Five talking points from a brilliant British GP

Zhou’s incredible deliverance

We had that sinking feeling as the cameras refused to show the state of Zhou Guanyu’s inverted Alfa Romeo, as George Russell jumped out of his Mercedes and ran to aid his stricken competitor. Eventually we saw replays of contact between Zhou, Russell and Pierre Gasly that triggered the crash and sent Zhou on a terrifying ride upsidedown into the gravel, over the tyre barrier into the catch fencing. While the rest of field was taking avoiding action, Sebastian Vettel punted Alex Albon’s Williams into the concrete pit wall, and as he rebounded back accross the track he was collected by Esteban Ocon and Yuki Tsunoda.

The realisation that Zhou was fine, to the point where he’ll be fit to race in Austria next weekend, was met with obvious relief, especially when we were finally shown what happened to his Alfa. How it became wedged between the back of the tyre barrier and the debris fence will likely be a point of investigation, but still we were left to marvel at how a combination of car and circuit safety delivered the Chinese driver from a gruesome fate. This is how far we’ve come, and it was wonderful to see – while also providing a stark reminder that complacency must be a foreign word when it comes to safety in F1.

The crash did at least steal the thunder of climate change protesters, who were arrested after an attempted track invasion as the cars trailed back under red flag conditions. Hamilton was among those to acknowledge the good intentions, but endangering themselves and the lives of drivers and officials is simply the wrong way to lodge a protest.

The new King Carlos is crowned

It was great to see Carlos Sainz Jr celebrate his first F1 victory on his 150^th grand prix start, and having earned a hard-fought pole position in the Saturday rain it would have taken a flinty heart to begrudge the likeable Spaniard his moment in the Silverstone sun.

But there was luck involved as the race appeared to slip away from him, only to land back at his feet. He’d been beaten into Abbey at the start, only for the Zhou accident to give him a second shot at leading – which he took by putting up the stout defence he should have used the first time. Still, a slip at Becketts soon let a charging Max Verstappen through.

The Red Bull would likely have stroked to an easy win, were it not for the floor damage caused by running over debris that badly hobbled his performance. He pitted thinking he had a puncture, but realised there were greater problems at play, then laboured for the rest of the afternoon to seventh. Without his trouble, Sainz’s wait for his F1 winner crown would have stretched on.

Ferrari let Verstappen off the hook

A red car might have won the British Grand Prix, but the fact remains Ferrari hung its best hope of winning the world championship out to dry at Silverstone. Charles Leclerc picked up front wing damage early in the race, and yet still had better pace than Sainz. Despite his pace advantage, however, the team refused to order Sainz to let him through. Yes, it was refreshing to see Ferrari, of all teams given its history, not bending to dreaded team orders, but in terms of the bigger picture, it didn’t make a great deal of sense.

Still, eventually the race evolved to leave Leclerc in the lead and pulling away from Sainz. Job done, it seemed, until Ocon’s Alpine died on him, forcing him to bail and trigger a safety car interlude. Ferrari again made the wrong call, leaving Leclerc out on used hard Pirellis while Sainz stopped for red-walled softs, as did others including Mercedes for Hamilton and Red Bull for Perez, for whom this represented a ‘free’ stop that pushed him back into contention following his early nose change for contact with Leclerc. “That will be hard,” said Charles when he realised the scenario he was facing – and it was. That call, made because Ferrari judged its two cars to be running too close to stop both, lost him the British Grand Prix. The team chose Sainz because the tyres he was running on were older. But when there’s a world title to win, Leclerc’s needs should have over-ridden those of Sainz.

More like Formula Ford

The final nine laps once the safety car made its exit were more like Silverstone’s Walter Hayes Formula Ford carnival than an F1 grand prix as the leading drivers put on a thrilling show of wheel-to-wheel dicing. Hamilton had been in contention for the win before the safety car and had a tyre advantage over the Ferraris – although even he would have been hard-pressed to steal the victory. Now on softs he was still in the thick of it, although as it turned out powerless to stop Perez getting the better of him.

As racing resumed, Perez got better drive down the Wellington straight to nose ahead of the Mercedes, while Sainz used his tyre advantage to pass Leclerc for the lead and open up a gap that would win him the race. The battle that then played out between Leclerc, Perez and Hamilton drew gasps and cheers from the enthralled Silverstone crowd. How Lewis got the better of both his rivals at Club as they ran wide was vintage stuff from the seven-time world champion. He eventually had to cede to Perez, but fought off a spirited Leclerc who passed the silver car back with an audacious move around the outside of fearsome Copse, before Hamilton pulled a DRS pass into Stowe to settle it. Breathless stuff.

But Leclerc deserved and needed better than fourth. Ferrari essentially let Verstappen and Red Bull off the hook on a day the world title battle could have been revived. Instead, the reigning champion holds a 34-point lead over Perez, with Leclerc a further nine back.

Alonso is best of the rest

The final post-safety car scrap also brought Fernando Alonso’s Alpine into the equation, the veteran Spaniard looked a brief threat to Hamilton. As it was, the two-time champion threatened Leclerc, but settled for fifth ahead of Lando Norris in the McLaren.

Verstappen put up a typically robust defence against the Haas of Mick Schumacher in the closing stages, the pair racing for the finish line to decide seventh and eighth. Although Max prevailed, the result did at least mean Schumacher has now finally won his first F1 points. And there was more joy for Haas as Kevin Magnussen made it a double score by finishing 10^th, behind the recovering Aston Martin of Vettel. This was a British GP no one will ever forget.

Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.