Carlos Sainz Jr, Ferrari, Silverstone, 2022

Sainz claims first win at Silverstone with late pass on Leclerc

2022 British Grand Prix summary

Posted on

| Written by

Carlos Sainz Jnr claimed his first grand prix victory at Silverstone after passing team mate Charles Leclerc during a late Safety Car restart.

Sainz took advantage of a Safety Car to pit for fresh soft tyres while Leclerc was told to stay out on old hard tyres. Sainz passed his team mate for the lead at the restart and drove away to claim the victory.

Sergio Perez finished second for Red Bull, with Lewis Hamilton completing the podium. Leclerc finished fourth, with Max Verstappen taking seventh after suffering bodywork damage.

Starting from the front row of the grid alongside Sainz, Verstappen was the only driver in the top eight to opt to start on the soft compound tyres, with George Russell the only driver in the field opting for hard tyres for the start.

When the lights went out, Verstappen got a better getaway off the line and passed Sainz for the lead before reaching Abbey. But behind, there was a serious accident.

Pierre Gasly had a good start and was side-by-side with George Russell to his right and Zhou Guanyu to his left. As the three approached Abbey Corner, Russell moved slightly to the left to take the racing line for the corner and Gasly was sandwiched between the two cars.

Contact with both Russell and Zhou pitched the Mercedes into a spin to the left, clipping the right-rear of the Alfa Romeo and sending Zhou into an immediate roll and skidding into the gravel trap where the hit the tyre barrier, flipping over the wall into the catch fencing.

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

Behind, Alexander Albon spun to the inside wall after being hit by Sebastian Vettel trying to avoid the accident and collected Yuki Tsunoda, with Esteban Ocon was also involved in the collision. The race was immediately red flagged.

At the same time, a group of protesters stormed the circuit by climbing over the spectator fences. Thankfully, the race had already been stopped and any danger to life was minimised. Northamptonshire Police confirmed that protesters had been removed.

After a delay of almost an hour, the field took to the grid for the restart from their original starting grid positions, due to the immediacy of the red flag. This time, all of the top six starters opted for medium tyres.

When the lights went out for a second time, Verstappen again got a good start and jumped to the inside of Sainz into Abbey. However, Sainz held on and aggressively defended to keep the lead through the opening sequence of corners as, behind, Perez took third from Leclerc.

Into the Loop, Leclerc dived to the inside to retake third from Perez and the two made contact, with Perez also clipping the rear of Sainz’s Ferrari.

With damage to his front wing, Perez came under intense pressure from Lando Norris. At the end of lap five, Red Bull called Perez into the pit for a new front wing, dropping him down to 17th and last. With Perez out of the way, Hamilton overtook Norris into Brooklands to take fourth place.

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

Verstappen began to put Sainz under pressure for the lead of the race and appeared to be faster than the Ferrari. On lap ten, Sainz made a mistake through Becketts and ran off the circuit at Chapel, allowing Verstappen through into the lead of the race.

However, two laps later, Verstappen suddenly lost pace heading through the Maggotts, Becketts sequence and Sainz managed to get back through into the lead. Verstappen immediately pitted, reporting a puncture, which dropped him down to sixth position. Red Bull warned Verstappen that he had suffered bodywork damage and would suffer a performance loss for the rest of the race.

The two AlphaTauris were fighting over seventh place when Yuki Tsunoda tried a move to the inside of the tight Aintree corner. Tsunoda lost control of the rear of the car and collided with his team mate, sending both cars spinning and dropping them both towards the back of the field. Tsunoda was handed a five second time penalty for the collision.

With Verstappen now significantly behind the Ferraris, Sainz found himself with Leclerc in his mirrors. Sainz remained ahead until his pitted at the end of lap 20, rejoining in third place on the hard tyres.

Leclerc stayed out and began pushing to try and overcut his team mate when he eventually pitted. However, Hamilton – who was now up to second having not yet pitted – began to slowly catch up to the back of the now-leading Ferrari.

Hamilton got within DRS range of Leclerc on lap 25 and Ferrari called the leader into the pits at the end of the lap, moving him onto hard tyres. Leclerc resumed two seconds behind Sainz in third place, while Hamilton remained out on his old medium tyres.

Hamilton continued to match the Ferrari drivers on his old tyres, while Leclerc was getting increasingly anxious about the Mercedes ahead while stuck behind his team mate. Ferrari ordered Sainz to allow Leclerc by, which he did along the Wellington Straight.

Eventually, Hamilton pitted at the end of lap 33 for hard tyres, but a slightly delayed stop saw him rejoin behind the two Ferraris. That put Leclerc into the lead with a 1.7 second gap over Sainz, who was four seconds adrift of the second Ferrari.

