A race that had just about everything – first lap carnage, red flag, surprise winner and podium, a swing in the Championships, so our 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix Result Review is under pressure to do it all justice.
Our review covers what happened in the race so you don’t have to in the laps that matter. Plus we throw in our Race Ratings, the Best (Great) and Worst (Grape) drivers of the race weekend.
The perfect bite sized review for those who couldn’t be bothered.
The 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix Result Review + Great and Grape gives you just enough to catch up, and stand by for our Power Rankings which highlight our driver of the season so far.
2021 Hungarian Grand Prix Result Race – THE LAPS THAT MATTERED
Didn’t see the race live? Don’t have time to watch the whole race? Well here are the top laps where stuff happened. Normally it is five or ten, so you know it was a good race if there’s more than ten.
We write these live as we go, sort of like a minute by minute for the football, but marginally more interesting.
Lap 0 – Rain, glorious rain falls and all the cars start on the Inter wets. Antonio Giovinazzi pits for dry tyres before the start which didn’t seem a good idea as it appeared to rain more. Spoiler alert: the wet track was going to mayhem.
Lap 1 – Hamilton gets away from the line well. Which turned out to be a very good thing. Absolute chaos behind.
Valtteri Bottas (2nd on grid) is slow off the line, Max Verstappen (3rd) and Lando Norris (5th) make great starts. Heading into the first corner Bottas outbrakes himself then uses Lando Norris as an emergency brake who then is pushed into Max Verstappen. Bottas doubles down on the first contact by running into the other Red Bull of Perez in a piece of choreography that is either pure genius if the plan was to take out four of his team mate’s nearest rivals in one move, or classic Nottas dross.
Further back Daniel Ricciardo sniffs freedom and potentially second place to turn a shit weekend into good, then Aston Martin racing clown Lance Stroll runs into Charles Leclerc who spears into the Australian’s McLaren. Stroll also approached the first corner too fast and though the best way to slow down would be driving across wet grass. Clown.
Other cars take the necessary action to avoid more carnage. Verstappen falls down the order, then pits before red flag put out.
Following cars are out either on the spot or didn’t take the restart – Bottas, Leclerc, Stroll, Perez, Norris.
Race is Red flagged.
ORDER – HAM OCO VET SAI TSU LAT ALO RUS RAI MSC (RIC 12th VER 13th)
Lap 4 – Race restarts but everyone except Lewis Hamilton goes into the pits for the restart to get dry tyres. Leaving Lewis Hamilton the only car to start from the grid for the first time in GP history. George Russell somehow goes from 8th to come out second from the pitlane. It’s later found out that Russell was a little bit cheeky in the pitlane.
Replays a few laps later show Raikkonen and Mazepin clash in the pit lane after a very unsafe release from the Alfa pit.
Lap 5 – Lewis Hamilton pits and comes out dead last from his pit stop for dry tyres. His rival Max Verstappen is 11th ahead of him. This leaves Esteban Ocon in the lead of the Hungarian Grand Prix. Sebastian Vettel a surprise second and backmarker Nicholas Latifi is an even more surprise third. Lewis Hamilton is rightly unimpressed with his team.
ORDER – OCO VET LAT TSU SAI ALO RUS RAI RIC MSC
Lap 8 – Lewis Hamilton is on the blub already to the radio, unable to pass an Alfa Romeo. A little further ahead, Max Verstappen isn’t able to get past the Haas of Mick Schumacher. The title race takes a pause as it is anyone’s race at the front. Hamilton eventually gets past Giovinazzi for 13th on lap 10.
Lap 12 – Ocon still leads but under pressure from Vettel just over a second away. Latifi is slowing up all the cars behind leaving the top two in prime position for a big upset win. Further back Verstappen still can’t get past Mick Schumacher for 10th, and Lewis Hamilton is 13th behind Gasly. Fair enough to say neither of the top two will win today.
ORDER – OCO VET LAT TSU SAI ALO RUS RAI RIC MSC
Lap 14 – Verstappen finally gets past Mick Schumacher at turn three but not without a large elbow into the Haas driver. In the excitement Lewis Hamilton runs wide a few corners later. Points for Max that means. Gasly passes the Haas a lap later.
