Valtteri Bottas braking late into Turn 1 in the wet conditions saw the Finn cause a pile up, which saw multiple cars retire and Max Verstappen pick up damage that severely hindered his car’s pace.

Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes were the only team not to pit onto the slick tyres at the red flag restart, meaning that he was bizarrely the only car on track during the standing start procedure and had to box later for the change of tyres as the track dried up.

With Hamilton and Verstappen now both far down the pack after these incidents and Bottas and Sergio Perez retiring from the race, Ocon only had to hold off the charging Hamilton to pick up his first race win, which he managed to do with the help of some stellar defending from Fernando Alonso.

READ: Mick Schumacher fires back at critics as he refuses to ‘grade’ himself

The Spaniard played a key part in Ocon’s win, but has now fired a shot at the Frenchman over his victory, hinting that it was an obscene amount of luck that allowed Ocon to win, rather than the Frenchman’s skill.

“We don’t have the win because what happened in Hungary last year will never happen again in a hundred years, so that is a casualty,” he said.

“And then, the podium, maybe in Canada and Australia we had a chance but we lost by our own fault.”

Alonso picked up a podium during his time with Alpine in Qatar last year, but much was made of Ocon’s inability to return to favour of holding off other cars.

Alonso told Ocon to ‘defend like a lion’ as Sergio Perez charged through the pack, but the Mexican passed the Alpine driver with ease and came very close to overtaking Alonso for the final podium position.

READ: Sebastian Vettel admits he’ll ‘be back at some point’

The Alpine driver pairing in 2022 became a toxic one towards the end of the season, with Alonso believing that the team had been favouring Ocon over the course of the season, resulting in the Frenchman having much better luck with regards to race retirements.

The pair collided in Brazil, which led Alonso to reveal that he was counting down the days until he could complete his move to Aston Martin.

Despite the sour end to his time with the team, Alonso has claimed that he will always look fondly towards Alpine, as this is where he won his two world championships, as the team was previously known as Renault.

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Hamilton has actually contracted COVID-19 twice since the start of the pandemic, with the seven-time World Champion having had to sit-out the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix due to his positive status.

It was at that race where Sergio Pérez claimed his first victory in the sport, and where George Russell saw his Mercedes F1 Team debut end in disappointing fashion.

Russell replaced Hamilton at the German team for that race, where he looked on track to claim his first victory in the sport.

READ: Mercedes admit George Russell had slower car than Lewis Hamilton

Victory was snatched from Russell’s grasps, after a botched pit-stop saw the Brit fitted with Valtteri Bottas’ tyres.

As a result, Russell was forced to immediately pit again. He later suffered a slow puncture and again had to pit.

Missing the Grand Prix had no effect on the Drivers’ Championship, with Hamilton having already wrapped it up.

As well as making a return to mask-wearing, Hamilton has asked Mercedes for his media duties to continue to be done via Zoom, despite the German team having very recently reopened the motorhome doors to journalists and reporters.

It took Hamilton a considerable amount of time to completely recover from the illness, with the 37-year-old having suffered from dizziness after the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix as a result of long-covid.

The British driver informed the media that it was his “personal” decision to go back to mask-wearing, with the Brit being concerned about catching it again.

“No, this is a personal choice,” Hamilton revealed.

“I just noticed a lot of people around me are getting sick and I definitely don’t want to get sick again. I’ve already experienced it twice.

READ: Helmut Marko reveals Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz had ‘quite toxic’ relationship

“A lot of my friends have messaged me that they’ve got Covid and some of them are much worse than others.

“No one’s wearing a mask, so I’m definitely wearing mine. I urge people to do what they want to do, it’s your health at the end of the day, but I want to go home healthy.

“I want to be able to get up and train and do the things I love doing and I try, if I can, to keep the people that I love around me safe when I can, when I’m around them,” the Mercedes driver concluded.

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The two-time World Champion prevented Hamilton from winning the Hungarian GP earlier this month, with him holding up the Mercedes driver for some 10 laps and ultimately proving pivotal to ensuring his Alpine team-mate, Esteban Ocon, took victory.

READ: ‘Everything Was Just A Little Bit Too Easy’: Ricciardo Opens Up On Why He Left Red Bull

During a post-race interview, Alonso was greeted by a friendly Verstappen and told him “I tried”, referencing his efforts to stop Hamilton from overtaking him and gaining much-needed points in the Championship battle.

When asked if he believes Alonso’s comment suggests he was trying to help Verstappen, Plooji said: “Absolutely. He holds a grudge against Hamilton.

“Those two are like water and fire. So he thinks ‘if I can screw over Hamilton, I will’.”

Commenting on the collision between Hamilton and Verstappen at Silverstone – which fired the Red Bull driver into the barriers and left him needing medical attention – Plooji suggested that “nice guys” don’t win World Championships.

READ: Alonso: Vettel’s Name Will Be Along Mine In The History Books

“In Holland, he [Hamilton] is perhaps not the most loved because of that action with Max that is burned into everyone’s retinas,” he said.

“But if we are really honest, you also have to be a bit of an asshole to be World Champion. You don’t have to be a nice guy at all.

“Who does Max have to be nice to? Nobody. He has to become World Champion at all costs. [Esteban] Ocon is the same. What a great help that guy had from Alonso [in Hungary],” he added. 

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The German crossed the finish line to P2, thinking he had scored Aston Martin’s second F1 podium.

READ: Lewis Hamilton Blocks Meme Page On Instagram After Hungarian GP

However, his car was found to have under the required one-litre of fuel left in its tank, and he was swiftly disqualified from the classification.

Aston Martin subsequently appealed, arguing that a fuel pump failure led to them overestimating how much fuel the car had left and insisting that Vettel didn’t gain a performance advantage.

