A Whole Lotta Bit

We asked for “a little bit of drama.”

God only knows what would have happened had we asked for a lot.

Lap One:

Here’s what Valtteri Bottas did to Lando Norris at the start of that:

Here’s what Lance Stroll did to Charles Leclerc at the end of that:

Wild stuff.

After the restart, there was a whole bunch of pitting, and the end result was that Esteban Ocon, a Frenchman, came out in the lead, something he held onto after grizzled veteran and teammate Fernando Alonso successfully slowed down a hard-charging Lewis Hamilton. Max Verstappen, meanwhile, wound up tenth while Red Bull teammate Sergio Pérez was a DNF from that first-lap incident, as were Stroll, Leclerc, Bottas, Norris, and Nikita Mazepin—who collided with Kimi Räikkönen on pit road later in the race, something for which I believe Räikkönen ended up serving the penalty.

Always fun in Budapest.

It was a shocking win for Ocon, and for Alpine Renault, which is now up to fifth in the constructor standings while Mercedes takes the lead from Red Bull by ten points. Over on the individual side, Ocon is still only eleventh (putting some of the shock in perspective), while Hamilton takes a six-point lead over Verstappen with…twelve grands prix to go? After eleven so far? Long way to go. Keep dialing it up, guys. Keep dialing it up.