After Hamilton’s tyres got up to temperature, he began to catch Sainz ahead. However, on lap 39, Esteban Ocon suddenly slowed through the first sector, eventually coming to a stop on the approach to Copse corner.

Ferrari told Leclerc to stay out, but brought Sainz in for soft tyres. Hamilton also pitted for softs, the pair both holding position and rejoining right behind leader Leclerc with much fresher tyres.

Before the race resumed with 10 laps remaining, Ferrari asked Sainz to leave a gap of ten car lengths to his team mate, but Sainz refused. When the green flags flew, Sainz took the lead along the Wellington Straight while, behind, Perez took fourth place from Hamilton.

When DRS was enabled, Perez tried to pass Leclerc around the outside of Vale and the two ran off circuit at Club, allowing Hamilton past the pair of them. Then, Perez dived back past Hamilton to retake second place, which also allowed Leclerc back through into third.

Hamilton fought hard to take third, passing Leclerc around the outside of Luffield, before Leclerc passed him back around the outside of Copse corner. Then, Hamilton used DRS to finally make the move stick along the Hangar Straight, taking the final podium place.

Sainz pulled away out front and checked off the final laps to take the chequered flag and his first career victory. Perez finished second almost four seconds behind, with Hamilton completing the podium with the fastest lap on the final lap.

Leclerc finished fourth, with Fernando Alonso fifth ahead of Lando Norris. Verstappen held onto seventh with some aggressive defending on the final lap from Mick Schumacher, who claimed his first career points in eighth. Sebastian Vettel and Kevin Magnussen rounded out the top ten.

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

2022 British Grand Prix reaction

    Check back shortly for more race reaction

Author information

Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

137 comments on “Sainz claims first win at Silverstone with late pass on Leclerc”

  1. Great result, unlucky for Charles but Carlito needed this.

    1. Unlucky? Incompetence seems to be rooted in Ferrari’s strategy team even though Rueda left years ago.

      How could they justify not stacking both cars? They did have plenty of time (commentators estimated 10 sec or so) and clearly the better call was running softs with 10 laps to go.

      They squandered a win for Charles (he’s still Max’s only challenger for wdc) and a 1-2 for the team.

      1. @gechichan even before that late safety car, you could argue that Ferrari was throwing the win away.

        They managed to create a situation where Sainz was repeatedly holding Leclerc up, which cost them time to Hamilton and put him into a position where, because he managed that long stint on the medium tyre, he had fresher tyres for that final stint and was catching up to the Ferrari’s before the safety car intervened.

        If there had been no safety car, they were already on course to squander the 1-2 result and probably would have thrown away the win – with or without the safety car, their strategies didn’t make much sense.

        1. That’s because their non-WDC driver is not obeying orders. If they put their non-WDC driver on a lesser strategy, people will start screaming they messed up the strategy for SAI (or whoever is in 2nd car) to favour LEC (or whoever is in 1st car). They had the same problem with VET and RAI too. This is just what spring to mind now, but remember Germany and France 2018, when the WDC contender VET would lose precious time behind RAI??

      2. @gechichan, the only thing I could think of was that they were splitting the strategy. If they’d both pitted and Hamilton sailed past without pitting, then they’d be giving up track position. Added to that, a stick wheel nut on the lead car could then drop both cars way down the field if more of them didn’t pit. So I figured they split the strategy so that no matter what Hamilton did, he’d still have at least one Ferrari ahead of him. That’s the best spin I’ve been able to put on it. Whatever the reason, it seems strange they pitted Sainz rather than Le Clerc.

        I also thought Merc didn’t do so great on strategy either. When Hamilton made his second stop, I thought they were going to put him on softs so he could quickly get a lead, and then hope he could hold it together for a few laps at the end when the tyres were shot.

        I guess it is just easier being an armchair strategist than it is doing it in the pits!

        1. @aland no, I don’t think Ferrari thought it out that much. Track position is not that important in Silverstone, it’s not Monaco, plus Lewis was on fairly old hard tires. It was never going to be a match for new softs that were switching on way faster than the hards.

    2. Not unlucky; this was the predictable result of predictably bad strategy calls by Ferrari.

    3. José Lopes da Silva
      3rd July 2022, 19:51

      It’s unlucky for Charles, yes, it’s not his direct responsibility. Charles’ sole responsibility was for not shoving Carlos to the grass earlier in the race and for not being able to put competent people in the strategy department.

    4. Ferrari hosed (screwed) Charles yet again.
      He was faster than Carlos despite broken win.
      They will find a way to lose WDC and/or WCC.
      Total chaos as usual. Unbelievable.

  2. Lucky win…..

    1. ……so, God knows when it will happen again!

    2. Nuckley Brake
      3rd July 2022, 17:49

      More the Carlos’ luck it was Ferrari’s blunder letting Charles out with old hards. They ruined an easy 1-2. But I’m glad Carlos got his maiden win.

