THE Hungarian Grand Prix descended into madness as Lewis Hamilton went from first to last in bizarre circumstances.
It all started when Max Verstappen experienced ANOTHER setback in a crash on the first corner.
Valtteri Bottas struggled to get going on a wet start at Hungaroring, with the entire pack making the late change to intermediate tyres amid a downpour as the grid formed.
Lando Norris jumped the Finn with an excellent getaway yet was bumped from behind by the clumsy Bottas for his troubles.
That sent his McLaren into Verstappen’s Red Bull, causing damage to both.
But Bottas’ Merc had lost a wheel as it then went into Sergio Perez’s Red Bull, taking both out of the race.
Verstappen was able to crawl back to the pits in 13th with the race red-flagged due to hundreds of pieces of debris strewn across the track.
McLaren retired Norris during the stoppage.
After being pinned for the Silverstone crash a fortnight ago, Hamilton managed to totally avoid the carnage and raced off into the distance, unscathed.
However, when the race restarted, Hamilton ended up being the ONLY driver to line up on the grid.
With the weather improving, everyone else went to the pits on their formation lap to change their tyres.
It meant Hamilton got away in first, but the others all quickly followed from the pitlane.
Hamilton then needed to change his own tyres, and having been unable to open up a sizeable lead, fell all the way back to LAST by the time he reemerged.
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Out in the madness of the first corner crash were Charles Leclerc and Lance Stroll, the Aston Martin driver arriving too hot into Turn 1 and collecting the Ferrari and Daniel Ricciardo – who managed to race on.
LeClerc wasn’t best pleased, tweeting after: “Nice bowling game. So frustrating.”
The race continues and you can follow it live HERE.
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Source: Motorsport - thesun.co.uk