The Hungarian Grand Prix 2021 was the 11th round of the 2021 F1 season, and took place at the Hungaroring in Budapest, Hungary, during the weekend of July 30th to August 1st.
Esteban Ocon won the race after starting in the 8th position, followed by Lewis Hamilton, who originally had the pole position, and Carlos Sainz completing the podium with an expectacular comeback, all the way from the 15th position of the grid.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 52 pit stops during the race, although only 37 which can be considered "normal". A red flag on lap 2 caused all drivers to pit on that lap.
The most popular pit stop windows, considering that these were affected by the red flag, were:
- Laps 1-1: 4 stops
- Laps 3-4: 14 stops
- Laps 19-23: 6 stops
The fastest pit stop was Max Verstappen's, stopping the clock at 20.848 seconds during his pit stop on lap 40, while the slowest one was was Carlos Sainz's, who stopped the clock at 42.786 seconds, 21.938 seconds slower than Verstappen, during his pit stop on lap 3.
These times include the time the driver spent going through the pit lane, as well as the actual time he stopped for the mechanics to work on his car.
Strategy
The race was not obvious in terms of pit stop strategy, with different teams and different drivers choosing to make anywhere from 1 to 5 stops.
The race winner, Esteban Ocon, was on a 3 stops strategy.
1 stop
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9Lando Norris
2 stops
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5Nikita Mazepin
3 stops
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5Fernando Alonso
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10Sebastian Vettel
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-Daniel Ricciardo
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12Carlos Sainz
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7Esteban Ocon
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9George Russell
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11Nicholas Latifi
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10Yuki Tsunoda
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8Mick Schumacher
4 stops
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1Lewis Hamilton
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3Kimi Räikkönen
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-Pierre Gasly
5 stops
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6Max Verstappen
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13Antonio Giovinazzi
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 3 stops strategy gained 7.75 positions on average, the ones on a 4 stops strategy lost an average of 0.67 positions, while those on a 5 stops strategy lost an average of 9.5 positions.
This difference in possitions gained, together with a deeper nalaysis of each strategy, reinforces the conclusion that a 3 stops strategy was the best option.
That is for this particular race, with all its unique circumstances, amongst which, let's not forget was the red flag on lap 2, so it is very likely that this would have not been the ideal strategy under normal circumstances.
Incidents
The reace did not end without incidents... 7 drivers out of the original 20 who started did not managed to cross the finish line.
These included, .
Collision
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Nikita MazepinLap 3
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Lando NorrisLap 2
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Valtteri BottasLap 0
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Sergio PérezLap 0
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Charles LeclercLap 0
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Lance StrollLap 0
There was also action outise of the track itself, and the stwearts decided to disqualify Sebastian Vettel at the end of the race.
Disqualified
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Sebastian VettelLap 70
Qualifying
Lewis Hamilton managed to get the pole position by 0.315 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:15.419. Valtteri Bottas was right behind him, helping Mercedes score a one-two and monopolize the first line of the grid.
The second line fo the grid was dominated by Red Bull, with Max Verstappen in third position, and Sergio Pérez in fourth.
Track evolution
As the qualifying session went on, with the track rubbering in, and the drivers testing the limits of the grip of their cars, the times per lap dropped, and 11 out of the 14 drivers that took place in Q2 were able to improve their times.
The Q3 is the time were all the remaining drivers put all their cards on the table, even those with a superior car who might have been managing their times in Q1 and Q2 push their cars to the limit in Q3. It therefore comes as no surprise that 6 out of the 10 drivers that took place in Q3 were able to improve their times.