Formula One was in Britain this weekend for one of the most popular races of the year, the FORMULA 1 LENOVO BRITISH GRAND PRIX 2022 at Silverstone. Sainz started on pole position for the first time in his career and finished on the top step of the podium for the first time in his career as well. It was a chaotic race, with a late-race safety car creating a great battle for the end of the race.
Max Verstappen had a strong start from the front row of the grid, taking the lead from pole sitter Carlos Sainz before the first corner. On the second row, Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc both had a poor start, allowing Lewis Hamilton to take third position before the first corner.
Further behind, there was a heavy crash into the first corner involving multiple cars. George Russell and Guanyu Zhou were side-by-side down the main straight. Pierre Gasly was faster behind and became the meat in an F1 car sandwich. Russell was moving towards the left side of the circuit. Gasly ran out of space and clipped the rear of the Mercedes. Russell crashed into Zhou and the Alfa Romeo flipped upside down, skidded across the gravel and rolled into the catch fencing at the outside of the first corner.
Alexander Albon slowed for the accident and was rear ended by Sebastian Vettel into the first corner. Albon crashed into the first corner, colliding with multiple cars.
The race was red flagged for a while, as it took a while to extricate Zhou from the tight space where his Alfa Romeo came to a rest. There were also some repairs required to the catch fencing and tyre barrier.
Because not all of the drivers passed the safety car 2 line between the first and second corner before the race was red flagged, the standing restart used the same starting order from qualifying. Somewhat controversially, George Russell was not allowed to restart the race because he did not return to the pit lane under his own power, having stopped to check if Zhou was ok.
At the standing restart, Sainz had a better start, moving to the left to cover off Verstappen, nearly forcing him into the pit wall. Leclerc suffered some damage to his front wing when he tried to overtake Perez on the inside of the fourth corner. Perez also suffered damage to his front wing, pitting for a new one after five laps.
Sainz was able to hold his race lead for ten laps, but he ran wide over the grass and Verstappen took the lead of the race. It was short-lived as Verstappen went over a kerb a couple of laps later. He originally thought it was a puncture and pitted for new tyres, but it was actually damage to the rear suspension. He was able to continue racing, but his pace suffered significantly.
With Sainz back in the lead of the race, his teammate began to close into the back of him. Leclerc looked to be faster than Sainz and was frustrated that the team would not swap the positions. While the two Ferrari drivers were battling, Lewis Hamilton was closing in on the lead of the race.
On lap 20, Carlos Sainz pitted for tyres and his teammate pitted five laps later. Before long, Leclerc was once again behind Sainz, but this time the team swapped their drivers to give the faster Leclerc the lead of the race.
Hamilton extended his stint to have fresher tyres for the end of the race. He pitted on lap 34, but the stop was slow and he struggled with tyre warm-up. But good fortune came Hamilton’s way shortly after pitting.
Esteban Ocon suffered a mechanical failure down the old pit straight and coasted to a stop, forcing race control to deploy the safety car. Sainz and Hamilton pitted for soft compound tyres, but Ferrari was unable to call Leclerc into the pit lane.
The race restarted with 10 laps remaining in the race. The Ferrari pit wall told Sainz to give Leclerc some breathing room on the restart and drop back to the maximum distance of 10 car lengths. Sainz refused, feeling it would compromise the team’s position.
Hamilton had poor traction coming out of the final corner, putting him under pressure from Sergio Perez. Perez had a faster exit out of the fourth corner, overtaking Hamilton. The two Ferrari drivers were also battling in the first sector. Leclerc ran wide on the exit of turn five, giving Sainz the lead and putting himself within striking distance of Perez.
On lap 45, Perez attacked Leclerc on the inside of Stowe, but ended up cutting the final chicane. He rejoined alongside Leclerc, forcing him wide and allowing Hamilton to go through the gap on the inside. Perez fought back, diving on the inside of Hamilton in turn 3, forcing the Mercedes wide. Leclerc took advantage of Hamilton’s wide exit, overtaking him.
After a couple of laps, Leclerc ran wide in turn 6, losing the position to Hamilton. Leclerc fought back around the outside of Copse in a wheel-to-wheel battle. The battle came to an end when Hamilton got by with DRS down the hanger straight and climbed into P3.
Although the battle for the lead cooled down in the final few laps, a battle between Verstappen and Mick Schumacher ensued. Schumacher was looking to upgrade his P8 to a P7, but was unable to do so. However, he was still finally able to score his first career points.
But all eyes were on Carlos Sainz, who earned his first career victory. He stood alongside Perez and Hamilton on the podium. Hamilton also scored a bonus point for the fastest lap of the race, which he achieved on the final lap of the race.
There will be little time for everyone to recuperate from the action this weekend. The next race is in Austria at the Red Bull Ring on the weekend of July 10 for a sprint race weekend.
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| Race Results | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | C. Sainz | 25 | |
| 2 | S. Perez | 18 | |
| 3 | L. Hamilton | 16 | |
| 4 | C. Leclerc | 12 | |
| 5 | F. Alonso | 10 | |
| 6 | L. Norris | 8 | |
| 7 | M. Verstappen | 6 | |
| 8 | M. Schumacher | 4 | |
| 9 | S. Vettel | 2 | |
| 10 | K. Magnussen | 1 | |
| 11 | L. Stroll | ||
| 12 | N. Latifi | ||
| 13 | D. Ricciardo | ||
| 14 | Y. Tsunoda | ||
| DNF | E. Ocon | ||
| DNF | P. Gasly | ||
| DNF | V. Bottas | ||
| DNF | G. Russell | ||
| DNF | G. Zhou | ||
| DNF | A. Albon | ||