Lap 19 – Vettel really closes in on Ocon for the lead. Under a second for a few laps and edges closer with every DRS opportunity.
Lap 20 – Hamilton pits after moaning about his car for about ten laps. Change in strategy and hopefully a change in luck for him. Ricciardo (8th) and Verstappen (9th) also pit for new tyres. Lewis Hamilton undercuts both drivers thanks to his earlier stop. They are all outside the top ten after the pitstops, but not for long. Hamilton sets fastest laps and is up to 9th a few laps later after other pitstops and has Russell and Ricciardo in between him and Verstappen in 12th.
ORDER – OCO VET LAT TSU SAI ALO GAS MSC HAM RUS
Lap 26 – Cars that haven’t pitted yet are all in the top five. Ocon, Vettel, Sainz, Alonso, Gasly. Tsunoda got ahead of Latifi after their respective pitstops. Lewis Hamilton is now quick, but maybe on a two stop strategy. He overtakes Latifi for 7th on lap 27 but struggles to get past Tsunoda.
Lap 32 – Hamilton finally gets by Tsunoda on the outside of the reasonably fast turn four. 3rd placed Sainz pits and comes out just in front of Hamitlon.
Lap 34 – Russell overtakes Mick Schumacher for 9th. Which is about bloody time (says the person who has a bet on Russell for top six at 100-1) Ricciardo and Verstappen pass the Haas a lap later.
ORDER – OCO VET ALO SAI HAM TSU LAT GAS RUS RIC
Lap 37 – Vettel pits from second. He comes out third behind Alonso but ahead of Sainz and Hamilton.
Lap 38 – Ocon pits a lap later, but Vettel is flying and right behind him.
Lap 40 – Alonso pits from the lead and comes out 5th behind Sainz and Hamilton. That’s all the pit stops for now. So it looks like it is a straight fight between Ocon and Vettel for the win.
ORDER – OCO VET SAI HAM ALO TSU GAS LAT RUS RIC
Lap 45 – Lewis Hamilton is on the radio saying he can win. He has a point, he is less than eight seconds behind the leader now. Be a shame if one of the non big teams couldn’t get a win. For the record Verstappen is 12th and over half a minute behind.
Lap 48 – Lewis Hamilton pits for new tyres. He drops to 5th behind Alonso but on the freshest tyres on the track. A lap later he is closing on the leaders with 20 laps to go. His 49th lap was 3.7 seconds quicker than leader Ocon. On lap 52 he is less than 13 seconds behind the leader. Looks like a Ham win here.
Lap 49 – Ocon and Vettel are closer than ever in the battle for first. Vettel almost takes advantage of pesky back markers getting in the way.
Lap 51 – Verstappen makes it into the points passing Raikkonen.
Lap 55 – Alonso and Hamilton battle for fourth. Alonso holding on magnificently. The battle lasts for laps.
Lap 60 – Verstappen regains 10th place from Daniel Ricciardo.
Lap 62 – Hamilton still behind Alonso. Sainz in the Ferrari is just ahead of Alonso. They touch on lap 63 at turn four but no damage is obvious.
Lap 65 – Hamilton finally gets past Alonso who runs slightly wide at turn one. He is right on Sainz’s tail, and not far away from the leaders.
Lap 67 – Hamilton passes Sainz for third. He is nine seconds behind Vettel in second so that’s probably all done for major position change.
Lap 70 – Esteban Ocon wins the Hungarian Grand Prix and Sebastian Vettel is second as Lewis Hamilton’s late race charge comes up a little short. A lot of drivers stop out on the track on the slow down lap providing a bit of fun for the crowd.
FINAL ORDER – OCO VET HAM SAI ALO GAS TSU LAT RUS VER
2021 Hungarian Grand Prix Result – RACE RATING
We rate the big race itself so we know which races to go back and watch in the off season or one to simply remember the winner for the post season quiz nights.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 8/10
Almost as important for the season like recent races. Hamilton got more points than Verstappen, but Max did well to restart at all given the damage from his lap lap assault by Bottas. The title race lead between the two changed hands which is a good thing for the neutral. Mercedes qualifying pace at a track Red Bull were though to do well on is also relevant.
