On the back of every single one of the over 400,000 tickets issued to fans across fourth days of activity for the 2022 British Grand Prix, the three most important yet most regularly overlooked words are ‘motorsport is dangerous’.
While the over 140,000 fans in attendance around the Silverstone circuit went home thoroughly thrilled by one of the most dramatic and eventful races of the season, they were also relieved none of the day’s three major incidents resulted in serious injury.
Hours before the grand prix began a horrific crash occured in the Formula 2 feature race involving Roy Nissany and Dennis Hauger. Then moments into the main event Zhou Guanyu was flipped over a barrier while at the same time a group of environmental protesters put thmselves and others in serious danger by venturing onto a live race track.
Thankfully, the overriding emotions of the day for most in the stands will be joyful – a remarkable race with a first-time winner will always live long in the memory. But the thousands in attendance and millions watching around the world should be under no illusions how close Formula 1 came to disaster on a summer Sunday in Silverstone.
Over two hours before Carlos Sainz Jnr raised the famous gold Royal Automobile Club trophy after soaking in the Spanish national anthem booming out of the podium speakers, the Ferrari driver had sat nervously on the grid, facing the prospect of starting from pole position on a Formula 1 grid for the very first time. If the pressure of knowing this was his best ever opportunity to finally win his first grand prix at the 150th time of asking was not enough as it was, seeing the Red Bull mechanics in his mirrors peel off the tyre blankets on Max Verstappen’s car alongside him to reveal red marked soft tyres would have only made him even more nervous.
Thankfully, the rain had stayed away on Sunday. Rays of sunshine appeared through cloudy skies as the field formed up on the grid, Sainz eager to beat his former Toro Rosso team mate in the short sprint to Abbey. However, when the lights went out, Verstappen’s soft tyres proved an inspired choice as the Red Bull shot out of the blocks so fast that Sainz could only stare at his rear wing as they rounded the right hander.
Back in the pack, George Russell had started the race on hard tyres, but pulled away so slowly off the line he may as well have been towing a caravan from the rear axle of his Mercedes….
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