F1 British GP: Carlos Sainz claims maiden win, Lewis Hamilton third in epic race
Carlos Sainz claimed the first win of his F1 career in a dramatic, pulsating British Grand Prix as Lewis Hamilton took third place.
Sainz overtook Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc after a late Safety Car to snatch his first-ever victory in F1, while Sergio Perez charged to second ahead of Hamilton, who completed the podium.
The thrilling conclusion came at the end of a hugely dramatic British Grand Prix that was red-flagged for more than 40 minutes after Guanyu Zhou was flipped into the catch-fencing at Turn 1 during a chaotic start. The Alfa Romeo driver escaped major injury from the shocking crash that was witnessed by a record Silverstone crowd of 142,000.
Polesitter Sainz maintained position at the second standing start when the race resumed but surrendered his lead when he ran wide at Chapel, enabling Max Verstappen to takeover at the front.
But the reigning world champion’s chances of winning the British Grand Prix ended when Verstappen was forced to pit with a puncture, which dropped him out of contention as the Red Bull driver struggled with car damage and could only finish seventh.
With Verstappen out of the picture, it turned into three-way fight between the Ferraris and Hamilton, who led a race for the first time this season when Sainz and Leclerc made their pitstops.
The win always looked a tall order for Hamilton, who found himself hunting down Sainz and Leclerc with a significant tyre offset, though Ferrari’s initial indecision to swap their drivers around had the potential to be costly.
Ferrari eventually reversed their cars to allow the faster Leclerc through, but Silverstone would serve up one final twist when Esteban Ocon ground to a halt on the old pit straight with a fuel pump issue, which resulted in the Safety Car being called.
Splitting their strategy, Ferrari opted to keep Leclerc out under the Safety Car while Sainz came into the pits for fresh soft tyres, along with Hamilton and Perez.
At the restart, Sainz used his faster tyres to snatch the lead from Leclerc on the Wellington Straight, while Perez snuck ahead of Hamilton to move into third.
While Sainz checked out in front en route to sealing a breakthrough win, a thrilling battle raged behind, with Leclerc, Perez and Hamilton all swapping positions several times in the most entertaining on-track squabble of the year as F1’s new era cars delivered a fantastic spectacle.
Hamilton briefly moved into second when he pulled off a stunning double overtake on Leclerc and Perez at the final corner, only to immediately out to Perez, before Leclerc brilliantly swept around the outside of Copse to retake third.
While Perez scampered clear in second, Hamilton and Leclerc resumed their squabble, with Hamilton finally making a move stick by sweeping past the Ferrari into Stowe to seal the final spot on the rostrum and delight his adoring home crowd.
Leclerc fended off the late-charging Alpine of Fernando Alonso to take fourth, while McLaren's Lando Norris was sixth.
Some robust defending helped Verstappen pip Haas' Mick Schumacher to claim seventh in a drag race to the line as the German finally scored his first points in F1.
Sebastian Vettel and Kevin Magnussen completed the rest of the top 10 for Aston Martin and Haas respectively.
In terms of the championship, Verstappen leads Perez by 34 points, with Leclerc 43 behind.