    3. @mg1982

      Probably the least deserving race winner since Kovalainen’s Hungary race win in 2008 or massa’s 2008 Belgium race win.

      1. Good joke, pretty sure it was Abu Dhabi 21, I mean the race director didn’t change the regulations for Sainz to win

        1. Good joke. I would say Silverstone last year.

          1. Max already forced Hamilton wide at Brooklands on that same lap, he shouldn’t expect others to bail out when he won’t

          2. @James
            You should really watch the replay again. Max re-passed up the inside at Brooklands and was fully ahead when he closed the door on the outside. It was great racing between both of them until Lewis carried to much speed for his line (even when missing the apex by a cars width) into Copse and nearly killed Max. Zhou’s crash today at a slower speed just shows how lucky Max was last year.

      2. I think is a harsh comment @Todfod.

        Carlos took pole position. He made just one mistake in the race. He made a good start at the second attempt and took full advantage of having fresh, soft tires after the safety car restart. Congratulations to him I say on a pretty good performance.

        1. I totally agree. I’m amazed at the number of people unhappy with Sainz’s first win.

          1. José Lopes da Silva
            3rd July 2022, 19:54

            Failed the 1st start. Gave the lead to Verstappen. Cost time to Leclerc.
            I’m happy for Sainz, but this was definitely not his finest race.

        2. @phil-f1-21

          He lost his grid position before they went in to turn 1. Luckily for him there was some obscure rule that have him P1 at the restart. He then lost P1 again to Max a few laps after the restart. He was slower than his teammate driving a damaged car. He was slow enough to have a Mercedes put both him and Leclerc under pressure. If it wasn’t for the safety car.. He would have probably finished behind Lewis at the end of the race. So, if max didn’t have his problems.. On merit Sainz would probably have finished p4 after starting on pole twice.

          I think he had all the luck in the world to get that win today. Didn’t deserve it at all on Sunday.

          1. Nothing obscure about restarting in grid order @todfod.
            The timing of the red flag made it unavoidable – and apart from that, it’s the norm in pretty much every other series too.

          2. Ah, explains it, was surprised to see ocon so far ahead after the suspension damage he got and being dead last ofc. Agree it wasn’t that good a performance from sainz but was nice to see a driver after 150 races get his first pole and win at 1 day from each other.

  3. What a race!!! Congrats to Carlos!

    However, inconsistent stewarding hits again. Perez should be getting 5 seconds for cutting that corner and driving leclerc off the road. Same for Max and Mick, some extreme defending from Verstappen, and we’ve seen Alonso being penalized for less.

      1. Definitely for Max

    1. What about Leclerc doing a Playstation arcade mode move on Perez in the beginning damaging both cars and putting debris on track

      1. He did not go off-track, dude! That’s the difference between a legal (LEC) and an illegal move (PER).

        1. @mg1982 so it’s legal to drive into other cars? So long as you don’t go off the track? Oki.

          1. Drove into other cars?!? Just watch the replay, there was space on the inside, there’s no rule against that maneouver. It’s more like PER drove into him, he suddenly closed the door. It’s obvious from HAM’s car, LEC only followed the track on the inside, PER suddenly pulls to the left. Then, just look how SAI and especially VER took the corner (I mean wide/r), and you’ll realize PER’s approach is an unusual one too. Also, LEC damaged his car while PER was OK.

        2. He just drove into Perez. Had nothing to do with on or off track

          1. Just watch a replay, Perez closed the door as well so race incident

          2. I thought that too. Perez made a pretty aggressive move to the left as Charles was making the pass. Checo could have left slightly more room in my opinion. Sometimes if you force another car onto the kerbs, especially with these cars, you are asking for trouble.

      2. I don’t think it was as overly ambitious of Chuck as it looked from the short clip, from what I recall Perez changed line to tighten his path to the apex leaving much less room for the Ferrari – no real choice other than velocity.

    2. @njoydesign Perez did not drive Charles off the road, Charles drove himself off the road. But if you want to go that route, let’s give Charles the same penalty for driving into the RB on the restart. “Causing a collision”.

      1. You are absolutely determined not to see what’s directly in front of your eyes. Perez cut the corner, pushed himself wide and took Leclerc with him. It’s literally what happened, it’s black and white

        1. @apostle mhm.

          Perez cut the corner, slowed down. Charles drove himself off the track.

          Now, again, if you want to be so full it, let’s send Charles to the back for dive-bomb driving smack into the Red Bull earlier in the race?

          1. I’d penalise Leclerc too, as well as Verstappen.

            I’m not “full of it” because I disagree with you. We have our opinions and hold them tightly. Accept you can’t convert everyone to your own way of thinking.

