Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, Jr. won his first-ever Formula One grand prix by holding off Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and seven-time Formula 1 world champion, Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes as well as his Ferrari teammate, Charles Leclerc.
Sainz, Jr. began the race on pole position alongside Red Bull’s Max Verstappen but a scary first lap crash took out Alfa Romeo’s Guanyu Zhou and caused a red flag and after a lengthy delay, a race re-start. On the re-start, Sainz, Jr. held off Verstappen while Perez incurred some wing damage to his car and dropped to 16th after an early pit stop.
On Lap 10, Sainz, Jr. made a driving error that allowed Verstappen to easily pass him for the lead but a mere two laps later, Verstappen returned the favor by making a driving error himself – running over a curb and damaging the floor of his car as well as causing a tire puncture – and was forced to make an early pit stop, dropping him permanently out of contention for the podium.
After the top three made pit stops by Lap 34, Leclerc was in the lead ahead of Sainz, Jr. and Hamilton but a safety car on Lap 49 gave life to Perez, who moved up to fourth and changed to soft tires along with Sainz, Jr. and Hamilton. Leclerc missed the pit opportunity and was forced to remain on hard tires – which allowed Sainz, Jr. Perez and Hamilton to pass him in the waning laps of the race and relegated him to fourth.
With the top three on soft tires and Leclerc on aging hard tires, there was furious racing in the final laps before Sainz, Jr. was able to distance himself from both Perez and Hamilton for his first F1 victory. Verstappen finished seventh and remains the 2022 driver’s championship leader with 181 points over his Red Bull teammate, Perez, in second with 147 points, followed by Leclerc with 138 points, Sainz, Jr. with 127 points, Mercedes’ George Russell with 111 points and Hamilton with 93 points.
2022 British Grand Prix – Top 10 Finishers
1] Carlos Sainz Jr. Ferrari
2] Sergio Pérez Red Bull
3] Lewis Hamilton Mercedes
4] Charles Leclerc Ferrari
5] Fernando Alonso Alpine
6] Lando Norris McLaren
7] Max Verstappen Red Bull
8] Max Schumacher Haas
9] Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin
10] Kevin Magnussen Haas
