Debut win for Sainz after a thrill-packed, dramatic 2022 British GP — as it happened

Carlos Sainz won his first Formula 1 race in an incident-packed British Grand Prix that saw thrilling wheel-to-wheel battles, Lewis Hamilton leading and a horrifying crash where Zhou Guanyu’s Alfa Romeo flipped upside down and was trapped between safety barriers.

The Chinese driver was freed from his car and later declared fit after the Turn 1 crash on the first lap of the race.

Polesitter Carlos Sainz had lost his lead to Max Verstappen at the start, but the race was stopped so quickly that the grid was reset to qualifying order at the restart and Sainz held on at the second time of asking, after a first-lap tussle between the Ferraris and Red Bulls which left Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez’s car damaged, with Verstappen challenging Sainz for the lead.

A slip-up by the Spaniard allowed the Red Bull through, but Verstappen slowed  two laps later with bodywork damage and the Ferrari was back through, this time with Leclerc starting to put pressure on as a third-placed Lewis Hamilton pulled closer.

Leclerc wanted Sainz to move out of his way; Sainz wanted more time to lap at the required pace and after both cars pitted, Leclerc was allowed through, Sainz being abruptly told: “This [pace] is not good enough”.

At this point, Hamilton was in the lead to the delight of the record Silverstone crowd. He fell back to third after pitting, but was closing the gap to the Ferraris, appearing to set up a showdown in the final laps.

It would all come to a head sooner than expected, however, as Esteban Ocon crawled to a halt on the start-finish straight to trigger a safety car. Sainz, Hamilton and most of the following cars stopped for fresh soft tyres, but Leclerc remained in the lead on old hard compound rubber.

Predictably, it was his undoing when the safety car pulled in, with the remaining cars bunched up and Sainz quickly pulled out into the lead as Perez and Hamilton closed in on the struggling Ferrari.

The ensuing battle was one of the best we’ve seen in recent Formula 1 history, as Perez and Leclerc duelled side by side, mostly on track – but partly off, with stewards rightly taking no action.

Hamilton joined the action too, passing both in one corner as the crowd roared, but he couldn’t hold on to second place and lost out to Perez and Leclerc before resuming battle with the Ferrari and eventually prevailing.

It was a fitting end to a hard-fought, unpredictable race, which closes the championship battle slightly; Max Verstappen ending the race fighting with Mick Schumacher for eighth.

There is likely to be work needed behind the scenes for Ferrari, however, with a clearly disgruntled Leclerc – appearing to have been given a telling off by Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto at the end – unlikely to have been happy at spending several laps behind a slower Sainz and being left on older tyres at the end.

Here’s how the race played out:

Zhou Guanyu escapes after his car flips at start

Max Verstappen made clear his intentions to grab the lead from second on the grid by fitting soft tyres — only Kevin Magnussen, Sebastian Vettel and the two Williams made the same choice. The rest of the grid was on mediums, except George Russell who opted for the hard tyres.

It was indeed Verstappen who sped off the line and into the lead on lap 1, as Lewis Hamilton vaulted from fifth to third, past Leclerc and Perez.

The Mexican’s also lost out to Alonso, who passed Norris off the line and charged past Perez on the outside of Abbey climbing from 7th to 5th.

But as the leaders rounded the first corner, behind was chaos.

Russell, starting eighth on hard tyres was slow to gain momentum and had been overtaken by tenth-place qualifier Latifi. He was running alongside Zhou Guanyu’s Alfa Romeo when Pierre Gasly, from 11th on the grid, looked to slot his AlphaTauri in the gap between the two cars.

Russell moved to his left to close the gap, but Gasly’s front tyres were already level and they slewed the Mercedes sideways. It slid into Zhou’s Alfa Romeo, sending the car skywards, flipping in mid-air and landing on its roll hoop and halo.

It skidded at pace into the gravel, digging in and then was flung up into the catch fence, where it became wedged between the two.

Russell sprinted from his own car to check on the Chinese driver’s welfare.

Meanwhile, Bottas slowed as the two cars spun out of control; Alex Albon behind hit the brakes and an unsighted Sebastian Vettel hit the rear of the Williams, sending it spinning into the pitwall and then back across the grid where he collided with Esteban Ocon and Yuki Tsunoda.

Russell argued that he should be allowed to continue because he’d stopped to check on Zhou but the Mercedes was loaded on to a flatbed truck and returned to the pits — outside assistance which ruled Russell out of the restart, even if the car could have been repaired.

With him, Zhou and Albion out, 17 cars took the restart in original qualifying order, as so little of the race had been run.

Sainz leads at the restart

With another formation lap, the lights went out to start lap 3. Verstappen wasn’t allowed a simple run to the front again, as Sainz squeezed him towards the pitwall and held on to the lead on he outside of Abbey and then pulled away on the inside at Farm.

Behind them, Perez had got away ahead of Leclerc but the Ferrari driver had a run into The Loop, trying to squeeze into a closing gap on the inside, just as Verstappen tried to pull alongside Sainz again.

With four abreast, Perez moved over to the apex and his front left tyre met the Ferrari’s right wing endplate. Further contact damaged Perez’s own front wing and the Red Bull driver was forced to pit, returning to the track last.

Hamilton passed Norris for fourth on lap 5. Ahead, Sainz couldn’t pull away from Verstappen and was just a minute ahead on lap 8, with Leclerc holding on in his damaged Ferrari, 1.7sec behind.

