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.
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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…
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