          2. You are the @apostle after, all.

            /eyeroll

          3. @neiana

            No he didn’t. He cut the corner and rejoined the track Ina dangerous manner. Pushing Leclerc off the track. Losing them both positions. It was not only an illegal overtake.. But also a penalty for dangerous driving. I’m absolutely shocked that the stewards didn’t penalised him.

          4. @neiana

            Very mature.

      2. Primarily and 1st, it’s not about that, it’s about going off-track and gaining an advantage. Pushing off-track other driver is just “extra”.

    3. Indeed. From what I’ve heard the stewards are supposed to be taking a tougher stance on crowding off the track; that definitely wasn’t the case today. Perez literally cut the corner to force Leclerc off the track, Verstappen consistently pushed Schumacher off too. It’s like they’re scared of making a mistake so just do nothing

      1. Verstappen consistently pushed Schumacher off too.

        I think they’re still looking into this.
        5sec would probably cost him 3 places.

    4. Yeah that was a foul by Pérez and I think it didn’t get called because they both lost out to Hamilton, momentarily, which confuse the stewards. Verstappen on MSC was fine. I don’t know why people keep thinking this but there is NO obligation to leave room on the outside of a corner. That rule is for straights when you block and make your one move back to the line.

    5. @njoydesign @mg1982
      Leclerc went off at the Stowe exit, which helped him stay ahead into Vale, so if Perez should get penalized, so should Leclerc equally.

    6. Thats why you let them race good call from the stewards. If nit they would have to penalize almost the whole top 10 because everebody was kn or over the limit at some point. Great race no interferance of unnecesarry penalty’s if youbaske me

  4. Seems Ric is destined for the bone yard

  5. petebaldwin (@)
    3rd July 2022, 17:36

    Driver of the Weekend will be an interesting one this time. No idea who I’d vote for at the moment.

    1. I guess I’d go for Hamilton; he was constantly there and seemed to get the most out of his car.
      Verstappen was close, but lost it the way he defended against Schumacher.

      1. DotD was Hamilton, in my opinion. Without SC he would have had substantial tyre advantage to crawl back and challenge for the win without Perez threatening behind. He did a great job keeping up with the leading cars and opening that tyre advantage. Then at the end, great fighting all around, hard clean fight, including with Leclerc at Copse (you know what I mean).

  6. Those fans in the stands certainly didn’t deserve such a great race and Lewis’ podium.

    1. The biggest crowd in Silverston’s history, of course they deserved it.

      I think with the pending crack down on ‘Flexing Floors’, i think the championship is still open for the Mercedes to make it a close run thing. Watch out for a sudden reduction in form for the Redbulls…

      1. They are not, because RedBull has already said it will not be a problem for them.

        And you are only suggesting conjecture. You’ve heard something there about RedBull and Ferrari, and it’s a mere rumor. You can booing Vestappen, nothing more.

        1. I’m sorry that the British fans booed but can you not label us all in the same boat. There will be many fans at Silverstone that are British that support Red Bull and many more that maybe don’t but still appreciate the talent of Max, Sergio and the full team. I will always condone booing towards any driver as I find it rude but I will not hold a full nation responsible due to it.

          1. Just don’t let the media later say it’s the best audience, because that’s spitting in the face of fans from Japan, for example.

            In general Croft’s comments over the weekend were cheeky. But they are already so blinded that they don’t see it. I respect Martin Brundle a lot, I hope he will not change and will always be fair in what he does.

          2. petebaldwin (@)
            3rd July 2022, 19:01

            @chase423 – It was my first full race with the Channel 4 coverage and it was excellent compared to Sky. I’d highly recommend watching that if you can when it’s on live.

            I’m 50/50 on whether to cancel Sky and just watch highlights on Channel 4 when it’s not live going forward… Listening to people who understand F1 talk during a race made it so much more enjoyable to watch.

  7. Great race and congrats to Sainz. It still annoys me that drivers can just walk a driver out on the outside of a corner. If a driver has to leave a car’s width on entry then you should have to leave a car’s width on the outside, this just sliding out when it’s clear they are just essentially pushing them to the outside shouldn’t be a thing anymore.

    1. I’ve said the same thing for years. The rules explicitly forbid crowding off the track, but it’s considered totally acceptable when a car attempts an overtake on the outside. Either you have to leave a car’s width or you don’t.

    2. @rob8k it shouldn’t have been a thing when Hamilton beat Nico to a couple championships by doing exactly that, but what’re you going to do? Suddenly not allow it now that Hamilton isn’t winning?

      1. Thanks for the nonsense reply, Hamilton did it at the start of the race and I have said the same thing for years but just pick a narrative that suits your “I hate this driver” argument. I have no issues with any driver, I enjoy all 20 of them. I just have issue that the rules need to be updated and enforced to ensure proper racing.

