Infarct and amazing British GP: A huge crash in the opening stages or a magnificent battle for the podium! 6 drivers failed to finish the race

Formula 1 had its tenth race of the season on the schedule today, Sunday 3 July – the British Grand Prix. And it was a very dramatic spectacle indeed! Already the start of the race brought a horrific crash, with Lewis Hamilton scoring a solid success on home soil. The end of the race brought a beautiful battle for the podium!

This was the true queen of motorsport in the true sense of the word. The British Grand Prix delivered an absolutely fantastic spectacle and deserves to be rated with nothing but superlatives.

However, it started with a horrific crash involving six drivers. Immediately after the start, Pierre Gasly found himself in a sandwich between George Russell and Kuan-yu Zhou, when the first two pilots made contact.

The spinning Russell subsequently hit Zhou in such a way that the Chinese driver found himself upside down in his Alfa Romeo, sliding all the way to the tyre barrier. The scary moment, however, was when his car “tripped” and flew over the barrier. Zhou ended up in the netting dividing the track and the fans.

Race officials immediately suspended the race and resorted to red flags. The track marshals subsequently extricated the Chinese pilot from his car, and an ambulance also had to intervene at the scene.

Alexander Albon was also taken to the medical centre. He collided with Esteban Ocon’s Alpino at the first corner. AlphaTauri rider Júki Cunoda was also involved in this crash.

Russell, Chou and Albon did not continue in the British Grand Prix. The Alpine and AlphaTauri teams were able to repair Cunoda and Ocon’s cars during the one-hour break and removal of the Alfa Romeo monocoque, allowing both drivers to continue the race. Gasly suffered no significant damage.

The race directors then decided to restart the British Grand Prix in its original order. Fans were treated to a second start from a strong position.

Sainz, Verstappen, Leclerc, Pérez, Hamilton, Norris, Alonso, Latifi, Gasly, Bottas

After the restart, Sainz managed to hold on to the top spot, however, Charles Leclerc, Sergio Pérez and Verstappen had a great battle. Needless to say, there was contact here too.

Lando Norris in the McLaren briefly got ahead of Hamilton in the Mercedes after the restart, but he got it back on lap six.

A lap before that, however, Pérez headed to his mechanics for a front wing replacement due to a fight with Leclerc.

On lap ten, Sainz lost his lead when he made a minor driving error in the Maggot and Becketts corner section and went off the track. This put Verstappen in first place.

Lap eleven brought more drama when stablemates AlphaTauri clashed. Yuki Cunoda attacked Gasly at Turn 3. But the young Japanese driver got caught on the clock and shot down the team leader with the back of his car.

Just one lap later, the lead changed again. Verstappen began to lose speed significantly, which Sainz took advantage of to re-take the lead on the Hangar Straight in the British Grand Prix.

The race engineer then told Verstappen over the team radio that his Red Bull had some sort of aerodynamic problem and thus could not go full throttle due to a worse aero on the left side of the car.

On lap 15, race HQ handed Cunoda a five-second penalty for causing the accident, but a few minutes later revised their judgement and nullified the penalty for the Japanese driver.

On lap twenty-one, Valtteri Bottas retired from the British Grand Prix due to gearbox problems. Alfa Romeo thus had no more representation in the race.

Seven laps later, Gasly received a caution in the form of a black flag with an orange dot. This usually indicates major damage to the monoposto, so AlphaTauri retired the Frenchman.

It was the home team’s Hamilton who took the lead as the race progressed, but thanks to pit stops by both Ferrari drivers. Indeed, the Italian stable resorted to a team override on the thirty-first circuit and swapped the order of their drivers.

Hamilton headed to his mechanics on the 34th lap, so the order after half of the race was as follows: Leclerc, Sainz, Hamilton, Norris, Pérez, Alonso, Vettel, Verstappen, Ocon, Schumacher, Magnussen, Latifi, Stroll, Ricciardo, Cunoda.

On lap 39, Esteban Ocon shut down his Alpine, specifically on the straight between turns 8 and 9. Many drivers took advantage of this to pit stop, mostly to change to the softest and fastest tyre compound.

At the end of the forty-second lap, the safety car pulled back into the pits and racing could resume. Leclerc, Sainz, Hamilton, Pérez, Alonso, Norris (all soft), Vettel, Magnussen (medium), Verstappen, Schumacher (soft).

However, Monaco’s Leclerc didn’t go to his mechanics during the safety car and remained on a worn set of the hardest tyres. And they don’t have as much grip as the softest specification, which was clearly evident during the following laps.

After the restart, the Ferrari drivers had a wonderful battle with each other on lap 43, with Sainz regaining the lead at the British Grand Prix. Mexican Pérez passed Hamilton to take third place.

With seven laps to go, the fans were treated to a terrific battle for the podium. Hamilton took advantage of the battle between Pérez and Leclerc to leap up to number two. But the Red Bull driver then gave Hamilton the lead back.

Fernando Alonso also tried to make his presence felt in the podium battle, with sixth-placed Norris watching from behind. The order at the front remained unchanged for the rest of the race, with Leclerc holding on to at least fourth place on the hard set.

The Spaniard Sainz takes the first victory of his Formula 1 career! Verstappen and Mick Schumacher had a fierce battle at the end, but the Red Bull driver managed to hold on to his seventh place.

But for Schumacher, it’s the first points of his career! In the attached Twitter post below, you can see the final standings at the finish of the British Grand Prix.

Six drivers failed to finish the tenth round of the season at Silverstone. In addition, Verstappen and Red Bull remain at the top of both championships.

Source: F1 TV