Carlos Sainz’s first victory

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The circuit is surrounded by clouds 15 minutes from the start. If we have showers, we will have a spectacular GP. If it’s dry, we think Verstappen will fly away and be untouchable.

Sainz took his first pole position yesterday in the rain. Today, the Ferraris are starting on the clean side of the track and that could work in their favour. The start could be hot as often at Silverstone. On the strategies, we could only have one stop, if there is no rain. Latifi put on the red tires hoping for rain. Verstappen too. Russell on his side is in hard, the others of the TOP10 in yellow (medium).

Departure number 1

Huge start from Verstappen who takes the lead in front of Sainz. Hamilton also left like a cannonball and overtook Leclerc. A car rolls over! It’s Zhou’s! Red flag!

We see Russell on foot, Albon stationary, Tsunoda without his front muzzle. Ocon has the right front suspension that opens. He tries to return to the stand. After long minutes, the news is reassuring, Zhou was extracted from his car which crossed the tarmac area without slowing down and wedged itself against the protective tires.

On the images, we see Gasly who inserts himself between Zhou and Russell and Russell who deviates to the left and spins off and collides with Zhou who rolls over and goes over the tire barrier! The fences stopped him otherwise it would end up in the audience.

As a result, Bottas braked, Albon too but was hit by surprised Vettel, Albon hit the wall and came back on the track, hit by Tsunoda. In the end, we are torn between bitumen and gravel because the car does not slow down at all on the “roof” on the asphalt. And once on the gravel, the car rolls over and takes off over the tires. We came close to a tragedy.

Another monstrous debility, “protesters” entered the track. The red flag was already raised. It could have been so dramatic. The news from Zhou is good. No fracture, nothing. He remains under observation. The images of the car are impressive because the roll bar collapsed, the Halo did not (phew!).

Departure number 2

The Alpine d’Ocon has been repaired. Pretty impressive as it came in with a smashed suspension. Finally Sainz is back on pole for this 2nd start. In fact we start again on the initial grid. Verstappen does not repeat the red rubber bet. On the other hand Latifi yes. Tsunoda and Gasly start in red, Vettel too.

Sainz starts correctly, but Verstappen starts better. The Spaniard is aggressive and pushes the Dutchman on the curb. It goes. Behind, Leclerc hits Perez, there is carbon flying. Norris makes the outside to Hamilton and passes him. Gasly is 7th in soft. Ocon also made a very good start and is 10th. Perez has a big chunk of front wing less.

Sainz widened the gap and put him out of the DRS zone. On the other hand, Norris and Hamilton are close to Perez. Perez returns at the end of the 5th lap. Hamilton passes Norris with the DRS. The rain has gone away and we should stay dry. Verstappen is closing in on Sainz. At Perez we started again in mediums and we will therefore have to stop again.

Tower 10/52

Sainz misses out of Becketts/Chapel. Verstappen passes it. Another “dumpling” from Carlos. Stupid Tsunoda who attempts an attack on Gasly and spins. He sends Gasly spinning too. Stupid because both were in the points. On lap 12, Verstappen got a slow tire puncture. The two Ferraris pass it. We put yellow rubber back on and there will therefore be a new stop. It must be said that there is debris everywhere on the track.

Verstappen is still complaining on the radio despite the new tyres. Alonso is 5th with Verstappen behind him. Tsunoda takes 5 seconds penalty. Verstappen is told that it is the aero which is affected, but not the structure of the car. Leclerc complains on the radio and asks his team to “do something”. Hamilton returns to the Ferraris.

Sainz is being asked to push more. It smacks of the stable instruction that is about to fall “let Leclerc pass”. In the end, we brought in Sainz at the end of the 20th lap.

Tower 21/52

We put on hard rubber for Sainz who has to go all the way with it. He leaves in front of Norris. Well done Ferrari! Bottas gives up. Even rid of Sainz, Leclerc is not faster than Hamilton. Ocon and Magnussen go through the pits, Latifi and Schumacher had done the same before. Verstappen returns to the pits on lap 24 and we put the tough guys on him. Tough guys don’t work today. They are the toughest in the range. Leclerc returns to the pits at the end of the 25th lap.

Hamilton takes the lead in the GP. We put the tough guys in Leclerc, but we don’t change his front wing. Sainz passes Leclerc. For Gasly, it was the abandonment on the 28th lap. At AlphaTauri we can blame ourselves.

Round 30/52

Ocon passes Latifi. The Frenchman takes 9th place, the Canadian hangs on to the last point. At Ferrari they set Carlos a lap time of 1:32.2. If he does not he will have to let Leclerc pass. We are fighting against Hamilton and for the moment Ferrari is losing time. It’s done on the 31st lap, we traded. Zhou is discharged from the medical center and declared “fit.” We are awaiting news of Albon who would be evacuated to the hospital. He slammed into the wall head-on before being rammed from the side by Tsunoda.

Well, Latifi came out of the points. Schumacher passed it. First points for the German? Hamilton almost wide for a ‘free’ stoppage. We put hard, stop of 4.3 seconds. Too long. The two Ferraris are “far” ahead. We will have to heat the rubbers now. Leclerc is finally not doing better than Sainz for the moment.

