The race lead once passed to Max Verstappen, but it is Carlos Sainz who now leads with front wing damage and pressured by Charles Leclerc and George Russell. Max Verstappen had to stop and occupies sixth place in a race that was stopped for a long time due to a violent accident.
The probability of rain during the British GP race is 20%, with a track temperature of around 27.7ºC at the time of departure.
Verstappen started the race on soft tires but Sainz, Leclerc, Perez, Hamilton, Norris and Alonso all started on medium. Russell, in eighth, started the race on hard tyres. Further back, Latifi, Magnussen, Vettel and Schumacher all chose soft tyres, while the rest of the riders started on medium.
After the start, Max Verstappen came out better taking advantage of the soft tires fitted to the Red Bull and left Carlos Sainz in second place. Who also started very well was Lewis Hamilton who easily overtook Charles Leclerc in the first meters.
The big problem was further back in the pack. A touch by Pierre Gasly on Russell’s Mercedes led to a very ugly departure from the track by Zhou Guanyu’s Alfa Romeo, which was scraping with the halo on the ground until it stopped at the exit of Turn 1. The accident also involved Alexander Albon, Yuki Tsunoda and Esteban Ocon. From the replays it was possible to see that a touch from Sebastian Vettel sent Albon against Silverstone’s protections.
With the race restarted, Sainz started again from pole position and this time held the lead in the pack, in an intense fight between the top six, with main protagonists Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc. With the Spaniard in front of the race, Verstappen was second, Leclerc – who however had managed to defend himself from the attacks of Sergio Pérez – the Mexican from Red Bull, who had his single-seater with some damage after that “battle”, and Lando Norris ahead of Lewis Hamilton, who also didn’t have as good a start as the first. Pierre Gasly was seventh, followed by Fernando Alonso, Yuki Tsunoda and Esteban Ocon closed the top 10.
Pérez had to stop to change wings and returned to the track in last position, at the same moment that Hamilton passed Norris, moving up to fourth place and Alonso did the same to Gasly.
Carlos Sainz set the fastest time as he sought to increase the distance separating him from Verstappen, but the Dutchman, who had switched from soft to medium tires during the red flag, did not allow his opponent to go too far.
A mistake by the Spanish driver on lap 10, going too wide at Becketts and losing the trajectory, allowed Verstappen to overtake, passing the Dutchman leading the pack, now with the two Ferraris in pursuit. At the same time, the two AlphaTauri played and made a top.
Carlos Sainz regained the lead in the race after Max Verstappen ran over a rider with some violence, which caused a puncture and forced the driver to stop in the pit, not before having been forced to slow down on the inside straight at Silverstone. Upon returning to the track, Verstappen asked the team to analyze the data because he felt the car was not in the best condition. His race engineer replied that it would just be body damage, which shouldn’t cause any serious problems, but it did cause a decrease in performance.
Yuki Tsunoda suffered a 5 second penalty for contacting his teammate.
Carlos Sainz was however pressured by Charles Leclerc, who was in distance from DRS to his teammate. Sainz’s pace was slower than Leclerc’s when Lewis Hamilton, who was in third place, began to cut ground for the two Ferraris.
