max made his way to P11 and as Ocon and Vettel pulled away from the pack, the championship leaders struggled to get past rivals at the back of the field.
Despite nursing a heavily damaged RB16B, Max eventually made his way past Schumacher to claim P10 and that became ninth when Räikkönen served a penalty for an unsafe release in the pit lane chaos at the restart.
Hamilton eventually made his way to P13 and then, on lap 20 he dived into the pits to take on hard tyres.
The Team opted to cover the stop and Max made his next stop, also for hard tyres, on the next lap. However, with Max struggling for pace the undercut worked for Mercedes and Hamilton swept past Max as the Dutchman exited the pit lane.
Max now found himself in P12 just behind Ricciardo. But even though the Red Bull driver could get inside DRS range of the McLaren, the Australian was getting a similar boost from George Russell ahead and Max frustratingly found himself at the end of a train.
Ahead, Hamilton continued his march forward and by lap 35 he was in fifth place behind Alonso, who needed to make another pit stop. The Spaniard briefly took the lead when Vettel and Ocon took on fresh tyres, with Ocon holding the advantage, but a lap later Alonso made his stop and Hamilton swept past to claim fourth place behind Sainz. The Briton was struggling for grip on his hard tyres, however and Mercedes opted to pit him for new mediums and a renewed assault.
Max Locks Up On The Hards© Getty Images
Further back, Max was struggling to make any impression on Ricciardo and on lap 41 the Team brought the Dutchman in again, this time for a set of medium tyres. He re-joined in P12.
Hamilton then began to reel in the top four and on lap 54 he was just 1.8s behind Alonso. Max, meanwhile, has made his way past Räikkönen and was up to P11 and closing in on Ricciardo.
Hamilton attacked Alonso on lap 55, but the Spaniard defended brilliantly and over the next five laps the pair duelled spectacularly with every attack by the Mercedes being rebuffed.
Max, though, managed to make his attack on Ricciardo work and with 10 laps left he muscled his way past the McLaren driver into turn two to take P10.
Alonso’s defence eventually faltered at the start of lap 65. The Alpine driver had a momentary lock up into turn one and Hamilton pounced to steal P4 on the run down to turn two. The Mercedes driver quickly closed on Sainz and at the start of lap 67 he powered past the Ferrari to take P3.
Max Picks Up A Point In Hungary© Getty Images
And there the order solidified. Vettel could find no way to mount an attack on Ocon and though Hamilton pressed hard to reel in the Aston Martin driver, he couldn’t close the gap and after 70 laps Ocon crossed the line to take a memorable first grand prix win ahead of Vettel and Hamilton.
Fourth place went to Sainz, with Alonso a brave fifth ahead of Pierre Gasly, who took the point for fastest lap. Seventh place went to Yuki Tsunoda, while Williams celebrated their first points in two years thanks to Nicholas Latifi and George Russell’s finishing eighth and ninth respectively.
That left Max with P10 and a solitary point from another tough weekend. The Dutch driver now goes into the break in P2 in the Drivers’ standings. Hamilton now leads on 192 points with Max six points behind. The team is now P2 in the Constructors' 10 points behind Mercedes.
Hungarian Grand Prix 2021: Race
An Action-Packed Start Into Turn One© Getty Images
Lights Out Into Turn One© Getty Images
Damage For Max From The Start© Getty Images
The Calm Before The Storm© Getty Images
Getting Ready To Roll Out For Race Day© Getty Images
Managing His Ride From Lap One© Getty Images
Team Together To The Garage© Getty Images
All Out Action In Hungary© Getty Images
Orange Army Out In Force Everywhere© Getty Images
Getting The Race Back Underway© Getty Images
Max Makes It Past Mick© Getty Images
Off With The Inters© Getty Images
“It was all out of our hands in the race and I can’t believe I got taken out for the second week running. The mechanics did what they could to get me back in the race but I was carrying a lot of damage on the car after the incident and it was super difficult to drive with, there was a lot of oversteer and understeer from the downforce loss. Of course it’s really disappointing to only score one point but on the other hand I was incredibly lucky to continue after the crash so it was a surprise to score a point at all which is still important.
We’ve had two very unlucky races but nothing is lost, it’s still a very long season.
"We have the summer break now but we keep pushing, we will never give up and we will focus on ourselves. We’ve had two very unlucky races but nothing is lost, it’s still a very long season. Congratulations to Esteban too, you can see that he is super happy and I’m sure many more race wins will follow.”
“I don’t know what to say but it is unbelievable to be hit like that at Turn 1 and a massive blow for us as a Team. I got a good start and was up to third and it is such a shame because I think we had a good opportunity in those conditions, but there was nothing I could do. I have watched the replays as it was hard to understand exactly what happened behind me from inside the car and I just knew I got a big hit.
"Bottas made a big mistake and braked too late into Turn 1 which took out a lot of cars, including me and caused bad damage to Max’s car. He came to me and apologised as he knew it was his mistake, and although it was not on purpose and is how racing goes sometimes, it doesn’t make a difference to the result for us right now as the large amount of damage ended our race and opportunity for points.”
Full credit once again has to go to our mechanics who worked wonders to get Max’s car back out for the race.
“It is obviously an enormously frustrating way to end the weekend but we are within 10 points of first place in the championship going into the summer break which means it’s all to play for. Unfortunately, Bottas braking late into Turn 1 eliminated both of our cars, Checo was immediately forced to retire and the substantial amount of damage to the right hand side of Max’s car meant he had no chance of fighting at the front. Full credit once again has to go to our mechanics who worked wonders to get Max’s car back out for the race. The temperatures were off the scale and they had to straighten pipes and fix the right side as much as possible in very limited time, before nailing the fastest pit stop once again, which is quite remarkable.
We will take a few weeks off, recharge and come out fighting for the second half of this championship. "It is also disappointing not to have seen what Checo had in store today as his start was impressive and he felt very confident in the car and his race pace. Max fought hard, despite the extensive damage and downforce losses, securing one point which could prove vital at the end of the year. There is no doubt that this has cost us a lot today, financially in a cost cap world, points wise and for Honda who now need to understand whether Checo’s engine is salvageable, but there are many positives to take into the summer break. We have achieved six victories with the most competitive chassis and power unit package we have had for years and the whole team is fully motivated. We will take a few weeks off, recharge and come out fighting for the second half of this championship. We have experienced close title battles like this before and we are not giving up anything. The points difference between the top two in both championships is still very small, it will be an epic second half to this year and we are ready for it.”
| Position | Driver | Team | | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | … | DNF |
| Esteban Ocon | Sebastian Vettel | Lewis Hamilton | Carlos Sainz | Fernando Alonso | Pierre Gasly | Yuki Tsunoda | Nicholas Latifi | George Russell | Max Verstappen | … | Sergio Pérez |
| Alpine | Aston Martin | Mercedes | Ferrari | Alpine | AlphaTauri | AlphaTauri | Williams | Williams | Red Bull Racing Honda | … | Red Bull Racing Honda |