ON TRACK ACTION – 10 /10
A lot of it happened early, but it was still enough to make it a classic for on track action. Rain on the track to start the race. Multiple accidents caused by Bottas and Stroll to wipe out 2nd to 5th and any other cars that could have taken advantage. Then came the restart with Hamilton being the only car on the grid. Mixed up order saw mixed up racing. The fast cars were being held up leaving a battle for the front which would have paid over 1000-1 at the start of the weekend.
ENDING 8 / 10
Battle for the lead between Ocon and Vettel. Battle between Alonso and Hamilton. Can Max Verstappen get more points? Once past Hamilton charged towards the top two but needed another lap or so. And a first time winner from an unexpected source always makes for a good ending.
OVERALL RATING 26 / 30
Plenty of action from start to finish. A wet start always helps, as does a driver playing pinball with other cars. First time winner. Unexpected top ten. Fair to say it was a goodun’.
2021 SEASON RACE RANKINGS
Bahrain GP – 25/30
Emilia-Romagna GP – 17/30
Portuguese GP – 11/30
Spanish GP – 18/30
Monaco GP – 12/30
Azerbaijan GP – 23/30
French GP – 22/30
Styrian GP – 12/30
Austrian GP – 20/30
British GP – 22/30
2021 Hungarian Grand Prix Result – Great & Grape
Here we go through the field and highlight the three drivers we think deserve a little extra love, and one driver whose had the grapest weekend of all.
These points get added to our Driver of the Season scores. Five points for a great nomination, and -5 for the worst or grapest driver in the pack. Then it is +2 / -2 for honourable or dishonourable mentions.
It used to be called the good, bad and ugly, but everyone is using that now. And who doesn’t like grapes.
THE GREAT-EST – ESTEBAN OCON
No one living in any kind of sane world would have believed you if you suggested Esteban Ocon would win a race before the weekend. But he did so, and did very well in the lead which he manage to hold on for the entire race despite pressure from the experienced Vettel who harassed all race.
THE GREAT – SEBASTIAN VETTEL
A great drive from the four time World Champion but just not quite enough to steal the win off Esteban Ocon. This Aston Martin season isn’t turning out too bad for him.
THE GREAT – WILLIAMS DRIVERS LATIFI AND RUSSELL
Super job from both Nicolas Latifi and George Russell to get a double top ten finish. Latifi ran as high as 3rd and his team mate was in the top ten for most of the afternoon.
THE GREAT – FERNANDO ALONSO
Solid drive from Alonso who did well to stay in front of Hamilton for so long. Looked genuinely happy for his team mate to win the race too. He won F1’s Driver of the Day so there you go.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
LEWIS HAMILTON – Good recovery after being last after the restart after being the only car not to pit for slicks at the restart. His third place finish was a lot better than Max Verstappen’s 10th, so more ground gained on his main title rival. Helped massively by his team mate.
THE GRAPE-EST – VALTTERI BOTTAS
It certainly won’t help getting a new contract for next season when you are crashing into three other cars between 2nd and 5th. A little bit amateur really. Although his antics certainly helped his team mate if you think about it.
DIS-HONOURABLE MENTIONS
DANIEL RICCIARDO – After a poor Saturday qualifying the Australian looked set to benefit from the contact between four of the top five cars at the first corner. But he had no luck when an out of control Lance Stroll had a brain explosion going into the first corner. He struggled to get past a Williams and was lapped in the end. No points and a pointless weekend. Off the pace, down on confidence and no luck is a very bad combination.
MAX VERSTAPPEN – Assaulted by a Mercedes for the second weekend running on the first lap. His race was compromised from the first corner onwards as he tried to make progress with a car that wasn’t quite right. Lost more ground in the Championship as Lewis Hamilton finished third.
SERGIO PEREZ – Wiped out at first corner by Bottas,
LANDO NORRIS – Wiped out at first corner by Bottas.
2021 Hungarian Grand Prix Result – Power Rankings
Stay tuned for our Power Rankings from the 2021 British Grand Prix and the overall 2021 F1 Season Power Rankings leader/s.
Read our last edition from after the British Grand Prix here.
