BUDAPEST, Hungary – The seas parted for Esteban Ocon Sunday at the Hungaroring.
Ocon started eighth in his Renault-powered Alpine, avoided a multi-car crash in the first turn then took advantage of a strategy mishap by Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton to claim his maiden Formula 1 victory during the Hungarian Grand Prix.
“What a moment, what a moment. It feels so good,” Ocon said. “We had some difficult moments this season that we overcame together with the team.”
With light rain falling as the lights went out, the field roared into turn one with Hamilton leading from the pole. Behind him second-place starter Valtteri Bottas got a poor start, allowing Lando Norris to pass him to move onto the podium.
That’s when things went bad as Bottas locked up his tires trying to brake for the first turn, slamming into the rear of Norris’ car to kick off a multi-car crash that eliminated Sergio Perez, Lance Stroll and Charles Leclerc from the race.
Championship leader Max Verstappen was also involved in the crash, his Red Bull sustaining major damage that prevented him from contending for the race win.
In the midst of the first turn mayhem, Ocon had managed to avoid the chaos by going low through the opening corner. He emerged from the melee in second behind Hamilton as the red flag waved so officials could cleanup the mess in turn one and the debris strewn across the circuit.
When the race resumed the rain had stopped and the track had nearly dried, leading to nearly the entire field pitting prior to the standing restart for slicks. The lone exception was Hamilton, who stayed on track in his intermediate tires.
That proved to be a massive mistake as Hamilton found himself at a strategic disadvantage to everyone else in the field. Hamilton was forced to make his pit stop on the next circuit, which dropped him to last of the cars still running.
That elevated Ocon to the lead with three-time Formula 1 champion Sebastian Vettel giving chase for Aston Martin. The two would stay glued to each other for the remainder of the race, with Vettel nearly overtaking him during the pit cycle later in the race.
That was as close as Vettel would get as Ocon held serve to earn the victory, his first in Formula 1 and the first for the rebranded Alpine squad.
“We managed to hold him (Vettel) off, so that was a great effort,” Ocon said. “I wish everyone was here. We fly out early tomorrow morning and we’re going to have a great Monday, I can tell you.”
Vettel said he pressured Ocon as much as possible throughout the race in the hopes he would make a mistake. That mistake never came and Vettel was forced to settle for second.
“I’m obviously a little disappointed because I thought I was a little bit faster for the majority of the race, but Esteban didn’t do a single mistake,” Vettel said. “I didn’t really get close enough. It’s not an easy track to overtake, so I really pushed very, very hard. He stayed on track and well deserved for him to celebrate his first victory.”
However, Vettel was later disqualified when officials were unable to recover the required amount of fuel from his Aston Martin post-race. That elevated Hamilton, who charged back through the field to third on the road, to second. Carlos Sainz Jr. was awarded the final spot on the podium in third.