Lewis Hamilton insists Hungary chaos a "much needed" result for F1

Hamilton, Ocon, Vettel — Photo: © LAT Images

Mercedes

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Hamilton insists Hungary chaos a "much needed" result for F1

Ocon emerged victorious from a race long tussle with Vettel

Ewan Gale

Thursday 5 August 2021 05:00

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Lewis Hamilton has hailed Esteban Ocon's Hungarian Grand Prix victory as a "very much needed" result for F1.

Ocon took advantage of lap one carnage and a Mercedes strategy error to take the lead at the Hungaroring before holding off a spirited drive from Sebastian Vettel to take his maiden grand prix victory.

Mercedes driver would only narrowly missed out on challenging the leading two drivers after fighting back but was held up by Ocon's team-mate Fernando Alonso.

"Fernando gave me hell out there," said Hamilton.

"It was awesome racing, pretty on edge at least once but great racing. And yeah, really difficult weekend, or day, obviously I had a lot of work to do from the back.

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"Very hard to follow but [I was] just giving it absolutely everything right until the last lap. I hoped that I could maybe catch these guys.

"Maybe a couple of laps more we could have a bit of a duel – but I’m actually glad that we didn't have any more laps because this is very much needed."

Ocon shows he has potential - Hamilton

Ocon was once a part of Mercedes' junior programme but his F1 career was left in the balance after being dropped by Racing Point at the end of 2018.

After a sabbatical, the Frenchman returned with Renault in 2020 and after impressing with the rebranded Alpine team, Hamilton explained: "I think in his journey, this shows to everyone out there his potential.

"He’s racing against a two-times World Champion. Fernando’s not an easy driver to beat. So this really speaks volumes."