"A day that I will never forget" - Carlos Sainz revels in his career-first win at the 2022 F1 British GP

Carlos Sainz won the 2022 British GP, marking his first victory in F1. The Spaniard held off his teammate Charles Leclerc and Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton to take the win of the race in his 150th F1 start.

The 2022 British GP was full of twists and turns, with a mega crash involving George Russell and Guanyu Zhou on lap one bringing out a red flag. Max Verstappen took the lead in the race at the initial start, but the subsequent red flag saw the grid order switch back to the post-qualifying order. The Dutchman picked up some floor damage after the race resumed and finished the race in P7.

Carlos Sainz drove brilliantly for the rest of the race, holding off Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, both of whom were in terrific form all weekend. Meanwhile, Sergio Perez finished the race in P2 after picking up damage on the race restart in the opening stages. The Mexican driver was voted Driver of the Day for his brilliant race pace and craft.

Carlos Sainz spoke to Jenson Button in Parc Ferme, saying:

“I don’t know what to say, it’s amazing. First race win, 150 races later, with Ferrari in Silverstone...I cannot ask for more. It’s a very special day and a day that I will never forget. Thank you everyone for the cheers.”

He continued:

“Lewis [Hamilton] was on it today, one of his days, but we managed to hold on and I am very very happy. I struggled quite a bit on the balance, especially on the first stint with the Medium tires. Max [Verstappen] pushed us a lot on the high speeds. The safety car gave me an opportunity to get back on it and yeah, we did it.”

---

Carlos Sainz was surprised at taking pole position at the 2022 British GP

The Spaniard took both, his first pole position and race win at the 2022 British GP, but was especially surprised by the former. The Ferrari driver beat Max Verstappen in rainy conditions to take his first pole position despite the Dutchman's stellar wet-weather driving prowess. Carlos Sainz put himself in the best possible situation to win his first-ever race and followed it up perfectly on Sunday, winning in spectacular fashion at Silverstone.

Carlos Sainz told the media post-qualifying:

“It was a good lap. I was struggling a lot with the standing water on the intermediates, there was a lot more standing water on the racing line and it was very easy to catch snaps and lose the lap. In the end I put together a lap that I didn’t think was anything special, but I just put it on the board and see how it is, and it was pole position, which came as a bit of a surprise.”

However, Max Verstappen still leads the Driver Standings with his teammate Sergio Perez now 34-points behind. Carlos Sainz is now just 11-points behind his teammate Charles Leclerc, who has unfortunately failed to score decent points in the past few races. However, with more than half the season yet to go, it is still too early to say which team and driver will come out on top at the end of 2022.