THE BRITISH GP IN 5 KEY MOMENTS
F1 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 10
1 Sainz wins, but Ferrari loses the race for Leclerc
Carlos Sainz took a career-first pole position and a maiden Formula 1 victory, but Ferrari still left Silverstone after the British Grand Prix on a downbeat note.
Carlos gave up the lead on the first start, but a crash behind him gave him a second chance. He made better use of it at the restart – almost an hour later due to the first-corner incident – but on lap 10 had a brief excursion off the track which allowed Max Verstappen in front again.
But once more Carlos was helped by an accident behind: Yuki Tsunoda swept his Alphatauri teammate Pierre Gasly off the track, and a piece of Gasly’s rear-wing endplate got stuck under Max’s RB18, robbing it of some downforce. Sainz got past again even before Verstappen, thinking a puncture was to blame for his sudden performance loss, dived for the pitlane.
It was an almost perfect scenario for Ferrari. Verstappen fell back to sixth place, between the two Alpine drivers – and still carrying that chunk of Gasly’s car. The second Red Bull was also out of position, since Sergio Pérez had to pit for a new front wing after a clash with Sainz’s team-mate Charles Leclerc on the opening lap.
Leclerc’s front wing was damaged in that same incident. But even without one of the endplates Leclerc was not only able to run close behind Sainz, but also felt he could go quicker.
A new threat then emerged in the form of Lewis Hamilton, who gradually homed in on the Ferrari pair. As Sainz began to struggle to keep his tyres alive, with Leclerc still glued to his rear wing and
lobbying the pitwall to be allowed through, Ferrari took Sainz out of the way on lap 20. It was a pitstop which ultimately proved decisive in making Carlos the winner.
Leclerc stayed on track five laps longer, during which Hamilton almost managed to get into DRS range behind the Ferrari – and suddenly the prospects of losing the race became real for the Scuderia again. Since Lewis on used mediums was matching both Ferraris on fresh hards, the Italian squad’s pitwall had to manage a familiar issue: Sainz was running ahead of his team-mate but Leclerc was quicker. Sainz was given a few laps to speed up but, when the threat of a Hamilton overcut became apparent, Ferrari had no choice but to swap its cars.
Lewis eventually pitted eight laps after Leclerc, emerging from the pitlane still trailing both of the Ferraris, but having much fresher tyres. Would that be enough for him to catch and overtake? That question, however, quickly became moot when a fuel pump issue brought Esteban Ocon’s Alpine to a halt on track, bringing out the Safety Car.
Ferrari dismissed the idea of a double-stack pitstop, although – despite Mattia Binotto’s subsequent denials – they had opportunity and time to do it, since Sainz was four seconds behind Leclerc. But losing track position to Hamilton – had he decided to stay out on his still relatively new hards – didn’t seem too attractive either. As Binotto explained after the race, the decision was dictated by Sainz’s greater tyre wear, courtesy of that early stop.
Ferrari hoped Sainz, on the new softs, would enable Leclerc to establish a small gap to the pack on the restart – but instead he took the lead almost immediately, leaving Charles to wrestle with the chasing pack. So while Ferrari won, its key championship contender lost – dropping to fourth at the end, and failing to claw back much ground to Verstappen in the points.
2 Halo passes another test as Formula 1 avoids disaster
Formula 1 was supremely lucky on the Sunday of the British Grand Prix. Seconds after the starting lights went out, Pierre Gasly, sandwiched between the cars of Zhou Guanyu and George Russell, hit the Mercedes – which went straight into Zhou’s Alfa Romeo and sent it flying.
Upside-down, the C42 scratched its way through the asphalt and, bouncing over the gravel, somersaulted into and then over the tyre barrier, landing behind it. The roll hoop could not withstand the impact and broke, later prompting discussions about possible issues with Alfa’s design – which were later dismissed on account of the impact being twice the force of those in the FIA crash test – but the halo served its purpose once again.
Behind, Sebastian Vettel ran into Alex Albon, sending him into the pitwall. The Williams bounced off into Esteban Ocon’s Alpine, and then was hit by Yuki Tsunoda’s Alphatauri.
Zhou and Albon were sent to the medical centre, and Albon was transferred to a local hospital afterwards for further checks, but both drivers avoided serious injury and were able to head to Austria a couple of days later.
The race was stopped and it would be no exaggeration to say that, despite two crashes involving as many as seven cars, Formula 1 managed to avoid a much more serious drama. As the leaders were approaching the Wellington Straight, a group of protesters aligned with the Just Stop Oil movement had accessed the track.
At least five members of the group sat down on the track near the bridge on the straight before marshals dragged them away. The fact that the race was already suspended made that task a lot easier, since the cars which passed weren’t travelling at full speed.
The protesters did not get screentime in the official broadcast.
Northamptonshire police were aware of plans to stage some form of protest at the grand prix and released a statement to that effect a few days before the event. Efforts were made to facilitate a peaceful protest, but Just Stop Oil decided to proceed with its initial plan. Seven people were subsequently arrested.
