Alpine's Esteban Ocon secures first-ever F1 win at Hungarian GP

Alpine’s Esteban Ocon nabbed his first Formula 1 at the recently held Hungarian Grand Prix at the Hungaroring motorsport racetrack in Mogyoród, Hungary.

The race began with drizzly conditions, leaving the track a tad bit slippery than usual. On that note, Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas slammed into Lando Norris which sent the McLaren race car and its driver flying into the Red Bull duo of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez.

Verstappen continued on the race — albeit sustaining considerable damage — while Bottas, Norris, and Perez were forced to retire from the race. Along with them were Ferrari’s Nikita Mazepin Haas and Charles Leclerc as well as Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll.

The crazy turn of events upset the order leaving race control to inform the teams that a standing start would take place. The cars were led out of the pit lane by the safety car.

From here, the 24-year-old Ocon took advantage of the collisions in turn one. The French racing driver finished 70 laps and crossed the finish line to grab his first GP win.

“What a moment, what a moment! It feels so good. It’s the first victory since the Renault Group came back into Formula 1. We had some difficult moments this season, which we overcame with the team. We came back to a fantastic pace in Silverstone and you know, victory today! What can I say? It’s fantastic, so congrats to Fernando as well because I think the win is also thanks to him, all the fights that he did, his teamwork all that. It’s been a fantastic day,” said Esteban Ocon at the Hungarian GP press conference.

Meanwhile, F1 arch-rivals Verstappen and Hamilton finished 10th and third respectively.

“Yeah, well, first of all, I’ve got to say a huge congratulations to the Alpine team and to Ocon. He’s been a shining star for some time now so it’s been a long time coming and I’m really, really happy for him. It’s great to have Aston Martin up there. Their best result so far and I know there is more to come. Otherwise, generally, we have had an amazing crowd this weekend so thank you for all being here. Today was definitely tough and we always make it difficult for ourselves. Crazy to think we were the only ones on the grid at the start but these things happen and we learn from them. I gave it everything and I had nothing left at the end,” said Hamilton, looking back at a frustrating race during the F1 – 2021 Hungarian GP press conference held this Sunday.

Hamilton now leads 192 points while Max lags six points behind. The Red Bull/Honda team is now P2 in the Constructors' 10 points behind Mercedes.

Check out the top 10 finishers of the Hungarian GP below.

Esteban Ocon – Alpine/Renault
Sebastian Vettel – Aston Martin/Mercedes (later disqualified for a fuel issue)
Lewis Hamilton – Mercedes
Carlos Sainz – Ferrari
Fernando Alonso – Alpine/Renault
Pierre Gasly – AlphaTauri/Honda
Yuki Tsunoda – AlphaTauri/Honda
Nicholas Latifi – Williams/Mercedes
George Russell – Williams/Mercedes
Max Verstappen – Red Bull/Honda

Photos from FiA and Esteban Ocon's Twitter account

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