    3. They can’t. It’s explicitly forbidden in the FIA Code to crowd people out.

      But as usual, F1 is stuck with poor race directors and part-time stewards who seem instructed to never penalize anyone beyond a meaningless 5 second time penalty.

    4. I have been saying the same for some time as well. The rule could be made both simpler and fairer in being the same for corner entry and for corner exit. In both cases the racing line is going from one side of the track to the other. Is is very strange that on entry you can claim the racing line when being less than half a car length behind, but on exit you have to be fully alongside or ahead.

  8. Miltiadis (@miltosgreekfan)
    3rd July 2022, 17:39

    If we exclude the shocking incident at turn 1(and the mayhem that followed),this race was the best of the season.

    Sainz managed to take his first win in a weekend where he managed to be consistent, albeit not the quickest driver there. He made a significant mistake in the race, didn’t have the pace of the wingless Leclerc but got his inaugural win.

    I still can’t understand the decision of not boxing Leclerc. I can’t find a good explanation…. Leclerc could have won 20 points over Verstappen but in the end he only got 6 over the Dutch driver. Great weekend by Hamilton as well.

    Really happy to see Zhou being totally healthy at the end of the race, that’s the most important thing.

    As for the first lap incident, i think Russell has a big part of the blame and he should be penalised for the upcoming race. It reminded me,in a lesser extent, the notorious Spa 2012 incident.

    Also, Haas scored their first double points finish since ages and Mick Schumacher scored his first points in his career

    1. Sainz managed to take his first win in a weekend where he managed to be consistent

      Happy for Carlos, but I’m not that impressed with his weekend.
      He got pole only because Leclerc spun and that impacted Verstappen;
      He lost his 1st start;
      He was a bit too aggressive on his 2nd start;
      He lost it when in the lead;
      He held up his team(mate) when Hamilton was closing in;
      He was lucky that Perez held Hamilton up a the final restart, otherwise he might not have kept on to the win;
      He didn’t keep his FLAP (probably smart knowing the mistake he made earlier).

      1. Miltiadis (@miltosgreekfan)
        3rd July 2022, 18:55

        I agree, he didnt have the pace of the other 2(Ver-Lec) but somehow everything went his way(on both days). Hopefully he can get better in the upcoming races ,as im sure he got a great psychological boost

    2. Not sure if Russell was to blame there. His only fault was making a bad start. Gasly took a huge risk trying to squeeze into a barely car width gap. I think that was such a high risk move that didn’t have any gain for anybody including himself.

      1. Miltiadis (@miltosgreekfan)
        3rd July 2022, 19:01

        I kindly disagree, i have a big dislike for the so called ”Schumacher chop” and Russell did that(to a much smaller extend). It’s a bit like Singapore 2017(there are other incidents as well but this is the most notable one), one guy gets a bad start and starts to move to the left side to cover any ground possible. Russell on hards made a poor start,went to the left to try and cover his position but the fast starting Gasly was committed and Zhou paid the price…

        1. @miltosgreekfan I don’t think Russell made that big a move, no more than the move Zhou was making on the other side. If either of them had moved the other way, Gasly would have fitted into the gap, so I don’t think it is as clear cut as you suggested. I’ve certainly seen far more aggressive defending off the start many times. At the start when everyone is bunched together, drivers are having to look forwards at cars a fraction of a second up the road from them so they probably are not spending that much time looking backwards. I think it was even worse today because with three tyre compounds in use, there was more variation in speed of cars off the line than usual.

          1. Miltiadis (@miltosgreekfan)
            4th July 2022, 6:10

            Zhou kept a pretty stable line(bar moving slightly to avoid the rocket starting Latifi),but didn’t move his direction at all before reaching turn 1.

            Regarding Russell,it you can see the explanation that Karun Chandhok did on the Skypad, you’ll understand a bit more of my thinking. Russell checked his mirrors 3 times(2 on the left and 1 on the right side) and still kept coming towards the left side. I don’t know if he misjudged the whole situation or if he expected Gasly to back out of it, but he really caused the most of it.

            Indeed the grip difference was too significant and having someone starting on hards and the next car starting on softs wasn’t ideal in this specific race

  9. Verstappan should start organizing his championship party after today.

    There’s no way they’re being beaten by this crazy men’s house that is Ferrari.

    Unbelievable strategies and choices. Poor Charles.

    1. It was spectacularly bad. Not once, not twice, but three times in one race did Ferrari manage to make the obvious wrong call for Leclerc.

      And with Ferrari developing so slowly that they’re falling back into the clutches of Mercedes, Red Bull is going to wrap both championships up long before the last race.

  10. So happy for Carlos and Mick, as well as Zhou for getting out of that crash safe. Ham was on it today and it’s just so refreshing to see a three car battle for first. That late safety car spiced up things beautifully. And what a drive from Checo. This is by far the best race so far this season.

