It had already been like this in the first stage of the Tour de France by bike on Friday, it was like that again in qualifying for the Formula 1 British Grand Prix. In high-level sport every detail counts and even the least known people or media take on special importance at certain stages. In the aforementioned cases, those figures were the meteorologists. And the aforementioned situations ended up having an outcome influenced by the rain and by the moments of greater or lesser fall of water with the consequent reflection on the ground conditions for bicycles or 800-kilo cars.
“No, it can’t be…”: Carlos Sainz gets (between raindrops) the first pole of his career in 150 races
If in Copenhagen luck smiled on Yves Lampaert, who hit the road later but when conditions were better contrary to expectations, at Silverstone every minute of qualifying was analyzed in detail, with the cars taking advantage of periods without drizzle to bet. everything and manage to improve their times. The surprises started right away in Q1 and Q2, with Latifi taking a Williams to Q3 for the first time (and his teammate Alexander Albon asking on the radio why he wasn’t allowed to do consecutive fastest laps…), and they reached the most high at the last minute, when Carlos Sainz made an almost perfect lap taking advantage of the trajectories that were traced in a period without rain to mark the best record and his first pole position in F1.
Starting at POLE for his 150th career in #F1
Let’s make this a weekend to remember, @CarlosSainz55 ????
#essereFerrari ???? #GPBritish pic.twitter.com/JCFwVdfC26— Scuderia Ferrari (@ScuderiaFerrari) July 3, 2022
“I didn’t know it was enough to finish first because It didn’t seem like anything special… It was good but I had to fight with the amount of water that was in the middle sector even in the track line because it was very easy to slip and lose the lap. It was a surprise to have been here. pole position“, admitted the Spaniard after his first timed win in the 150th race of his Formula 1 career. “I can now fight for victory. The pace has been there throughout the weekend, only in FP3 we had some problems that have been fixed. i know max [Verstappen] and Carlos [Leclerc] They will put pressure on me but I will try to do the best race possible”, added the Ferrari driver.
????????? Extremely happy! First pole, at Silverstone, in the wet! It was extremely difficult, but a good final lap gave us pole position. The weekend is not over, but I am ready for tomorrow and we will fight for victory. Let’s run!
????https://t.co/L6tIG60cAr
–#carlossainz pic.twitter.com/ucOqPskQFL
– Carlos Sainz (@Carlossainz55) July 2, 2022
Sainz was talking about the world champion and the third place in 2022 (Sergio Pérez is still in the middle) but in the top positions after Ferrari and Red Bull was Lewis Hamilton, the driver who had won the most times at Silverstone and who showed a promising improvement over at the beginning of the year, Lando Norris, who always put his McLaren in the first places of the race “at home”, or Fernando Alonso, who once again stood out with an Alpine that continues to seek its affirmation. All depending, of course, on the conditions that the weather can bring. And this Sunday doubts persisted with some areas of the track with more open sun and others with clouds that seemed to bring rain. One thing was certain: in theory, Red Bull seemed to have an advantage over other cars. But only theory.
This is how they line up at Silverstone ????#GPBritish #F1 pic.twitter.com/dKWLnrME3w
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 2, 2022
The start would be of special importance in this Grand Prix and there was a lot of history in the first two corners a red flag happened: Carlos Sainz had a good start, Max Verstappen prevailed on the soft tires to get another traction that allowed him to get ahead in the first corner, Hamilton took advantage of a “hiccup” by Pérez at the start to overtake the Mexican and then Leclerc despite the attempt of reaction of the Monegasque, Alonso was also fifth ahead of Pérez and Lando Norris, more surprising was Latifi in moving to an unlikely eighth place (Kevin Magnussen and Lando Stroll also climbed several places in the top 5 of 2022; Zhou, who finished taking a touch from the Brit with Tsunoda and backed the car (no major injuries); Alexander Albon also had the car stopped after several touches in the confusion; Tsunoda and Ocon returned at great cost with their heavy damaged cars.
The start of an ostentatious career, due to an accident between Russell and Zhou.
The good news that Zhou is doing well has already been given by F1.
