2021 Hungarian Grand Prix

The **2021 Hungarian Grand Prix** was a Formula 1.5 motor race held on 1 August 2021 at the Hungaroring in Mogyoród, Hungary. It was the eleventh round of the 2021 Formula 1.5 World Championship.

## Background

The event, which was held over the weekend of 30 July–1 August at the Hungaroring, was the eleventh round of the 2021 World Championship, marking the thirty-sixth time the Hungarian Grand Prix has appeared on the World Championship calendar. Additional debris fencing was installed at the thirteenth corner before the event, while minor modifications were made to the pit lane entrance and exit.

### Championship Standings before the race

Lando Norris lead the drivers championship over Charles Leclerc by 63 points. Leclerc's teammate Carlos Sainz Jr was third in the standings, 15 points furtherback.

In the teams championship, McLaren lead Ferrari on 325 points to 285. This meant McLaren lead by 40 points. Aston Martin were third on 123 points, just one point ahead of fourth placed team AlphaTauri. Alpine were fith, five points behind AlphaTauri. There was then a large gap to Alfa Romeo in sixth with 39 points, ahead of Williams with 13. Haas were eight and last in the standings, yet to score a point.

### Entrants

The drivers and teams were the same as the season entry list with no additional stand-in drivers for the race. Robert Kubica drove in the first practice session for Alfa Romeo Racing in place of Kimi Räikkönen.

### Tyres

Sole tyre supplier Pirelli allocated the C2, C3, and C4 compounds of tyre to be used in the race.

## Practice

Free Practice 1 and 2 took place on 30 July at 11:30 CEST and 15:00 CEST respectively. Free Practice 3 was held on 31 July at 12:00 CEST.

## Qualifying

The first qualifying session took place on 31 July at 15:00 CEST. Gasly qualified on pole ahead of Norris and Leclerc. The second part of qualifying was stopped after a crash by Sainz, caused by a wind gust making the car unstable. Russell failed to progress past the first segment for the first time in 2021. Schumacher did not take part in the session because his car was damaged in a crash during free practice.

### Qualifying Classification

1. ↑  Mick Schumacher did not take part in qualifying due to an accident that occurred during the third practice session. He was permitted to race at the stewards' discretion. He also received a five-place grid penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change. This made no difference as he was already due to start the race from last place.

## Race

### Report

The race started at 15:00 CEST on 1 August. It was held for seventy laps at the Hungaroring with Pierre Gasly starting on pole position. Rain before and during the first lap led to all cars starting on intermediate tyres, Antonio Giovinazzi pitted for dry tyres at the end of the formation lap and subsequently started from the pit lane. The race began with major incidents at the first turn on the first lap; F1.0 driver Valtteri Bottas braked late, causing him to hit the back of the McLaren of Lando Norris, sending Norris into Verstappen. Lance Stroll also left his braking too late, and attempted to avoid a collision by taking to the grass on the inside, but collided with the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, who then forced Daniel Ricciardo to spin as a result. The safety car was then called out. fter following two laps under the safety car, the race was red-flagged. Norris then retired under the red flag. The engine in Leclerc's car was written off as it was found to be damaged beyond repair. As the cars came into the pit lane to change tyres and come out for the restart, an unsafe release from Alfa Romeo caused Kimi Räikkönen to collide with Nikita Mazepin, taking the Haas driver out of the race. Räikkönen was subsequently given a ten-second time penalty.

On the restart, the whole grid came in to the pitlane and changed to dry tires, this put Esteban Ocon in the lead with Sebastian Vettel behind. Sainz undercut Latifi and Tsunoda putting him into third behind Ocon and Vettel. Vettel and Ocon made pit stops for new tyres on the thirty-sixth and thirty-seventh laps respectively. Gasly pitted on the sixty-eighth lap for fresh tyres and got the fastest lap on the last lap of the race. Ocon won the race from Vettel and Sainz.

This was Ocon's first victory since Monza 2018, and Alpine's first victory under their new name.

The result allowed Alpine to jump up to third in the constructors behind McLaren and Ferrari from fith. Aston Martin and AlphaTauri dropped to fourth and fith respectivley.

### Post Race

During post-race scrutineering stewards were unable to extract sufficient fuel from Sebastian Vettel's Aston Martin for a one-litre sample requested by the rules. Vettel was therefore disqualified. This promoted Fernando Alonso to the podium. This also had implications on the championship with Sainz gaining 3 points to move up to second in the championship. Aston Martin also fell to fith in constructors, due to scoring 0 points all weekend.

## Championship Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings

  1
  1

Constructors' Championship standings

  2
  2

## External Links

1. ↑ Includes one point for fastest lap
2. ↑  Antonio Giovinazzi qualified 10th, but his place on the grid was left vacant as he came into the pit during the formation lap.
3. ↑  Sebastian Vettel finished second on track, but was later disqualified because the required fuel sample could not be extracted from his car.