  11. Short of Hamilton winning, i couldn’t have wished for a better result.

    Both the B drivers taking points off their respective Team leaders, add to that Ferrari taking points off the championship leaders RedBull.

    This result draws the leaders back and gives hope to the chasers. Even Hamilton copped a massive break in his team mate.

  12. Great race, too bad for Max that he picked up damage. Luckily Ferrari don’t want Leclerc to win the WDC so only a handful of points lost.

    1. Ferrari is doing what it’s best at; F up their strategy and team orders.

  13. Overall, an exciting race, especially the last ten laps.
    I’m happy Sainz finally got his maiden win, but Ferrari blew up Leclerc’s win chance in an issue-full race for Max.

    1. I’m also happy for Mick finally getting his maiden points-finish.

  14. Absolutely loved that Sainz told his team to stuff it when they wanted him to play tail gunner at the restart. Forza Carlos!

  15. This race was like watching one of aarava’s MyTeam career mode videos, and I’m not entirely sure it wasn’t exactly that. We just need his commentary over the race and it’ll be complete.

    I think this had to have been one of the craziest races I’ve seen in a very long time. And big note, too, that you had 4 wide for a moment, then all kinds of close racing, and minimal damage despite LeClerc’s best efforts. It’s strange to see how Verstappen can be part of a melee like that and not get sent off. Just a little cheeky here to enrage the Lewis club. Hamilton drove a fantastic race and it’s good to see Merc at least within “NO MIKEY NO!!!” distance of the top teams, again.

  16. Was the pass for the lead ever actually shown? Again abysmal race direction. Slow pans to empty track, same miserable work as yesterday.

  17. Great racing allover the place.

    And championship got closer.

    Any fan of racing should be happy.

  18. Never seen Leclerc so down. He was literally fuming in the interview in Canal+ and responded with a single word to every question. First, the team screwed him when he was faster than Sainz but didn’t let him pass despite his front wing damage.

    Then leaving him exposed at the end of the race with 10 laps to go on the hard tyres is the usual icing on the cake. Even if he would have lost the position to both Carlos and Lewis, he would have restarted the race with a new front wing. Podium was guaranteed but they threw it away. By the way they could have asked Carlos to slow down and pit Leclerc a lap after.

    1. He knows the championship is over when Ferrari can’t even cash in on a gifted 1-2 finish.

    2. Mark in Florida
      3rd July 2022, 19:09

      (@tifoso1989) It got me a little angry the way that Mattia was waving his finger in Charles face. He’s got a lot of nerve to seemingly threaten Charles when they were the ones that messed up Charles race. They wanted to mess up Sainz race to try and correct their earlier botched non call to the pits for Charles. Their team management has went from bad to worse as the season has progressed. They are throwing away any chance that Charles has of winning the championship from Max. RedBull sends their thanks Mattia, you’re their best employee.

      1. I had the same sentiment when I saw Mattia waving the finger in Charles’ face. He has some gall to reprimand a driver who he has screwed over multiple times this season already. Mattia needs to learn a thing or two from Toto in how to manage the driver who can win championships.

        The first head that needs to roll at Ferrari is Mattia Binotto. I can’t see Leclerc racing for him for much longer.

        1. Mark in Florida, @todfod
          I couldn’t agree more !

        2. Where could leclerc go though? Mercedes has 2 top drivers, unless hamilton retires soon, red bull might not want 2 alphas, especially as perez is doing a great number 2 job and the other cars aren’t competitive.

    3. You’re right, their decisions… or lack of decisions…. is kinda weird. Also it seems they pick up bad 2nd drivers, who actually can’t but don’t want to play 2nd and give any help either. 20 years ago they had Barrichello, who just wanted to make an international drama the 1st time they asked him to help MS. Massa wasn’t that far either. Now they have SAI, who makes a big fusss on the radio and create a bigger controversial situation that it actually was. On other hand, BOT and PER are much more capable and really help their team mates, indirectly or not, also they’re kinda quiet. Ferrari seems to be bad at picking up 2nd drivers too, they’re useless but with big mouths.

      1. In barrichello’s defense, that particular team order was unreasonable, but I agree, there’s not ONE title barrichello would’ve won if it weren’t for team orders, there’s the special 1999 occasion where he would have, but he came a year late.

  19. Ferrari once again does a Ferrari. In the life of me i don’t get how they left Leclerc out with hard tyres. They need to hire a real strategist and get rid of the PlayStation one they got now.
    They were cheering because their championship contender driver came 4th. They could have easily do a 1-2 today.

    1. They need to hire a real strategist and get rid of the PlayStation one they got now.

      A magic 8-ball will do a better strategy than what they are doing.