But the FIA ultimately rejected their application for a review of the stewards’ decision, and Vettel’s disqualification was therefore upheld.

The four-time World Champion fought with Ocon for victory at the Hungaroring, and the Frenchman – who went on to record his maiden F1 victory – admitted that he feels somewhat “sad” for Vettel.

“I am a bit sad for Seb,” Ocon said.

“Because he did such a good race and in the end getting disqualified, it’s not something we like to see.

READ: Renault Stalwart Linked To Red Bull’s Powertrains Division

“We like to see racing on track and to keep that position after. But that’s how motorsport is sometimes. Motorsport is cruel.

“It’s obviously not a great thing to see and a sad end for him. But Seb is coming back from that, I am sure,” he added.

The disqualification meant that Aston Martin left Hungary without a point, as Lance Stroll retired on the first lap of the grand prix as he tried to avoid the first-lap carnage but created a separate multi-car collision.

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The post ‘Motorsport Is Cruel’: Ocon Reacts To Vettel Disqualification Over Fuel Violation appeared first on Formula1News.co.uk.

The account in question, @F1Troll_, is the largest Formula One meme page on Instagram, with it currently having just shy of a half-a-million followers.

READ: Perez: I Have ‘No Reason To Look Elsewhere’ Despite Uncertain Red Bull Future

On Sunday, after some followers queried why the page had seemingly unfollowed Hamilton, the account’s admin revealed in a story post that they didn’t and the seven-time World Champion seems to have blocked his meme page.

“Some of you dm’d me to ask why I unfollowed Lewis. I didn’t, looks like he blocked me,” @F1Troll_ wrote in a story post.

The account posted several clusters of memes following the Hungarian Grand Prix, including memes which joked that Mercedes and Valtteri Bottas orchestrated the first-corner collision which knocked Sergio Perez out of the grand prix and wrecked Max Verstappen’s race.

With Hamilton outscoring the Dutch ace by a big margin, he retook the lead of the Championship in Hungary.

At this stage, it’s unclear why Hamilton decided to block the F1 meme page and if it was indeed related to something the account posted following the Hungarian Grand Prix.

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“He is not British, so it will always be more difficult for him,” Alonso said in Budapest.

READ: Stroll Could Join Mercedes As Hamilton Wants A Team-Mate Who Won’t ‘Bother Him’

He later explained what he meant by this comment, saying that as Formula 1 is a UK-centric sport, going up against a British rival in the fight for the Championship is more difficult for a non-British driver.

“I have the impression always that when things get a little bit spicy or tense in the title fight, this sport, it is a British environment,” the Spaniard said.

“The teams are British, most of the journalists and media attention, TV crews, everyone comes from the UK.

“Understandably, there is a little bit of preference on the guy from your country that can be competitive and keep winning.

READ: Ticktum Insists ‘Latifi Poo’ Insult Not Reason For Williams Axing Him

“It is what I felt when I was racing and it seems I was the bad guy in Formula 1 when I was trying to fight against, normally, British guys.

“When I saw the Silverstone thing [the first-lap incident between Verstappen and Hamilton] or when I see Verstappen get some questions etcetera, I understand his position, for sure.”

Hamilton heads into Formula 1’s summer break with an eight-point lead over Verstappen, who has scored just two points from the last two grand prix due to Mercedes-induced first-lap incidents compromising him.

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The Finnish driver didn’t try to dodge blame, and he said he misjudged the conditions and consequently locked his front tyres, resulting in him hitting the back of Lando Norris’ McLaren.

READ: Stroll Could Join Mercedes As Hamilton Wants A Team-Mate Who Won’t ‘Bother Him’

Norris then collided with Max Verstappen, who was in P2 at the time, while Bottas went on to hit the Red Bull of Sergio Perez after the initial contact.

In a post-race interview with Ziggo Sport, Norris was asked if he will be speaking to Bottas and Verstappen about the collision, to which he replied:

“No, nothing Max could’ve done. I’m sorry I hit Max, but there’s nothing I could do anyway. You know, it’s Bottas’ fault.”

As he finished off his sentence, Bottas suddenly appeared from the left, and apologised to Norris for wrecking his grand prix.

An awkward silence then ensued, and Norris told the interviewer he had nothing to say when he was asked what he had replied to Bottas.

Despite suffering a DNF as a result of the crash, Norris is still third in the Drivers’ Standings, just five points ahead of Bottas in P4. 

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Gasly said he is “a bit fed up with how things went”, with him missing out on a points-paying position due to him suffering a puncture late in the race.

READ: Verstappen Says ‘Mutual Respect’ For Hamilton Intact Despite British GP Crash

“The last race at Silverstone was frustrating as we lost a couple of points because of the puncture at the end,” the Frenchman said.

“Overall, I’d say Silverstone was my worst weekend of the season, especially as it looked as though we could have salvaged between two and four points, so it was annoying that we couldn’t take them.”

Despite this troubled performance, Gasly is feeling hopeful heading into this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix.

He has previously performed well at the Hungaroring and describes it as “a circuit I like a lot.”

READ: ‘It Just Zapped Me’: Ricciardo Reveals He Suffered From Hay Fever At Silverstone

He didn’t finish the race in 2020 due to a mechanical failure, but Gasly has previously scored strong results in Hungary, finishing P6 in both 2018 and 2019.

“There’s very little time spent in a straight line and I enjoy that. It means it’s important to get into a good rhythm and so I find it really enjoyable to drive,” he said.

AlphaTauri are currently one point ahead of Aston Martin in the Constructors’ Championship, and Gasly is optimistic that they can hold on to fifth place, describing it as “the goal we have to aim for.”

It’s forecast to be a hot weekend in Hungary, however, the physical challenge doesn’t faze the Frenchman, with Gasly saying he’s “ready for it.”

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