Verstappen didn’t need to put the pressure on for long, as Sainz ran wide on the exit of Becketts on lap 10, bouncing along the grass. Verstappen powered past, his momentum (and open DRS flap) enabling him to pull away for the full length of the Hangar Straight

Behind them. Yuki Tsunoda tried to dive down the inside of his team-mate, but lost the rear and slid into Gasly, sending both AlphaTauris off briefly. Tsunoda would later receive a 5sec penalty.

Verstappen retires

In front, Verstappen’s lead lasted barely three minutes as he slowed on lap 12, allowing Sainz to regain the lead, again on Hangar Straight.

“I ran over a bit of carbon… tyres are not lovely, I think I’ve got a puncture,” he radioed and headed into the pits.

He was back out in sixth, 5ec behind Alonso but still not happy. “Check the tyres or else there’s something wrong with the car,” he said. “It’s still not good. I think there’s something wrong — the car is 100% broken”

The Dutchman was told that he had bodywork damage reducing his downforce, but was safe to race. Racing was optimistic, though; the rest of his afternoon would be spent defending, initially against Lando Norris who was 3.5sec behind.

Leclerc closed in to Sainz, running less than a second behind, while third-placed Lewis Hamilton set the fastest lap on lap 15, 4.5sec behind.

Defence was on the mind of Ferrari too, as Hamilton closed in on the two leaders. Sainz was blocking Leclerc, who was faster in his damaged Ferrari on lap 16 as the despairing Monégasque radioed: “What do I need to do? I’ve ****** up my race.”

“I will get back to you” was the response.

Sainz was given a lap time target of 1min 32.9sec but initially fell 0.2sec short. Ferrari messages continued to go back and forth as Hamilton set another fastest time on lap 18 and closed further.

The situation was resolved by a pitstop for Carlos Sainz on lap 20; he came back out in third place on hard tyres. Bottas was in the pits a lap later to retire and end an unfortunate day for Alfa Romeo.

Hamilton takes the lead

Leclerc came in on lap 26 and dropped behind Sainz, promoting Lewis Hamilton into the lead to the delight of the home crowd. With no concerns about his own tyre wear, the Mercedes looked a strong contender for victory.

That was almost certainly Ferrari’s view as well: the team continued to push Sainz to go faster and told Leclerc he was free to fight but the Monégasque urged them to do more. “We are losing time compared to Hamilton. This is not enough in my opinion,” he said.

On lap 31, the order came. ”This is not good enough, we are swapping the cars,” Sainz was told and his hopes of a debut win appeared dashed.

He had pulled put a gap of almost 2sec when Hamilton pitted at the end of lap 33. His bid for victory wasn’t helped by a slow 4.3sec stop for hard tyres and he resumed the race third, 3.3sec behind second-placed Sainz and 13sec ahead of Norris.

By then, Perez had navigated the midfield to climb to fifth, 7.5sec behind the McLaren and 6sec ahead of Alonso.

Eighth place was up for grabs as the ailing Verstappen was caught by Esteban Ocon and Alpine was passed on lap 37.

Safety car sees a strategy reshuffle

Hamilton was back in the groove, setting fastest laps to close in further on the Ferraris as he made his bid for victory, but all changed on lap 39 as Ocon slowed to a standstill on the start-finish straight to trigger a safety car.

Sainz and Hamilton headed into the pits to swap hard tyres for softs, retaining their positions and then closing back up on Sainz.

Perez, on medium tyres and needing to stop again, took advantage of the chance for a free stop for soft tyres and retained fourth.

Hamilton raised his doubts over the radio, asking whether the tyres would last but most drivers were following suit; Lando Norris falling behind Alonso in sixth, ahead of Vettel, Magnussen, Verstappen and Mick Schumacher.

Leclerc was clearly vulnerable on old, cold, hard tyres at the restart and Ferrari told Sainz to create as big a gap as possible behind him, which would have helped shield him from Hamilton and Perez behind.

A worked-up Sainz responded “stop inventing… please don’t ask these things — there’s more to lose like that”, as he declined to make himself more vulnerable to the chasing pack.

The battle for the podium places

The Spaniard wasted little time as he took the lead at the restart on lap 43, pulling away as an epic battle unfolded behind.

Perez passed Hamilton and moved in to attack Leclerc; the pair dicing side by side through corners, on track, off track.

It was pure entertainment for the crowd and Hamilton who swiftly moved in to join the fight and passed both on the start/finish straight at the start of lap 46 to a roar from the grandstands,

Perez hit straight back at Hamilton while Alonso and Norris moved up to lurk behind the trio.

Hamilton couldn’t hold on to his second place: Perez and Leclerc muscled their way through, and the Red Bull pulled away. Leclerc wasn’t able to create a gap though and Hamilton harried the Ferrari for corner after corner, lap after lap in a relentless series of attacks.

They went side-by-side through Copse — with two cars emerging at the other side this year, and Hamilton finally taking third place down the Hangar Straight on lap 48.

The stewards declined to intervene in response to the off-track excursions, and the positions were settled. Sainz crossed the line for his first grand prix win, his joy contrasting sharply with a hangdog Leclerc who was accosted by finger-wagging team boss Mattia Binotto before speaking to the media.

After fighting off Mick Schumacher — who scored his first championship points — Verstappen rolled in seventh, minimising the damage to his title bid, with Perez lopping 12 points off his 46 point lead and Leclerc gaining only six points on Verstappen. He’s now 43 points off the lead.

2022 British Grand Prix results

*Includes additional point for fastest lap