#sporttvportugal #F1naSPORTTV #F1 #Formula 1 #GPBritish pic.twitter.com/NIuKlSm093— SPORT TV (@SPORTTVPortugal) July 3, 2022
shock #f1 #russell fool #Zhou kop op #GPBritish pic.twitter.com/xC8qwzi0T1
– pim (@pimr) July 3, 2022
The pilots returned to pit lane Still waiting for information about Zhou (for 15 minutes there was no repetition for the Chinese to be removed from any camera), however there was an entry of some protesters on the track who were immediately removed and presented to the authorities, everyone was waiting. for the decision of the stewards in relation to the resumption of the race. And the confirmation was immediate, with a start an hour later with everything that had happened at 3:00 pm cancelled. So the story was different: Carlos Sainz used another trajectory to defend himself against Verstappen, the Dutchman tried again in turns 2 and 3, Leclerc and Pérez ended up having a touch with damage to the front wings when they saw a small gap derived from the fight for first place but it was all to stay up to date. A little further back, Norris also learned his lesson and managed to take a place over his compatriot Hamilton.
Protesters stormed the track, wooow ???? #f1 #f1 #GPBritish #British Grand Prix #SilverstoneGP #Silverstone pic.twitter.com/qeLyESRUy9
— F1YEZ ???? (@F1YEZ_oficial) July 3, 2022
????START OF THE RACE????@Carlossainz55 lead the race????
#sporttvportugal #F1naSPORTTV #F1 #Formula 1 #GPBritish pic.twitter.com/E5yLJcJ96l
— SPORT TV (@SPORTTVPortugal) July 3, 2022
Pérez was unable to overcome these same problems and had to pit earlier, allowing Hamilton to also pass Norris and try to close in on Leclerc’s third place. At the front, after Carlos Sainz warned the team on several occasions that Verstappen was better, it ended up being the Spaniard who lengthened the treadmill to overtake the Dutchman after losing the rear in a curve in the tenth lap. The world champion was ahead but, just three laps later, the scene changed again with Red Bull going through the pits to change tires and a small problem that left Verstappen sixth but complaining to the team about the way the car swerved at the rear.
MAX VS SAINZ@Max33Verstappen take the lead in the race#sporttvportugal #F1naSPORTTV #F1 #Formula 1 #GPBritish #MaxVerstappen #carlossainz pic.twitter.com/cffcG8a8du
— SPORT TV (@SPORTTVPortugal) July 3, 2022
Leclerc started sending messages asking why he was still behind Sainz “ruining” his race, Sainz was setting faster laps than Leclerc but in the middle of all this it was Hamilton who was setting faster laps, getting closer and closer to the two Ferrari. The Spaniard would go through the pits for the first time on lap 21, leaving the stage to the Monegasque to show what he could do under pressure from the Briton. Shortly after, on lap 25, as Hamilton started to enter the DRS zone, Leclerc stopped and left the Briton in front of the race while Verstappen, who had changed tires again, told the team that he appeared to be walking on ice due to a lack of stability. And even with 25 laps on average, Hamilton was pushing for a 20-second lead over Sainz.
The stage that could decide the race was approaching, with Leclerc able to successfully attack Sainz before Hamilton stopped with 18 laps to go. And if the pace of the Ferraris was better, the pit stop for the Mercedes was not the best either, with the Briton coming within three seconds of the Spaniard again in third position. The Silverstone stands celebrated any overtaking by Verstappen, as had happened with the birthday boy Vettel and then with Ocon, but they wanted above all to celebrate Hamilton and they gained new hope on lap 39, when Ocon had problems with his Alpine, he could not. reach an escape zone, there was car insurance and Sainz and Hamilton went straight to the pits to change tires contrary to what happened with the leader Leclerc.
Everything was open with ten laps to go: Sainz wanted to overtake Leclerc because he had new tyres, Ferrari asked the Spaniard to give the Spaniard a margin (and they heard him reply “Come on, stop inventing”), Pérez was able to put the Hamilton podium at risk. And that was what happened in the first few corners, with Sainz passing Leclerc and Pérez jumping into third in exchange for the Briton. However, the race was really open despite the Spaniard having moved ahead, with five cars from five different teams vying for the two open podium positions. After another great fight with Leclerc, Hamilton took third place to the delight of the crowd but the afternoon really belonged to Carlos Sainz, that after the first pole position He even won his first victory in Formula 1.
Source: Observadora
