Carlos Sainz, at last, embraced the glory of victory in F1. It has taken 151 races, 8 seasons, but the opportunity of Silverstone, starting from pole, he made the most of it to score his first victory after a tough fight with his teammate Charles Leclerc and numerous mishaps: an initial red flag, a puncture Max Verstappen, the transfer of the position to his neighbor and a timely safety car at the end that favored him. Nine years later, a Spaniard triumphs in F1.
After 56 minutes of stopping the race due to Guanyu Zhou’s hair-raising accident at the start, the race resumed for the second time from a standstill on the grid, with the same positions as the first time, that is, with Sainz on pole and Verstappen at his side.
On this occasion, Sainz defended his privileged position like a wild boar from the harassment of Verstappen, who wore the same yellow tires. In equal rubber conditions, the man from Madrid maintained the first position bravely, cornering Max against the wall, closing the gaps for Red Bull, to start opening a gap with his good traction. Losing the duel, the Dutchman had to defend himself against Leclerc, with whom he had a contact at turn 6. Behind, Pérez was fourth, Norris fifth, Hamilton sixth, and Alonso lost a position to Gasly.
The animation continued in the first laps. Pérez came out of the pit-stop and fell to 16th place, disappearing from the fight, Alonso gained the position from Gasly (he was already 6th) and Hamilton moved up to 4th by overtaking Norris with the howl of Silverstone. And in front, Verstappen did not let go of the dam, very close to Sainz, less than a second, in the zone to be able to open the DRS and test the overtaking. “He is a little faster,” admitted the Spaniard on the radio, fearing the worst.
Verstappen’s pressure paid off. Sainz succumbed to the harassment and made a mistake, going slightly off the track, onto the grassy strip, in the zone of linked curves (10-12) on lap 10. The Dutchman took advantage of the gift and snatched the first position from him. The lead had lasted just 10 laps for the man from Madrid.
But Sainz’s luck changed two laps later. A puncture by Verstappen, who stepped on a piece of carbon fiber, made it easier for Sainz and Leclerc to overtake, while the Dutchman had to go out to change tires and fell to 6th place. The Dutchman reported problems with his tires and the steering. “This car is 100% broken,” he reported on the radio.
Shadows grew for Sainz. His teammate Leclerc was squeezing him, 0.3s behind (lap 15), and Hamilton began to smell blood from his third position, 4.7s behind the Monegasque, and intimidated with a couple of best laps in the race. Norris was fourth and Alonso, fifth, in front of a Verstappen who continued to have problems, further and further away.
Hamilton at times became a threat to both Ferraris. With his third best lap of the race he was close to 3.1s behind Sainz. “We need you to push harder”, they told the man from Madrid on the radio, seeing that the Englishman was dangerously close and that Leclerc was strong and complained about being braked.
Ferrari put the strategy into practice. The first stop, lap 21, was for Sainz (2.5s), who rejoined third, ahead of Norris. Leclerc took the provisional lead, squeezed by Hamilton, who repelled him 3 tenths with a better pace and approached up to 0.9s, in the DRS zone. Leclerc avoided it by entering the pit-stop on lap 26, five later than his partner. The Monegasque rejoined third, behind Sainz and Hamilton, who had not yet stopped.
The English was in its decisive laps. If he put enough time on Sainz (he had him at 17.9s) he could snatch the lead on his return from the pit-stop. Hamilton asked to stay on the track to extend the stop. And meanwhile, Leclerc returned to the charge, crushing Sainz, 1 second away. “Freedom to fight,” Ferrari told them over the radio. If they began to fight among themselves, the beneficiary would be the Mercedes.
The Italian team pressured Sainz. “You have to do a 32.2 or we’ll change position,” he threatened. Leclerc approached and Sainz closed the position. The red fight had broken out on lap 31. The success of the race would depend on Ferrari’s management. “We exchanged position.” “Understood,” replied the man from Madrid, who became third on lap 31 so that Leclerc could shoot with a better pace. When Hamilton stopped two laps later, the Monegasque took the lead and the Madrid native was the pursuer, although he was dropping lap by lap, 2.6s, 3, 4… Hamilton, with a very high pace, threatened him with second place.
The script completely changed on lap 40. A breakdown of Ocon and his Alpine in the middle of the track led to the appearance of a safety car, which led the teams to bring their drivers to the pit-stop. Everyone except Leclerc, who was a leader for a reason. “Don’t invent, don’t invent, please,” Carlos said by radio to his team when he suggested that he leave distance with Leclerc. Evidently he ignored it.
So Sainz, with new soft tires, and in the same second position, won a final opportunity to attack the leadership of the Monegasque, with hard used 14 laps. He had 11 turns to do it.
The last assault was uneven, favoring Sainz and Hamilton to attack Leclerc. As soon as the safety car disappeared, with 10 laps on the scoreboard, the man from Madrid jumped on top of the Monegasque, and also Checo Pérez on Hamilton. In a couple of corners, Sainz aggressively overtook Leclerc -who offered resistance even from the outside and with hard-, and at the same time, the Mexican overtook the Englishman.
Sainz opened a gap of 2 seconds in two laps. He had eight laps ahead of him to savor his first victory. He was 4 seconds behind with six laps to go, while behind him the fight was four between Pérez, Leclerc, Hamilton and Alonso for two podium places. The Mexican took the cat to the water to score the second drawer, while Hamilton snatched third place from a Leclerc of survival with the hard ones. Alonso finished 5th.
Carlos Sainz was happy when he got out of the car, although very calm despite the emotion of the moment: “I don’t know what to say, I couldn’t ask for more. Thanks to everyone for the support. It hasn’t been easy, I had problems with the balance of the car. I thought I could do it. The safety car gave me a second chance, you can imagine the nerves when it left”, explained Sainz at the end of the race. “Silverstone is a special place for me.” He will remember it all his life.