    2. Ferrari is just clueless. There’s no other way to evaluate today’s race. Every single strategy call for Leclerc was one they messed up, despite it being obvious to every fan and commentator.

  20. Smiles and smiles after a super thrilling, top quality race. Great to hear Zhou is alright. Hopefully Albon is alright. Pity about George. What stands out is the respect between these real racers (Sainz, Charles, Hamilton, and on the limit with Perez). The critical fact is that this great racing does not feature Max Verstappen who in fact demonstrated his usual low level, basic intelligent shove to Mick S as is his won’t. Great to see supporters enjoyed so much.

    1. Mmm, I’ve seen some great racing between verstappen and leclerc earlier this year.

  21. Can you imagine Red Bull leaving Verstappen out on worn tyres while calling Perez for brand new softs?

    Neither can i.

    Leclerc should take a look at the market before it’s to late and he wastes his prime with these guys.

    1. Again, like I answered someone else, where is leclerc supposed to go? Unless hamilton retires, I don’t see a spot at a decent team.

  22. That’s it folks. Tune in next week for another episode of ‘How Ferrari will mess up Leclerc’s Race’ with guaranteed 100 new ways and shenanigans.

    1. @knightameer

      I’m going to make a guess and say they’ll try and compensate for previous mistakes by attempting an undercut with Charles.. Only to release him in to heavy traffic and lose any chance of winning the race.

      They haven’t lost a race in that manner.. So I’m guessing that’s their new plan for Austria.

      1. New and easier way for them to mess up Leclerc’s race. Binotto can then wag his finger against Charles and say see we tried to help you this time around

  23. I will borrow the quote of legendary Nando and re-adjust it a bit:

    “Charles, so how’s the strategy? How’s the strategy.”
    “Amasing. Much less competent than before.”

    In 19 years of watching F1 I haven’t seen such gross imcompetence in handling the strategy of the championship contender over the whole race. It’s as if Ferrari didn’t want Leclerc to be their leading driver, and some commercial agreements in the background had their say. Binotto is a disaster for this team.

    1. It’d be “the strategy feels much worse than before, amazing!”, but interesting quote indeed.

  24. Sounded like the British crowd booed Perez on the podium. It confirms that the British fans are the worst!

    1. Dont know, maybe the worst thing that can happen to a driver is not getting booed but having his car Tboned by a guy who complained about being booed.

    2. They’re still sour Perez held Hamilton up in Abu Dhabi. What a heroic defense was that!

      1. “That’s some dangerous driving man”
        *actually nearly killed another driver at Copse himself.

    3. @filge90 The only booing I heard was for Nadine Dorries, UK Culture Secretary, which is fair enough tbh. She was presenting the winner’s trophy. The boos turned to cheers as soon as Sainz got his hands on the silverware.

    4. petebaldwin (@)
      3rd July 2022, 19:07

      Booing is fine – what will be funny though is the disbelief and fury from the British fans and press when Hamilton is booed at Zandvoort.

    5. Don’t demand too much from people whose main commentator on the largest broadcast television undermines the referees’ decision and tries to rewrite history as if the Dutchman was to blame for the last year Copse HAM-VER incident. It was Hamilton who received the penalty and was blamed. A brief reminder and request to remove Sky’s commentary from F1 TV.

      1. Lewis held a tighter line into Copse against Leclerc but had the audacity to say Charles was a fairer driver than Max. Charles took the same line as Max did and left the same room on the inside.
        I don’t get why he is trying to justify his actions a year later.

        1. Get over it. He got a 10 second penalty that dropped him to P7. Too bad for max fans that he came back and won. I find it hilarious that Max fans will complain about that move in to cope when max has been pulling the same kind of moves his entire career.

          BTW, im not a Lewis fan and I was actually supporting Max all of last season.

          I’d also like to hear what you have to say about Max intentionally taking Hamilton out at Monza.

          1. That penalty was obviously irrelevant, it was pretty likely hamilton would win the second he got the penalty!

    6. Imagine hamilton say, after seeing that “we got the worst fans here!”, and everyone in the crowd looking down depressed!

  25. Terrible race direction and stewarding again. Perez needed one if not two 5s penalties for those off track and crowding shenanigans. When will F1 get decent camera angles and actually show the racing live?

    Gutted for Leclerc – with the right strategy this would have been an easy points haul over Verstappen. Undone by his own team on multiple occasions; can’t help but think Sainz has a “no no2 driver” clause in his newly extended contract that they’re scared of.

    Brilliant coverage by Channel 4. Monger in the passenger seat of a McLaren driven by a paralysed driver was equally entertaining as it was heartwarming. Hats off to Sam, seemed a really top chap.

    1. Yes, at least a 5 sec penalty was what I was expecting for perez.

  26. On a positive note for Leclerc, his overtake around the outside of Hamilton at Copse corner on those old hard tyres was one of the best moves I’ve seen for a long time, akin to Mansell vs Berger in Mexico and Alesi vs Senna at Phoenix from the 1990 season.

