Event: British F1 Grand Prix
Track: Silverstone circuit
Second start of the 2022 British F1 Grand Prix (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)
Weather: wet/dry 17.8°C
Tarmac: wet/dry 29.9°C
Humidity: 62%
Wind: 1.0 m/s NW
Pressure: 1002.5 bar
Carlos Sainz scored his maiden F1 race win today. The Spanish driver won the British F1 GP for the very first time. It was off course his first race win of the 2022 season. The Ferrari driver started from pole and drove to the finish with a great result. It was the 242nd race win for Scuderia Ferrari.
2022 British F1 GP Race Report
Most drivers in the top 10 started on medium tyres. Williams driver Nicholas Latifi and Red Bull driver Max Verstappen were the only drivers that started on the soft tyres, while Mercedes driver George Russell was the only one who started on hard compound tyres.
Verstappen who started from P2 had a perfect start and already took over the lead from Sainz before turn 1. Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton also had a great start and overtook two places at the start and was driving on P3 at turn 1.
Behind them a huge collision occurred between Alfa Romeo driver Guanyu Zhou, AlphaTauri driver Pierre Gasly and Russell causing a red flag. Gasly got sandwiched by Zhou and Russell and the Alfa Romeo driver got hit on the rear right tyre by the Mercedes of Russell and got flipped upside down and slid into the gravel pit. When he hit the gravel pit the car tumbled over the tyre barrier and crashed hard into the track fence at turn 1.
Behind them Aston Martin driver Sebastian Vettel collided in the back of the Williams of Alex Albon. The hard hit caused Albon to crash into the wall on the right of the start grid and then spun round to collide with Esteban Ocon in the Alpine and Yuki Tsunoda in the AlphaTauri, who both had a damaged front wing and suspension.
No footage of Zhou was shown as an ambulance was used to get Zhou to the medical centre. It took a long time before any news got out about the condition of the Chinese driver. After 40 minutes the news got out Zhou was ok and was unharmed.
It took almost one hour before the race was restarted from the start grid. Ocon’s and Tsunoda’s car were fixed by their mechanics during the break. The second start position were the same in the positions they had qualified in.when the red flag was weaved. Verstappen’s car now was fitted with medium tyres.
The second start was a lot better for both Ferraris. Sainz just was able to keep the lead when he was side by side with Verstappen in turn 1. Sergio Pérez had a great start in the Red Bull and even was 3rd coming onto turn 2. In turn 3 Pérez and Leclerc collided and both damaged their front wing. At the end of the 5th lap Pérez entered the pits for a new front wing and fell back to P17.
After ten laps the top 10 order was 1. Sainz, 2. Verstappen, 3. Lelcerc, 4. Hamilton, 5. Norris, 6. Alonso, 7. Gasly, 8. Tsunoda, 9. Ocon and 10. Latifi. In that lap Sainz made an error in turn 13 (Chapel) and went wide and had was passed by Verstappen easly now. The next lap Tsunoda and Gasly spun out of the top 10 at turn 3 and now were 13th and 15th.
The next lap (12) Verstappen had a technical problem and got passed back by Sainz again on Hanger straight. At first he thought it was a puncture and pitted for new set of tyres. He came back on P6 after his pitstop. The new tyres didn’t help.
Sainz was still in front, but Hamilton who now was 3rd was charging to get his 104th race win. In lap 18 he was only 3.5 sec. behind Leclerc, who was 0.5s behind his teammate Sainz. Hamilton was driving the fastest lap now and closing the gap.
Race leader Sainz pitted at the end of lap 20 that took 2.5 sec. He came back on the track on P3 in front of Norris. At the same time Valtteri Bottas retired his Alfa Romeo in the pits.
Verstappen pitted again in lap 24 for a set of hard tyres. The Dutchman returned to the track as 7th, but he got overtaken straight away by Vettel, because the Red Bull driver still had ‘cold’ tyres.
Hamilton was putting Leclerc under pressure in his home race and half way the race the gap between them was only 1.2s. When Leclerc pitted and came back behind his teammate on third place. Verstappen was complaining a lot on the radio he had no grip and didn’t understand why the team fitted a set hard tyres.
In lap 28 Gasly got the black and white flag and had to drive back to the pits for damage repairs. Leclerc got the message in lap 29 that he was free to fight his teammate Sainz. Pérez now was driving on P6 already, while Verstappen was on P8.
In lap 30 Sainz got the radio message he has to pick up the pace, because otherwise he will have to swap places with Leclerc. In lap 31 Leclerc and Sainz swapped places. Leclerc now was fighting for the win with Hamilton and set the fastest lap of the race in lap 32 with a 1:31.837 min.
In lap 34 Hamilton pitted and got a fresh set of hard tyres, but had a slow stop of 4.3 sec. He came back on the circuit 5 seconds behind Sainz on P3 and 1.5 sec. in front of him was Leclerc who set the fasest lap again to 1:31.774 min. After a few laps Hamilton’s tyres got up to temperature and drove the fastest lap of the race.
In lap 39 Ocon had a technical problem and stopped the Alpine on the old start grid and caused a safety car period, because the Alpine could not be recovered very easily. Verstappen, Pérez, Sainz, Alonso and Hamilton pitted for a new set of soft tyres. This was a great opportunity for Perez because his was able to close the 20 seconds gap towards Hamilton now and might even go for the win.
In lap 43 the race was restarted and Perez overtook Hamilton as soon as he could. Sainz who also was on softs overtook Leclerc at the same time. Pérez now had a good change to win this race and apply more pressure on P3 now. Behind Hamilton were Alonso and Norris looking at a podium finish.
A great battle evolved and Sainz was pulling a gap of 4 seconds, while behind him a fantastic battle was going on for the podium.
In lap 48 Pérez had pulled a gap and was trying to close the gap to Sainz who was leading the race. The Mexican didn’t have any threat from behind, because there was a huge battle for P3 between Leclerc, Hamilton, Alonso and Norris.
Sainz was able to keep the lead and win his first ever Formula 1 race ever!
Classification 2022 British GP
Fastest lap: 1:30.510 min by Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes (no.44) on lap 51
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