F1 British GP: Carlos Sainz takes maiden win
3rd July 2022Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz converted his maiden pole position into his maiden race win in a chaotic British Grand Prix as Red Bull’s Max Verstappen takes a hit in the standings!
How the race unfolded…
Verstappen had a great start off the line – on the red-ringed soft compound tyres – to take the lead of the race into turn one, ahead of the Ferrari pole sitter, Sainz.
At the same time, Mercedes’ Lewis capitalised on a slow start from both Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, to move up from P3 from fifth on the grid.
The red flag was quickly brought out after the pack raced around the opening corners. As the pack went through turn one, Alfa Romeo’s Guanyu Zhou was seen racing over the gravel trap upside down while Mercedes’ George Russell’s record of finishing in the top five, every race this season, ended in the first corner after his car suffered terminal damage.
During the red flag stoppage, it was soon heard that Zhou was extracted from his car – albeit on a stretcher.
As it stood, prior to the race restart, Williams’ Alexander Albon, Zhou and Russell were the three drivers who retired from the race on the opening lap carnage.
It was later shown that Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly was sandwiched in between Russell and Zhou. The Frenchman’s car soon made contact with the rear-left tyre of Russell, of which the #63 Mercedes snapped and collected Zhou.
Zhou’s car rotated, flipped upside down, skipped across the gravel trap, flipped back around – after it dug into the trap – and found itself in between the barrier and the circuit’s fence.
As a result of the carnage, Albon backed out of the corner and was soon rear-ended by Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel who hadn’t expected the sudden deceleration. The Williams then spun around managed to miss the remainder of the field, bar Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and Alpha Tauri’s Yuki Tsunoda who suffered severe front suspension damage and front wing damage respectively.
However, both the Japanese Alpha Tauri and French Alpine drivers were able to return to the pit lane and repair their cars.
After nearly an hour, the race finally got back underway. However, as race control opted for a standing start, the grid order reset to the qualifying order.
On the second time around, Sainz aggressively defended from Verstappen’s advance up the inside. As the defending world champion raced around turn one, he had to yield the position.
By the end of the first lap, Sainz maintained his lead as Verstappen remained ahead of Leclerc despite wheel-to-wheel action throughout the second sector.
After lap five, Perez quickly returned to the pit lane after his car lost a front wing element with contact from Leclerc, on the opening lap. This then released the McLaren of Lando Norris and Hamilton to battle it out on the following lap.
Hamilton soon dispatched Norris down the Wellington Straight as the seven-time world champion utilised the drag reduction system into Brooklands. After this move, it meant Hamilton had four seconds worth of free air ahead of him as he charged towards the Ferrari Monegasque.
On lap nine, Sainz lost control of his car as he weaved through Maggots and Becketts and had to take to the run off area down towards the Hangar Straight. The Spanish driver was easy pickings for Verstappen who drove past the #55 Ferrari with ease.
Two laps later, Verstappen reported he had raced over a piece of carbon fibre which had given the reigning world champion a puncture. This allowed both Sainz and Leclerc to pass the #1 Red Bull without any issues as the Dutch world champion peeled into the pit lane.
Despite the stop, Verstappen reported there was something wrong with his car while his race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, reassured his driver that it wasn’t a race-ending issue.
Out of the front runners, without any issues, Sainz was the first driver to pit to swap his worn yellow-ringed, medium tyres for a set of the white-ringed, hard compound tyres.
On lap 24, Verstappen was ordered to return to the pit lane to swap his medium tyres for the hards. This made Verstappen the first driver, in the session, to use all three available tyre compounds in the race.
Hamilton inherited the lead of the race, for the first time this season, as Leclerc peeled into the pit lane to complete his mandatory stop at the end of lap 25. Despite 25-lap old medium tyres, Hamilton still believed he had enough life left in his tyres to remain competitive to the Ferrari drivers.
At the end of lap 33, Hamilton finally peeled into the pit lane. As a result, Leclerc and Sainz soon returned to a one-two position with Leclerc out in front.
The safety car was deployed, at the end of lap 39, as Ocon was seen going slowly around Luffield and Woodcote before he came to an abrupt halt at the entry of Copse. As a result of the resulting safety car, both Hamilton and Sainz ran into the pits to swap their hard tyres for the soft compounds.
Due to their track position, in relevance to everyone else, the Ferrari and Mercedes rejoined the track in the same position that they left.
At the end of lap 42, the safety car finally retired to the pit lane which left Leclerc as the virtual pace setter. Leclerc bolted on the exit of Club to get the race back under green-flag conditions. However, slightly further up the order, Sainz forced Leclerc wide on the entry of the Wellington straight to regain the lead of the race.
In the dying embers of the race, carnage ensued. Hamilton managed to overtake both Leclerc and Perez to move up into P2, but Perez soon retaliated into turn three – despite forcing Hamilton out of road to do so.
As Hamilton failed to regain his position, his target moved over to Leclerc who moved back up to P3. A few laps later, on lap 48, down the Hangar Straight the seven-time world champion finally overtook Monegasque to regain P3.
Despite the earlier carnage, Sainz was able to check out at the front and collect his first ever F1 race win.
Podium:
- Carlos Sainz, Ferrari
- Sergio Perez, Red Bull
- Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
That’s it for the article: F1 British GP: Carlos Sainz takes maiden win! What did you think of the race? Let us know in the comments!
Read more Formula 1 here!
- F1 British GP: Carlos Sainz secures maiden pole position
- F1 British GP: Max Verstappen tops final practice ahead of qualifying
- F1 British GP: Carlos Sainz goes fastest in dry FP2
- F1 British GP: Valtteri Bottas tops wet practice session
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Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
