SAINZ WINS THE BRITISH GRAND PRIX TO BECOME THE 112TH DIFFERENT WINNER

The 2022 British Grand Prix certainly served us well with a maiden victory for Carlos Sainz coming after his first pole in his 150th F1 race in what was an extremely tense final few laps after a late Safety Car.

It was Max Verstappen (Red Bull) who led the pack into turn one. But George Russell (Mercedes) is out by turn one along with Zhou (Alfa Romeo) who is flipped upside down, Tsunoda (Alpha Tauri) has significant damage - Albon (Williams) is also out and Ocon (Alpine) has serious damage as well. With all this chaos the Red Flag is out and the race is stopped. The race was subject to a lengthy delay to allow for Zhou to be extracted from his Alfa Romeo but after almost an hour of waiting the race got back underway on lap three with a standing start and the grid is set back to what it was at the start of the race so Sainz is put back on pole. Sainz gets away better this time around and pushes Verstappen wide to keep first place as Leclerc comes round the outside of Max but can’t quite make it and stays third. Verstappen is in second with Leclerc in third and Perez in fourth.

On lap six Sergio Perez has to pit after picking up some damage a few laps earlier and drops right to the back into 17th place.

On lap 10 Sainz has a wobble on the entry to the Hanger Straight which sends him wide and makes it very easy for Verstappen to go flying past. This gifts Max the lead from Sainz in second to Leclerc in third.

Just two laps later it's Verstappen going slowly and is forced to pit with a puncture - this gifts Sainz the lead back and Leclerc is into second - Hamilton is now third. Max is out of the pits into sixth place.

Then on lap 20 Sainz pits from first giving Leclerc the lead and Hamilton second - Sainz exits the pits in third. On the very next lap Bottas (Alfa Romeo) is in the pits to retire with mechanical problems.

On lap 25 Leclerc pits from first - Hamilton now leads his home race and Sainz is into second - Charles is down to third.

Lap 28 Pierre Gasly (Alpha Tauri) is out.

34 laps in Hamilton pits from first and drops back out behind both Ferrari’s - Leclerc leads with Sainz second. A few laps later on lap 39 Ocon (Alpine) is going slowly and stops on the old pit straight. Sainz and Hamilton both pit for a free stop. Leclerc stays out. The Ocon incident causes a full course Safety Car and the racing resumes on lap 43 with Leclerc on older hard tyres with Sainz and Hamilton chasing him with fresh soft tyres. Leclerc leads off of the restart but Sainz puts Leclerc wide into turn three and Sainz leads and Perez is into third.

The final seven laps make this race exciting as Hamilton makes a double pass to get himself second after Perez and Leclerc are fighting and push each other wide. And on the very next lap (lap 46) Perez gets away in second Leclerc is in third and Hamilton in fourth.

With just a handful of laps left Hamilton passes Leclerc for third for his thirteenth podium at the British Grand Prix.

The next race is the Austrian Grand Prix.

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