“You’ve really got to be that silly to go on to a race track with Formula 1 cars... it’s a scary thing,” Mclaren’s Lando Norris fumed after the race. “You’re putting us at risk to be involved in something that we would never ever want to be involved in.”
While Norris’s opinion was shared by many in the F1 paddock, to a certain extent the protesters got what they desired. A representative of Just Stop Oil was invited onto Good Morning Britain on the Monday after the race.
3 Hamilton stars at Silverstone once again
Mercedes was always meant to do well at Silverstone. The upgrade applied in Spain enabled the team to edge closer to Ferrari and Red Bull, but at city tracks in Monaco, Canada and Baku the weaknesses of the W13 manifested themselves again. Silverstone’s smooth asphalt, however, was expected to be more beneficial to the car – especially since it had another update package.
A rainy qualifying perhaps didn’t allow for a decent estimate of the real balance of power, but practice form had suggested Mercedes was close on race pace even if it was lacking speed over a single lap. Unfortunately for the team, only one car survived the initial start. George Russell wasn’t able to continue the race after the first corner encounter with Gasly and Zhou, so it was up to Lewis Hamilton to demonstrate the potential of the W13 at Silverstone.
It’s not the first time this season that the seventimes world champion has found another gear when he can smell a good result. Yet again he was setting fastest laps in pursuit of the Ferraris, and without the Safety Car intervention he had a fairly realistic chance of winning.
With tyres 13 laps fresher than those of Carlos Sainz – before the Safety Car – Lewis’s chances of successfully dealing with at least one Ferrari seemed quite good. Whether he would have managed to catch up with Leclerc we will never find out. But few could argue that throughout most of the race it was Lewis who was the fastest driver on track.
Does this mean Mercedes is back in the fight for victories? Toto Wolff was reluctant to make any such claims after the race. “We have had in Barcelona moments where we saw some light at the end of the tunnel,” he said. “Then the next three street circuits proved that we were wrong, so I don’t want to talk us up nor be too optimistic at this stage.”
There is at least a sense of relief in the team as it has found the path to develop the W13. “The route we want to take now is becoming increasingly clear,” concluded Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin. “We changed concept in Barcelona perhaps in terms of the way the car was working, to try and solve some of that bouncing. While our issues with bouncing generated a lot of interest in the early races, because we were at the worst end of the pack, if you look at us here, we’re actually near the better end of it.”
4 Mclaren gifts Alpine and Alonso fifth place
Mclaren and Alpine have emerged as midfield leading squads, as Lando Norris and Fernando Alonso once again came away with a decent points haul. Both qualified ahead of George Russell, and in the race benefited from Max Verstappen’s woes and Russell’s first retirement of the season.
Norris was ahead of Alonso for most of the race and pitstops didn’t change the state of affairs, since the undercut isn’t very powerful at Silverstone. Neither was Alonso was able to pass Lando on track. But Mclaren was tripped up when the Safety Car was deployed.
Norris was one of a few drivers not to pit straight away – but although Charles Leclerc and
Kevin Magnussen didn’t come in at all, Mclaren called Norris into the pits a lap later than the rest of his competitors. Thus Alonso got ahead.
In the immediate kerfuffle of the restart, it looked as though they could even get involved in the podium battle, for they were in close attendance as Leclerc, Hamilton and Perez squabbled in the battle for second place. But as that dispute fizzled out without contact Alonso and Norris were left behind.
Finishing in fifth and sixth places nevertheless allowed their respective teams to consolidate their positions at the top of the midfield group in the standings, pulling away from Alfa Romeo, which failed to score again owing to Valtteri Bottas’s latest retirement.
Alpine’s form is more consistent throughout the season than Mclaren’s. But its reliability has let it down; Alonso has been the principal victim of failures this year but at Silverstone it was Esteban Ocon’s turn.
Mclaren, for its part, continues to score most of its points with just one car, since Daniel Riccardo had another weekend to forget. The Australian qualified 14th and briefly appeared in the top 10, but dropped out again due to a DRS issue.
5 Mick scores his first points as Haas returns to top 10
Having equalled its best-ever qualifying result in Canada, Haas failed to score points on race day. Almost the reverse happened at Silversone.
Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher ended up 17th and 19th in qualifying, which could be easily explained by the simple fact that Haas – unlike all its rivals – still hasn’t upgraded its car. Nevertheless, on Sunday both Haas cars were quick. The crashes and other misfortunes befalling its rivals certainly helped, but Schumacher made sure nobody would be left with any doubts that he earned his first career points.
In the end Mick was very close to overtaking Verstappen, but Max defended as if it was not for seventh place but a victory. Schumacher launched a final assault at the last corner, but Max offered Mick the choice between a collision and retreat – and Schumacher preferred the points. Magnussen finished 10th, making sure both Haas cars scored points for the first time since the 2019 German GP.