An Unexpected Result

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No one would have predicted this result today as totally unexpected.

Today was a race of many firsts and so unexpected with Esteban Ocon taking his maiden Grand Prix victory. Who would have thought Hungary could spring so many surprises along with the unpredictable weather. This all added to the entertainment factor as there was so much riding on this race for so many teams. Williams scored 6 Championship points today which is unheard of

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Carnage at the first corner due to Bottas braking too late.

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Yesterday in qualifying Mercedes were the only team to post their fastest lap on the mediums meaning every other team was starting on the soft compound tyre. That was all thrown out the window when rain fell before the start of the race forcing the teams on to the intermediate tyre and now that tactic of having the right tyre was dead and buried.

Fast forward 10 seconds into the race and 25% of the field was taken out by a Valtteri Bottas bowling ball as he misjudged his breaking zone and backended Lando Norris who then hit Verstappen. Lance Stroll thinking he was dodging the carnage in front of him drove into LeClerc ending both their races. To sum up we had LeClerc, Stroll, Perez, Norris, and Bottas out within the first 500m of the race. Mazepin was soon knocked out as Raikonen was released unsafely from hits pits hitting Mazepin. Throw in having a severely wounded Max Verstappen who had no chance of mounting a serious challenge today with the damage he was carrying.

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The last 2 weeks have highlighted how hard this is going to be for Red Bull as they have lost points through DNF's in the last 2 races.

It was a doubly bad day for Red Bull as Vertsappens engine that had been given the all clear from his crash two weeks ago was deemed unworthy as their was a crack found in the casing. No penalties as yet, but at some point this season they will have to use a 4th engine which means a 10 grid penalty drop which is fairly harsh with all things considering. We also learned today that Perez needs a new engine after todays crash so things went from bad to worse.

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Hamilton starting the race on the grid all on his own. Every other car is starting from the pits having changed their tyres from wets to slicks which was the correct call. He would go from first to last within one lap.

Mercedes made the biggest blunder of the day at the restart when every other car on the formation lap dived into the pits to change to slick tyres as the track was bone dry. Crazy how the weather went from rain to sunshine within 30 minutes after the crashes in the first corner. The race was red flagged to clear the debris and remove the cars, but wasn't enough time to repair Verstappen's car fully as the damage was that extensive. he was missing a barge board and some of his flooring which would have cost him a good half a second a lap in pace and why he struggled today finishing 10th overall.

Esteban Ocon can thank his team mate for the win as Lewis Hamilton was clearly the fasts car on track and Alonso did enough to hold Hamilton up. As soon as Hamilton had got by he had too few laps to make the difference and needed at least 2 more. Alonso held Hamilton at bay for a good 7 laps which turned out to be just enough as Ocon won by just over 1 second from Vettel and a fast closing at pace Hamilton in third. Hamilton was just over 2 seconds away and would have and should have won this race if his team had been alert at the restart.

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This season has been more about missed opportunities and mistakes by various teams and we are not used to seeing Mercedes make so many errors in judgement. Normally the German team are clinical in their approach and this is something that needs to be addressed. Bing so good for so long and way ahead of all the other teams this season they cannot afford to throw points away. They have regained the lead ahead of Red Bull by a mere 10 points (300-290) and Hamilton has squeaked ahead of Verstappen by a mere 6 points with 12 races still to race, this is going down to the wire.