Sainz wins and Hamilton is third on a day of drama

CARLOS Sainz won a wild and wacky British Grand Prix which saw Zhou Guanyu survive a horror opening-lap crash and protestors invade the track at Silverstone.

Sainz fought his way past Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc in a brilliant 10-lap shootout to the chequered flag following a safety car period to claim his maiden Formula One win.

Sergio Perez finished second with Lewis Hamilton third after he forced his way around Leclerc with four of the 52 laps remaining.

Sainz, Perez and Hamilton all took on fresh tyres ahead of the safety car re-start but Ferrari left Leclerc out on old rubber.

The championship challenger was left in no man’s land, dropping from first to fourth and dealing his title hopes a blow on a day when Max Verstappen limped home in seventh after he sustained a puncture and damage to his Red Bull bodywork.

A record crowd of 142,000 fans in Northamptonshire were treated to the race of the season which started in extraordinary fashion.

Rookie Zhou was approaching the 160mph opening Abbey corner when British driver George Russell tagged the right rear of the Chinese driver’ machine, sending him on to his roof and sliding out of control.

Upside down, Zhou continued through the gravel at high speed with sparks flying before he slammed into the tyre barrier and was launched into the fencing.

He was taken away in an ambulance to the medical centre before being discharged.

Russell was also seen dashing to check on his friend, the Williams driver Alex Albon, who was caught up in the accident.

He said: “I am glad to see Zhou okay. It was an horrific incident.

The Mercedes driver, who was not permitted to restart the race, added: “I jumped out of the car to see that Zhou was OK. When I got back to car I could not restart it. As soon as you get outside assistance you cannot restart the race.”

Following a delay of 53 minutes the race restarted.

On lap 10 Verstappen, hot on Sainz’s tail, moved into the lead after the Spaniard ran off the track through Becketts.

However, two laps later, the Dutchman was in the pits with a puncture after he appeared to run over debris.

Sainz was soon under pressure from Leclerc and after toing-and-froing with the pit wall team principal Mattia Binotto gave the order for the scarlet cars to swap position.

Suddenly, a fast-charging Hamilton was in the mix and after the first round of pit stops he was just six seconds off the lead.

Then Ocon broke down in his Alpine and the safety car was deployed with a dozen laps to go. Leclerc stayed out - a decision Ferrari might come to regret - with Sainz, Hamilton and Perez all stopping.

The race re-started on lap 43 and Sainz made short work of getting past Leclerc with Perez and Hamilton eventually following suit after a number of spellbinding laps.

Fernando Alonso took fifth, one spot ahead of Lando Norris with Verstappen just holding off Mick Schumacher to take seventh.