The race was stopped after a pile-up in the first corner when Valtteri Bottas caught up and McLaren’s Lando Norris ousted the former world championship leader Max Verstappen. Bottas’ three-wheeled car then won Sergio Perez’s second Red Bull.
Hamilton made a huge mistake on restart when he didn’t pit for slicks at the end of the warm-up lap as opposed to the entire field, and was the last to drop it when he then pitted. This left Ocon in the lead, ahead of Vettel, who only just undercut him because of a slow pit stop, and Ocon held him up to the finish.
Hamilton recovered and finished third, while Verstappen finished 10th.
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Results of the Hungarian Grand Prix 2021
How the Hungarian Grand Prix developed
Due to the rain before the race, the entire field started on intermediate tires, although Antonio Giovinazzi pitted his Alfa Romeo for slicks at the end of the installation lap. From pole position, Hamilton led Verstappen to turn 1 on the run when Bottas made a terrible start and dropped to fifth.
In the first corner, on the damp surface, Bottas blocked and knocked out Norris, who slipped into Verstappen, and then picked up Perez – and put himself out of the race. In a second accident, Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin collided with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who shot Daniel Ricciardo’s McLaren. Leclerc then took off at Turn 2 while Perez was forced to continue on the lap.
At the end of the first lap, Hamilton led Ocon, Vettel, Sainz, Tsunoda and Latifi as the safety car and then the red flag was required to clear the rubble. Verstappen finished 13th when he stopped to have some damage repaired, as did Norris – whose streak ended when McLaren was unable to repair his car. Bottas received a starting place penalty of five places for the next race.
The red flag allowed the teams to make repairs, allowing 15 cars to complete the standing restart on a now dry track. Hamilton was the only car that did not enter the pit lane and started alone when the actual race developed out of the pits when Russell Ocon, Vettel, Latifi, Tsunoda led with Verstappen in 12th place. Nikita Mazepin (Haas) retired with a damaged suspension after Kimi Raikkonen’s Alfa Romeo was put on his way in the pit lane.
Hamilton pitted at the end of the first lap and dropped to 14th and last place. Russell would have taken the lead, but his Williams slowed as he had been told by the FIA to give up spots so that Ocon could lead Vettel, Latifi and Tsunoda. Verstappen finished 11th with Hamilton 14th.
Ocon pulled away from Vettel, Latifi and Tsunoda fought for third place. Hamilton overtook Giovinazzi in 13th when Verstappen chased Schumacher to get back into the points. Verstappen made a move stick around the outside of Turn 2 on lap 14, but not without contact.
Hamilton pitted on lap 20 to switch to Hards and managed to undercut Verstappen and Ricciardo to finish 10th, who finished ninth when Russell pitted a lap later. Hamilton then overtook Schumacher and Latifi.
In the lead, Vettel caught Ocon with a third of the race distance, but could not prevail, Sainz was by far in third place in front of Alonso. Hamilton overtook Tsunoda on the outside of Turn 4 and finished fifth on lap 33.
Verstappen got stuck behind Ricciardo, so decided to make a second stop for medium-sized tires.
Vettel pitted on lap 37 and lost about a second because of a sticky left rear wheel. Ocon reacted a lap later and handed over the lead to team-mate Alonso, but decisively just ahead of Vettel. Alonso pitted on lap 40 and dropped to fifth behind Sainz and Hamilton.
Hamilton pitted again for new media on lap 48 and finished fifth behind Alonso, but was able to storm him across the finish line. Vettel challenged Ocon for the lead in traffic at Turn 1 on lap 49 and almost came alongside Ocon as he lapped Giovinazzi, but the Frenchman held his lead and scored his first F1 win.
Hamilton caught up with Alonso 15 laps before the end, who attacked repeatedly in turns 2 and 4, but was repeatedly beaten back. Hamilton finally took the lead with five laps to go and benefited from the fact that Alonso blocked at Turn 1 and ran far. Hamilton quickly caught up with Sainz, overtaking him in third on the run to Turn 1 with a handful of laps remaining.
Behind Alonso in fifth place, Gasly (who pitted on the last tour and set the fastest lap) and Tsunoda took sixth and seventh places respectively, ahead of the Williams duo Latifi and Russell.
Verstappen overtook Ricciardo by one point by one point at Turn 2 with 10 laps to go, but couldn’t get any further with his damaged car.
