Sainz Takes Maiden Win as Zhou Unscathed in Spectacular Crash
Formula 1 returned to Silverstone to start the European stage before the summer break. This past weekend’s British Grand Prix broke the highest attendance record for the event, recording over 400,000 fans over the four days. I am sure these fans were happy with what they got as Silverstone hosted one of the best British Grand Prix in recent memory.
The pair of British Mercedes drivers navigating the fast and winding Silverstone Circuit.
Twitter: @MercedesAMGF1
The ever-changing British weather brought a second consecutive wet qualifying session after Canada. It was just sprinkling rain, but it was enough for drivers to use intermediate tires. Haas and Aston Martin drivers were both eliminated in the first qualifying period (Q1), while Nicholas Latifi beat out his teammate Alex Albon to advance into Q2 for the first time this season. Unfortunately, the sprinkling slowly turned into a shower in the middle of Q2, preventing drivers from improving their lap times. Nevertheless, Latifi picked a perfect time to do his flying lap before the track conditions worsened and proceeded into Q3 for the first time in his career.
The two Ferrari drivers and Max Verstappen took turns in first place during Q3, consistently improving their lap times until the shower increased again. Verstappen and Charles Leclerc both spun approaching the end of qualifying, missing their chance to improve their lap times. Carlos Sainz took the chance to beat out Verstappen for his maiden pole position by 0.072 seconds. Verstappen lined up in second, Leclerc lined up in third, with home country hero Lewis Hamilton in fourth.
Carlos Sainz (right) celebrating his maiden pole with F1 legend Nigel Mansell (left).
Twitter: @ScuderiaFerrari
For the second year in a row, the British Grand Prix had a cracking opening that immediately led to a red flag. This year, three cars did not make it past the first turn. George Russell missed Pierre Gasly in his mirror and turned into him, causing Russell to lose control and spear into the side of Guanyu Zhou. Zhou was sent flying in the air and slid upside down the tarmac. He was sent over the tire barrier in the gravel trap, crashing into the catch fence, a horrifying crash for both audience and drivers. Russell immediately exited his car to check on Zhou. Luckily, the halo successfully showed its use by saving yet another driver’s life. Zhou was fine and released from the medical center.
Zhou escaped a rare accident unscathed thanks to the halo.
Twitter: @alfaromeoorlen
Another incident involved Alex Albon behind Zhou’s accident. As drivers braked to evade the chaos, Sebastian Vettel could not react quick enough and drove into the back of Albon. Albon was sent into the wall and bounced back onto the track, collecting Esteban Ocon and Yuki Tsunoda in the process. Albon was sent to the hospital for further checkups and later released. Albon later tweeted to confirm his situation, stating that he is fit and ready to race.
The race restarted after around an hour. Sainz fiercely defended his lead at the restart and quickly cut off Verstappen from the start. All four Red Bull and Ferrari drivers were fighting closely, with some contact between them. Sergio Perez got the short end of the stick as he picked up significant front wing damage and was forced to pit. Sainz led the race with Verstappen and Leclerc close behind. Sainz made a mistake at Chappel corner, gifting the lead to Verstappen. However, Verstappen soon ran over a piece of debris and sustained damage to the car's underbody, losing around 20 percent of the downforce. He was also forced to pit, giving back the lead to Sainz.
Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen battling out for first at the restart.
Twitter: @redbullracing
Hamilton was slowly catching up as the two Ferrari drivers led the race. Leclerc was complaining that Sainz was holding him back. Sainz ordered to speed up, but he failed to do so. With Hamilton closing in on Leclerc’s rear view mirror and Sainz failing to meet target lap time, Ferrari pitted Sainz early to release Leclerc into clean air. However, Hamilton was still catching up even though Leclerc had clean air, so Ferrari had no choice but to pit Leclerc as well.
Carlos Sainz leading Charles Leclerc during the British Grand Prix.
Twitter: @ScuderiaFerrari
After both Ferraris pitted, Leclerc was behind Sainz again. And once again, Leclerc was complaining about Sainz holding him back. Sainz was given another request to speed up and once again failed to do so, forcing him to relinquish the lead. With Leclerc finally doing better lap times than Hamilton, Mercedes was forced to pit the Brit. However, a costly, slow pit stop by the Mercedes pit crew meant that Hamilton had plenty of work to do to catch up with the Ferraris again. This all changed when Ocon experienced a mechanical failure and was forced to stop on the track. The safety car was deployed, and suddenly the whole race was turned upside down.
The deployment of the safety car bunched up the drivers for an exciting ending to the British Grand Prix.
Twitter: @F1
Ferrari chose to only pit Sainz for new soft tires under the safety car while Leclerc was forced to finish the race on slower and older hard tires. Hamilton also pitted for new tires, and Perez had made his way back from 17th place to fourth in 40 laps. The safety car gave Perez another shot at a podium position. With 10 laps to go, six drivers had a shot at the three podium positions. Although Sainz was asked to help Leclerc and let him restart the race first to open the lead, Sainz refused and started to attack Leclerc for the lead immediately after the restart.
Charles Leclerc leads the final restart of the race, closely followed by his teammate Carlos Sainz.
Twitter: @F1
Sainz regained the lead at Brooklands corner, while Perez overtook Hamilton for third. Then came a few “epic” final laps, as described by Perez. While Perez and Leclerc fought for second, Hamilton came out of nowhere to overtake both drivers. However, Hamilton wasn’t able to maintain his position in second place as Perez and Leclerc refused to go out without a fight. As a result, Perez took second while Leclerc took back third place. Hamilton was able to take third, but Leclerc did not make it easy. Alonso was able to threaten Leclerc’s fourth place, but he couldn’t take it.
Carlos Sainz crosses the line on his 150th Grand Prix to take his first F1 win.
Twitter: @ScuderiaFerrari
Verstappen fought Mick Schumacher for seventh and could barely keep this position with his broken car. Schumacher was still able to finish eighth for his first-ever F1 points. Leclerc finished fourth, failing to score a podium because of another team mistake. Hamilton finished third and made it onto the Silverstone podium for the 13th time, breaking the record for most podium finishes on a single track. Perez demonstrated excellent driving, recovering from 17th to finish in second place. Sainz became the second-ever Spaniard in F1 history to take a win, successfully doing so in his 150th Grand Prix.
