Carlos Sainz has won the dramatic British GP after overtaking Charles Leclerc at the Safety Car restart.
The race started in dry conditions despite suggestions of possible rain. Max Verstappen began the race on soft tires that allowed him to get in front of Carlos Sainz and take over the lead.
Behind them, big incidents happened. Guanyu Zhou was affected most as his car went upside-down, jumped over the fence, and hit the catchfence. The Alfa Romeo driver as well as Alexander Albon were conscious and sent to the medical center. The race was stopped.
After almost an hour, drivers came back to race track. The grid order was modified and Sainz got back P1. The standing start procedure was enforced. Verstappen switched to mediums during the red flag.
Sainz saved the lead at the start, while Verstappen and Leclerc were behind. However, Leclerc had a collision with Red Bull drivers, which resulted in damage for him and Sergio Perez. The Mexican stayed on the track at first, but went for a pit stop on lap 6.
Sainz lost the lead after going off track. Verstappen was close behind, so he capitalized on the Spaniard’s mistake. Meanwhile, Yuki Tsunoda collided with his AlphaTauri teammate Pierre Gasly. The Japanese driver was given a 5-second time penalty for causing a collision.
Big misfortune struck Verstappen. The Dutchman allegedly got a puncture, so he had to change the tires. Sainz inherited the lead. Shortly after, Verstappen reported that he might have an issue with his car. His engineer confirmed that he got a bodywork damage.
Leclerc caught Sainz and began putting pressure on him. The Spaniard pitted after 20 laps and got hard tires. He rejoined the track ahead of Lando Norris. At the same time, Valtteri Bottas came to the pits to retire from the race.
Leclerc stayed out for longer. The Monegasque had to look in the rear view mirrors, because Lewis Hamilton was approaching him. Leclerc pitted on lap 26 and came back to the track behind Sainz. Hamilton became the new leader.
Verstappen switched to hard tires, but was not happy with the level of grip.
Leclerc was chasing Sainz after the pit stop, but was still too far from his teammate, which benefitted Hamilton, who was yet to pit at that moment. On lap 31, Sainz let Leclerc ahead.
Hamilton made his pit stop on lap 34. The gap between him and Leclerc did not allow the Briton to stay in the lead afterwards.
Verstappen kept struggling. He was passed by Esteban Ocon for P8 at Stowe. However, the Alpine driver suffered a mechanical failure and stopped ahead of Copse The Safety Car had to be deployed.
Several drivers, including Sainz and Hamilton, went to the pits to get soft tires. Leclerc stayed on the track.
The race restarted on lap 43. Sainz used the tire advantage and passed Leclerc at the restart. Behind them, Perez overtook Hamilton and got to the top 3. The Mercedes driver was not backing off and was trying to retake the position.
Furthermore, both Perez and Hamilton were chasing Leclerc. The Red Bull driver had an attempt to make a pass on the final sector. However, both Leclerc and Perez went wide that allowed Hamilton to get ahead of them both. Moments later, Hamilton was forced to go wide and dropped down to 4th.
Later on, Leclerc was out of the top 3 and was under pressure by Fernando Alonso and Lando Norris.
Sainz built a comfortable gap from Perez and went on to take his maiden F1 win. Hamilton finished 3rd and got the podium on home soil.
The results of the Formula 1 British GP:
| Pos. | Driver | Team | Gap |
| 1 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | Winner |
| 2 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull Racing | +3.779 |
| 3 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | +6.225 |
| 4 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | +8.546 |
| 5 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine | +9.571 |
| 6 | Lando Norris | McLaren | +11.943 |
| 7 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing | +18.777 |
| 8 | Mick Schumacher | Haas | +18.995 |
| 9 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin | +22.356 |
| 10 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | +24.590 |
| 11 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | +26.147 |
| 12 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | +32.511 |
| 13 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren | +32.817 |
| 14 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | +40.910 |
| 15 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | DNF |
| 16 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | DNF |
| 17 | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo | DNF |
| 18 | George Russell | Mercedes | DNF |
| 19 | Guanyu Zhou | Alfa Romeo | DNF |
| 20 | Alexander Albon | Williams | DNF |
