Carlos Sainz Jr. drove to the first F1 race victory of his career. At the end, we saw a ten-lap high “sprint battle” after the safety car left the track.
19:25•Updated 19:29
The tenth F1 race of the season at the traditional Silverstone circuit in England was full of drama. The race was won by Ferrari’s Spaniard Carlos Sainz. The win is the 27-year-old Sainz’s first in Formula One.
Red Bull’s Mexican attack Sergio Perez was the second and the Mercedes Lewis Hamilton third in front of his home crowd. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was left fourth in the wild overtaking scramble at the end.
Alfa Romeo Valtteri Bottas aborted due to a technical fault.
The initial crash was startling
The race got off to a scary start. At the start we saw the first really bad crash of the season. The TV pictures only showed when one of the Alfa Romeo cars suddenly slid upside down on the track. It was about Bottas’s Chinese teammate From Guanyu Zhou.
It was clear from the slowdowns that the Mercedes had a weak start George Russell first bumped into AlphaTaurin a bit Pierre Gaslyn with. From Gasly’s car, Russell seemed to spin towards the right rear tire of Zhou’s car. With that, Zhou’s car took off. In the end, Zhou’s car slid upside down out of the track and even more ominously popped over the tire wall.
The race was stopped immediately after the mass crash. In addition to Zhou, Russell and Williams ended the situation by Alexander Albon competition.
After the restart, Sainz and Verstappen battled
When the race resumed after almost an hour’s break, we went to the restart in the order according to the times, for example Max Verstappen had managed to pass Sainz at the start. There was so little time to race before the red flags that we returned to the original starting order.
In the restart, Sainz was able to keep Verstappen, who continues to lead the World Series, behind him. Leclerc, who started from grid three, had a fierce battle against both Red Bull drivers, both Verstappen and Perez, who started from grid four. Leclerc’s and Perez’s cars collided, Perez’s front wing broken.
After about 10/52 laps, Sainz made a mistake, drove wide and Verstappen took the lead. Shortly after this, Verstappen suffered a flat tire. Fortunately for the Dutchman, the tire broke so close to the pit lane that he was able to quickly change his tire.
After the pit stop, Verstappen cursed on the team radio that something must be broken in the car. The team answered on the team radio that there are problems with the car, but he can continue.
Ferrari in the double lead, Leclerc seemed to be going for the win
Ferrari had moved into a double lead. Leclerc complained on the radio that he clearly has more speed than his teammate, Sainz, ahead of him. In the end, Sainz pitted and Leclerc took the lead.
In the background, the old fox, Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, who won eight times at Silverstone, posted great lap times. When Sainz and later Leclerc pitted, Hamilton took the lead for the first time this season.
At the same time, on lap 21/52, the race of Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas ended with a technical fault. A sad race for Alfa Romeo.
Leclerc drove hard lap times after the pit stop and overtook his teammate Sainz after 30/52 laps had been driven. Soon after, Hamilton pitted, and Leclerc took the lead again.
Verstappen, who won six of the season’s nine races, was unable to compete at Silverstone due to his victory. As usual, he was hot on the team radio about tire choices and the car’s technical problems, among other things.
The safety car changed everything ten laps before the checkered flag
A new turn was seen after 39/52 laps had been driven. Alpine by Esteban Ocon the car froze on the side of the track in such a bad place that the safety car had to be taken to the track.
During the safety car, Hamilton and Sainz went to change the soft tires, while for one reason or another Ferrari kept Leclerc on the track with hard tires. Thus, the last ten or so laps were becoming a difficult stage for the Monaco.
The safety car left the track with exactly ten laps left in the race. The Ferrari drivers did not listen to their team’s reassurances, but Carlos Sainz overtook Charles Leclerc, who defended his top spot.
Sainz escaped, but there was a huge battle for the positions behind him. Leclerc, Hamilton and Perez passed each other several times. Among other things, we saw the situation that when Perez and Leclerc were fighting, Hamilton overtook both and took second place. The British audience cheered in ecstasy. Soon, however, Hamilton had dropped back to fourth.
In the end, the positions behind Sainz took shape so that Perez was second, Hamilton third and Leclerc fourth.
Behind the tip is the German from Haas Mick Schumacher was eighth and got the first World Championship points of his career. Reigning champion Verstappen finished seventh.
You can read more about the race on Urheilu’s live coverage. There you will also find drivers’ comments and other afterthoughts about the dramatic race.