Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz clinched his maiden F1 victory at a dramatic 2022 British Grand Prix, ahead of Sergio Perez and Lewis Hamilton.
Max Verstappen beat Sainz off the line to lead into Abbey but separate incidents in midfield saw the race immediately red-flagged, which eliminated George Russell, Guanyu Zhou and Alex Albon due to extensive irreparable damage.
The race resumed 53 minutes later with original grid albeit revised with Sainz this time retaining the lead from Verstappen, until he ran wide on Lap 10 to concede the lead to Verstappen who suffered a puncture two laps later at Copse.
Sainz however lost the net lead to Charles Leclerc on Lap 31 just three laps before Lewis Hamilton made his stop from the lead, which unleashed Leclerc into the lead until the Safety Car was deployed on Lap 39 due to Esteban Ocon stopping on the old pit straight.
Leclerc opted to stay out but Sainz and Hamilton pitted for soft tyres and the Spaniard made his tyre gamble count on the restart, as he passed his Ferrari teammate to ultimately clinch victory on his 150th race start in F1.
Perez recovered from a broken front wing on the restart to snatch second from Hamilton as Leclerc headed Fernando Alonso, Lando Norris, Verstappen, Mick Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel and Kevin Magnussen to round out the top ten.
In the driver standings, Verstappen’s title lead over Perez was reduced to 34 points with Leclerc, Sainz and Russell rounding out the top five.
At lights out, Verstappen beat Sainz off the line to sweep into the lead as Hamilton leapt up to third ahead of Leclerc and Alonso, as Perez lost two positions to slip to sixth ahead of Norris.
Just behind the top seven, Russell was clipped from behind by Pierre Gasly which sent him sliding into Guanyu Zhou, causing the Chinese’s Alfa Romeo to flip over and slide heavily over the barriers into the fencing at Abbey as the red flag was immediately waved.
Albon meanwhile was rear-ended by Vettel, which sent him sliding into the pit-wall and he consequently was collected by Yuki Tsunoda and Ocon, with the latter pair crawling back to the pitlane with damage.
Albon, Russell and Zhou meanwhile were all eliminated on the spot, although Zhou had to be slowly but safely extricated from his cockpit with following reports stating that he was ok.
FIA Stewards then opted to reset the race order to the original grid order concerning all cars who could take the restart, meaning that Sainz was returned to top position ahead of Verstappen, Leclerc and Perez with everyone else following suit in the order that they qualified in.
Those who qualified behind Russell, Zhou and Albon respectively however were moved up to create a proper 17-car grid without any gaps in terms of grid slots, meaning that Latifi was promoted two positions to eighth, with everyone else behind following suit where appropriate.
On the second standing start 53 minutes after the red flag, Sainz fended off Verstappen to retain his lead as Perez leapt up to third but Leclerc battered his way past at the Loop, which damaged the front wings of both drivers.
Perez consequently pitted for repairs on Lap Six which seemingly ruled him out of contention for a podium, whilst Sainz ran wide out of Chapel on Lap 10 to concede the lead to Verstappen after weathering immense pressure in the preceding laps.
Verstappen however two laps later picked up debris from Perez’s earlier front wing which caused bodywork damage and a puncture to rule him out of victory, as Sainz retook the lead until he pitted on Lap 21, with Leclerc following suit on Lap 26.
Hamilton therefore assumed the lead until he pitted at the end of Lap 33 two laps after Ferrari decided to let Leclerc pass Sainz, which ultimately gave the Monegasque the lead until Ocon grinded to a halt a on the run to Copse on Lap 39, which caused the Safety Car to be deployed.
Leclerc stayed out in the lead on hard tyres as everyone else behind him pitted for softs and when the race resumed on Lap 43, Sainz passed Leclerc out of Aintree to resume the lead which he comfortably held to the checkered flag for his first win in F1.
Perez meanwhile snatched third from Hamilton on the restart but tangled with Leclerc into Vale then Club on Lap 45, which enabled Hamilton to briefly go second but the Mexican quickly passed Hamilton at Village on the next lap to claim second with Leclerc following through.
Hamilton two laps later swept round the outside of Leclerc into Stowe to clinch third and a record 13th podium at a single F1 Grand Prix, leaving Leclerc to fend off Alonso and Norris for fourth as Verstappen battled to seventh ahead of Schumacher, Vettel and Magnussen.
F1 now head to Austria for the next race which takes place next weekend at Red Bull Ring from 8-10 July, which marks Red Bull’s home race.
| Position | Driver | Team | Laps | Time |
| 1 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | 52 | 1h 21m 20.440 |
| 2 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | 52 | + 3.779 |
| 3 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 52 | + 6.225 |
| 4 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 52 | + 8.546 |
| 5 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine | 52 | + 9.571 |
| 6 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 52 | + 11.943 |
| 7 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 52 | + 18.777 |
| 8 | Mick Schumacher | Haas | 52 | + 18.995 |
| 9 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin | 52 | + 22.356 |
| 10 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 52 | + 24.590 |
| 11 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 52 | + 26.147 |
| 12 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | 52 | + 32.511 |
| 13 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren | 52 | + 32.817 |
| 14 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | 52 | + 40.910 |
| RET | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | 37 | Fuel Pump |
| RET | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | 26 | Damage |
| RET | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo | 20 | Mechanical |
| RET | George Russell | Mercedes | 0 | Collision |
| RET | Guanyu Zhou | Alfa Romeo | 0 | Collision |
| RET | Alex Albon | Williams | 0 | Collision |
Leave a Reply