Ocon is in Verstappen’s DRS zone? The Red Bull seems to dance in front of the Alpine. But the Frenchman doesn’t have enough speed despite the DRS. He ends up passing after 2 laps behind. Ocon is 8th, Alonso still 6th. Schumacher could also attack Verstappen. For Leclerc, it seems to be working tire-wise. And since Sainz was asked to save 2% gas. What about Ocon? He is ironed by Verstappen and is under immediate threat from Schumacher.

The Alpine is stuck on the old straight and it’s going to be a safety car. Here it is. Sainz and Hamilton pit. These are the tender ones. Leclerc did not go through the pits. We considered that Sainz was morally the 1st? Perez is also tender. Stroll didn’t come home either? It has very worn hard tires. It’s a bit of a lost cause.

Tower 40/52

We should have 10 green flag laps. Amazing reboot. But on soft tires Sainz ends up passing Leclerc. Perez passed Hamilton. Leclerc is under threat from Perez. Alonso sees Hamilton just ahead. Stroll is out of the points and the “little” Schumacher is 9th! The first points for him? Nice battle between Hamilton and Perez.

Perez has the DRS but Leclerc resists. It’s silly and it’s Hamilton who passes them. But it’s not over because Perez attacks again, like Leclerc. And Alonso who returns. Schumacher is 8th after passing Vettel. Hamilton and Leclerc meet, meet again. That’s wonderful !

Schumacher is in the exhaust of Verstappen who still resists for 7th place. Alonso is unable to pass Leclerc despite the DRS. The end of the race is tense between Verstappen and Schumacher. Verstappen is limited several times. But keeps his 7th place.

Victory for Sainz!

Checkered flag. Sainz finally wins his first Grand-Prix after 150 starts. He may have made a “dumpling” in the race and have been demoted by his team to let Lecerc pass, the Spaniard wins and did not steal this victory. The end of the race with the safety car gave a crazy last 10 laps.

Hamilton hangs on the podium even though he no doubt glimpsed the potential victory. The Mercedes works better, but is it the circuit or the novelties? Sainz is the 112th different Grand-Prix winner in F1. Sainz will not break Perez’s record for the most GPs before the 1st victory: 190 for Perez, 150 for Sainz.

Note that Perez and Leclerc were noted by the race commission because they went out of bounds. And Perez pushed Hamilton off the track afterwards. Penalty or not?

Position	Pilot	Stable
1	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari
2	Sergio PEREZ	Red Bull Racing
3	Lewis HAMILTON	mercedes
4	Charles LECLERC	Ferrari
5	Fernando ALONSO	Alpine
6	Lando NORRIS	McLaren
7	Max VERSTAPPEN	Red Bull Racing
8	Mick Schumacher	Haas F1 Team
9	Sebastian VETTEL	Aston Martin
10	Kevin MAGNUSSEN	Haas F1 Team
11	Lance STROLL	Aston Martin
12	Nicholas LATIFI	williams
13	Daniel RICCIARDO	McLaren
14	Yuki TSUNODA	Alpha Tauri
15	Esteban OCON	Alpine
16	Pierre Gasley	Alpha Tauri
17	Valtteri BOTTAS	Alfa Romeo
18	George Russell	mercedes
19	Guanyu Zhou	Alfa Romeo
20	Alexander ALBON	williams

Pilot provisional classification

Verstappen retains the championship lead. His pursuers are getting closer. Sainz overtakes Russell for 4th place. Alonso takes advantage of Ocon’s water pump failure to get back on him a bit.

Pos	Pilot	PTS
1	Max Verstappen VER	181
2	Sergio Perez PER	147
3	Charles Leclerc LEC	138
4	Carlos Sainz SAI	127
5	George Russell RUS	111
6	Lewis Hamilton HAM	93
7	Lando Norris NOR	58
8	Valtteri Bottas BOT	46
9	Esteban Ocon OCO	39
10	Fernando Alonso ALO	28
11	Pierre Gasly GAS	16
12	Kevin Magnussen MAG	16
13	Sebastian VettelVET	15
14	Daniel Ricciardo RIC	15
15	Yuki Tsunoda TSU	11
16	Zhou Guanyu ZHO	5
17	Mick Schumacher MSC	4
18	Alexander Albon ALB	3
19	Lance Stroll STR	3
20	Nicholas Latifi LAT	0
21	Nico Hulkenberg HUL	0

Provisional ranking stables 2022

Red Bull is well ahead of Ferrari. Mercedes is largely in 3rd position, but will now seek to get back on the leading duo.

Alpine came back a bit on McLaren with Alonso finishing ahead of Norris. Haas overtakes Aston Martin with Schumacher’s 4 points and Magnussen’s point today.

Pos	Stable	PTS
1	Red Bull Racing RBPT	328
2	Ferrari	265
3	mercedes	204
4	McLaren Mercedes	73
5	Alpine Renault	67
6	Alfa Romeo Ferrari	51
7	AlphaTauri RBPT	27
8	Haas Ferrari	20
9	Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes	18
10	Williams Mercedes	3