  27. With a bit of luck it became a great race, otherwise people just had too hard a time to overtake even with DRS. Ocon deserves a penalty for a dangerous parking, he lost power some time before the pits.

    Nice to see the consistency from the stewards, rightly timed orange and black for Leclerc…oh wait, he wasn’t driving a Haas. Anyways great to see points for Mick and to know that Zhou is alright after one of the most insane crashes i’ve seen. The halo isn’t too bad…

  28. McLaren must seriously look at replacing Riccardo. Maybe a swap with Sainz would suit both camps?

    Ferrari get a number 2 driver and McLaren a half decent one.

    1. I think Bottas at Ferrari and Sainz at Mclaren is a better move. Based on current performance, Ricciardo at alfa seems like a fair move.

    2. Ricciardo looks like he is done. You need to beat the midfielders just to be able to be the #2 driver. In a better car than most he is still failing to beat the Haas’ and Aston Martins regularly. Second worst performer of the year after Latifi, that doesn’t earn you a top seat. Norris looks like the best bet at Ferrari in terms of a bigger swap, Bottas is ageing, though I understand Todfod idea about him, a true #2.

      1. The thing with bottas is he can perform decently while being a number 2, though I don’t think he’s an upgrade on sainz as he’s doing lately.

  29. I’m glad for Sainz! He’s certainly not the brightest of the new generation, but he has the hunger, and this is good enough to respect a top driver.

  30. Terrible race for Ferrari. Their engineers on the radio to both drivers sound like absolute idiots with zero clue about what to do. The clear move should have been to get Sainz out of the way and have him hold up those behind, while Charles sails off into the distance.

    Leclerc is Ferraris only hope of a championship and the quicker Ferrari realise this the better it will be for all. Especially Sainz who needs to know his place and stop thinking he’ll be anything other than a number two. Beta dogs in a pack are much more relaxed when they know who the alpha is.

  31. Race stewards are back to Abu Dhabi 2021 mode allowing redbull to get a way with cheating again . ‘carlos slim jr-jr’ aka Perez crowding Lewis and cut the corner to force Leclerc off the track to gain an advantage deserved a 5 second penalty, Wunderkind Verstappen also pushed Schumacher off knowing that Mick will not risk points going wheel to wheel.
    Also people forgot the max most likely broke the pit speed limit when he locked up going in for his first pit stop (driving over the pit exit line at Monaco was not penalised either )

    No wonder the rb drivers get booed. British fans want all drivers treated equally but the Milton Keynes based energy drink team get a free ride again and again..

    1. Thinking about it, verstappen had less to lose than schumacher in this race, that’s clever thinking, didn’t realise at first (as in verstappen is very likely to win the title no matter what, schumacher lost chances for his first points finish many times before).

  32. Coventry Climax
    3rd July 2022, 23:34

    I seriously feel for Williams and Albon. Vettel back into his old self again, nothing Albon could have done about it.
    Williams manage to put new parts on just one car, they know it will take some time to make the most of it and need all the data they can get and then they end up with none. Very sour for them indeed.

    Stewarding: I could have sworn I saw a “Verstappen incident – causing a collision” notice, where the replay showed Verstappen actually drove very clean. Race control themselves now unable to distinguish between cars?

    1. A conspiracy theorist might think vettel did it on purpose, in order to handicap their rivals!

  33. So Räikkönen will remain Ferrari’s last champion another season. Nice.

    Red Bull now have the relief that even if they screw up, they get unlucky with mechanical issues or on-track events, even if Verstappen makes a mistake, Ferrari will do their absolute best to throw away the gift.

    1. Thnaks for the good laugh. Hahahahaha! Ferrari need to hire strategists from outside Italy.

      1. That’s the problem. Both head of the strategy department and the man responsible for the strategy calls are Spanish and British respectively.

        1. @tifoso1989

          Maybe the problem lies with the person overriding their orders.. aka Binotto.

          1. @todfod
            Binotto is the n°1 responsible since he is the team principle. I doubt if Briatore or Todt were in charge we would have witnessed the circus we are witnessing this season. I’m really curious to know in details what’s going behind the scenes. Normally all the scenario strategic wise are thoroughly discussed before the race so the team will have a clear idea of what to do in every case and take decisions on the fly.

            In Ferrari you have the feeling that this is not the case. From the discussion with Leclerc and his engineer you can conclude that the scenario where Leclerc was faster than Sainz wasn’t even discussed prior to the race and that there is some sort of validation in the process when he told him “I’ll get back to you”.

  34. Don’t even say it’s Schumacher who will save them

    1. It was meant as a reply @casjo

Comments are closed.