Sainz led with Charles Leclerc close behind and, while Ferrari initially said they were “free to fight”, the Italian team asked Sainz to let Leclerc through to avoid losing time to Lewis Hamilton. But a safety car came out and Ferrari brought Sainz into the pits for fresher, newer soft tyres. Leclerc stayed on older, hard tires and Sainz soon passed his team-mate to regain the lead and pull away for his first win in his 150th F1 start. “Today the win feels like a bit of a relief,” Sainz said. “Honestly, I never stopped believing that this dream was going to come, even though this year has been difficult for me.” He had finished second or third 11 times before winning and was a disappointing second to Verstappen in the last race in Canada. Sergio Pérez passed Hamilton and Leclerc after the restart to finish second behind Sainz. Hamilton was briefly second after passing both Perez and Leclerc in a three-wide move, but was unable to hold on and dropped back to fourth. Hamilton then overtook Leclerc in a tight race for third. He also led laps on Sunday for the first time this season. “I gave it my all,” said Hamilton, who was third in Canada two weeks ago and hoped Mercedes would make a comeback. The team has been unable to challenge Red Bull and Ferrari for wins this season, but an added upgrade at the Mercedes front this weekend was promising. “We have some improvements to make but this is a huge bonus for us to be on the podium,” Hamilton added. Leclerc was later seen chatting privately with Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto. Leclerc said he was “very, very disappointed” with the result and had discussed with Binotto why the team had left him out on old tyres. “We could have (changed the tyres) but I was asked to stay off the track. So that’s what I did,” he told French channel Canal Plus. Max Verstappen, the defending F1 champion and current points leader, fell from the lead with damage to his Red Bull after falling over debris. He fought for traction and finished seventh. Pérez said his race was a “great comeback” after falling back early in the race after damaging his front wing while battling with Leclerc and Verstappen. The race was red-flagged almost as soon as it started when a crash at the first corner left Zhou and Alex Albon needing medical treatment. Zhou’s car overturned and cleared a tire barrier before smashing into a fence. Pierre Gasly had rammed George Russell’s Mercedes into Zhou’s rear wheel, overturning the Chinese driver’s Alfa Romeo. As the drivers tried to avoid the collision, Albon was hit sideways into the pit wall. Zhou was taken to the circuit’s medical center and Alfa Romeo said he was not seriously injured, while Williams said Albon had been airlifted to hospital for “precautionary checks”. Russell, who left his car to rush to Zhou’s aid, was also unable to restart the race. The ‘halo’ device protecting Zhou’s head was scraped back to bare metal after being dragged through the gravel and a piece of the air intake behind the driver was torn off. A group of anti-oil industry protesters ran onto the track after the crash and sat down. Northamptonshire Police said seven arrests were made over the demonstration. Speaking after the race, Hamilton signaled his support for the protesters. “Grow these guys,” he said. Mercedes said Hamilton was not fully aware of the circumstances at the time and “supports their right to protest but not the method they chose, which put their safety and that of others at risk”. Verstappen had passed Sainz on the initial start but had to do it all over again when the race restarted after the multi-car crash with Zhou. Sainz stayed in front on the second start, but Verstappen took the lead on lap 10 when Sainz lost control and went off the track. Verstappen soon fell behind the two Ferraris after reporting a possible puncture from debris. Verstappen said his car was “100% broken” with little grip and compared it to “driving on ice”, but the Red Bull team said it was safe to continue. The crowd cheered Verstappen’s misfortune as he passed the Ferraris. The Dutch driver is unpopular with some British fans after a bitter title rivalry with Hamilton last year when the two crashed at Silverstone. Former champion Nelson Piquet used a racial slur and homophobic language to describe Hamilton, F1’s only black driver, in interviews last year that received wider attention this week. Verstappen is dating Piquet’s daughter Kelly and faced criticism from fans when he said Piquet was not racist despite using “very offensive” language. Verstappen maintains the championship lead, but his advantage over second-placed Pérez was cut from 46 points to 34 as Sainz ended a run of six consecutive wins at Red Bull. Leclerc is nine points behind Pérez in third. Two-time champion Fernando Alonso — with 32 race wins, the only other Spanish driver besides Sainz to win in F1 — was fifth for Alpine on Sunday in a season-best result. Alonso was ahead of Lando Norris for McLaren and then Verstappen. Mick Schumacher, son of seven-time champion Michael Schumacher, scored his first career points in eighth for Haas, with Sebastian Vettel ninth for Aston Martin. The American Haas team had their first double finish since 2019 as Kevin Magnussen took 10th place.
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