Finally, after 150 Grand Prix starts, Carlos Sainz Jr. can call himself a Formula One race winner.
The son of “El Matador”, two time WRC champion Carlos Sainz Sr., the “Smooth Operator” has always had a lot of pressure put on him, even before taking up the fire engine red of Scuderia Ferrari. So of course, that first F1 win wasn’t a walk in the park.
The final safety car came on lap 39, when Esteban Ocon stalled out and stopped on the old pit straight on what’s now the backstretch. This brought out a safety car that allowed most of the leaders except for leader Charles Leclerc to pit for softs. Leclerc thus had to restart on on 16 lap old hard tires versus everybody else with brand new soft tires.
Sainz was told right before going green by the Ferrari strategists to block Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez from his second place position so that Leclerc could gain some distance. But Sainz outright told the team no, and scooted past Leclerc on the restart to tack the lead and never looked back over the last ten laps.
Leclerc then had an epic multi-car battle royale between himself, Perez, and Hamilton, with Perez at one point arguably running Hamilton off the road. Perez would end up finishing second, Hamilton in third, and Leclerc in fourth.
“I cannot ask for more, it was a very special day,” Sainz said in his podium interview with Jenson Button. “It was not easy, I struggled quite a bit with the balance. Especially on the first stint with the medium tire. Max [Verstappen] was forcing us to push through the high speed and I opened the front left. Even with all of that, I stayed believing that it could still happen. I needed a safety car to stay in the race, and all the sudden the safety car gave me the opportunity to get on it.”
Fernando Alonso popped up and threatened to take a few spots late in the race, but could only manage to hang on for fifth. Lando Norris ended his home GP in sixth.
Verstappen got by Sainz on lap one, but after a lap one red flag, the grid was reset to their starting positions with the DNF’d cars not there. Sainz held off Verstappen to lead lap three on the restart, and Leclerc tried to get by Verstappen but went off track from an aggressive defense from the Dutchman.
On lap 10, Sainz ran into the grass out of Becketts corner and was passed by Verstappen. But then, two laps later, Verstappen ran over a piece of debris and pit for a puncture after being passed by both Sainz and Leclerc. The debris effected…
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