Today was the British Grand Prix from Silverstone. It's one of a number of British sporting events that get shown live on free-to-air TV (others include the football World Cup, the Grand National horse race and the Olympics). This week there are several sports focused in this part of the world, as the Grand Prix coincides with tennis at Wimbledon, golf at the Irish Open (not far from me), and cycling in the Tour de France just across The Channel.
Yesterday's qualifying was wet, so there were a few people out of position on the grid, but the threat of rain never came to anything today. Ferrari's Carlos Sainz started on pole for the first time (this was his 150th F1 race), but got passed by Max Verstappen off the line. Lewis Hamilton also made up two places off the start, but then there was a bad crash behind them at the first corner which red flagged the race. Alfa Romeo's Zhou Guanyu got turned upside down and his car flipped over the tire barrier. Luckily, he was fine, but the race was delayed by about 45 minutes. Because the crash happened so close to the start, the grid reformed in its original order (minus the three cars that were involved in the crash).
The second time around, Sainz held the lead, Hamilton lost a place and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc damaged his front wing. Verstappen then picked up some underside damage from debris and pitted because he thought he had a puncture. Leclerc quickly caught his team mate, despite his damage, but Ferrari wouldn't order the drivers to swap position. Hamilton made his pit stop much later than the Ferraris, and looked to be in with a good chance of a win until Estaban Ocon's car broke down bringing out a safety car. With Leclerc in the lead, Sainz and Hamilton took the opportunity to fit the faster soft tires. Also back in the mix was Red Bull's Sergio Perez, who passed Hamilton at the restart. Sainz passed his team mate, while Leclerc, Hamilton and Perez fought over the other two podium positions. There was a lot of passing and repassing in the final laps, but in the end Sainz got his first Grand Prix win, with Perez second and Hamilton third in a much more competitive Mercedes. Verstappen had a great battle with Mick Schumacher in the final laps to claim seventh place. Schumacher picked up his first F1 points in eighth.
You can see the highlights here.
We're off to Austria next week for what counts as Red Bull's home race.