2022 British Grand Prix

Championship standings before the race

Following the Canadian Grand Prix, Max Verstappen led the Drivers' Championship by 46 points from teammate Sergio Pérez, with Charles Leclerc third, a further three points behind. Red Bull Racing led the Constructors' Championship, leading Ferrari by 74 points. Mercedes were in third place, trailing Ferrari by 40 points.^[3]

Entrants

The drivers and teams were the same as the season entry list with no additional stand-in drivers for the race.^[4] It was the 150th race start for Carlos Sainz Jr.^[5]

Tyre choices

Tyre supplier Pirelli brought the C1, C2, and C3 tyre compounds (designated hard, medium, and soft, respectively) for teams to use at the event.^[6]

Qualifying classification

More information Pos., No. ...

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Qualifying times			Final grid
				Q1	Q2	Q3
1	55	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Ferrari	1:40.190	1:41.602	1:40.983	1
2	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing-RBPT	1:39.129	1:40.655	1:41.055	2
3	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:39.846	1:41.247	1:41.298	3
4	11	Sergio Pérez	Red Bull Racing-RBPT	1:40.521	1:42.513	1:41.616	4
5	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:40.428	1:41.062	1:41.995	5
6	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes	1:41.515	1:41.821	1:42.084	6
7	14	Fernando Alonso	Alpine-Renault	1:41.598	1:42.209	1:42.116	7
8	63	George Russell	Mercedes	1:40.028	1:41.725	1:42.161	8
9	24	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	1:40.791	1:42.640	1:42.719	9
10	6	Nicholas Latifi	Williams-Mercedes	1:41.998	1:43.273	2:03.095	10
11	10	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri-RBPT	1:41.680	1:43.702	N/A	11
12	77	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	1:41.396	1:44.232	N/A	12
13	22	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri-RBPT	1:41.893	1:44.311	N/A	13
14	3	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren-Mercedes	1:41.933	1:44.355	N/A	14
15	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault	1:41.730	1:45.190	N/A	15
16	23	Alexander Albon	Williams-Mercedes	1:42.078	N/A	N/A	16
17	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas-Ferrari	1:42.159	N/A	N/A	17
18	5	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin Aramco-Mercedes	1:42.666	N/A	N/A	18
19	47	Mick Schumacher	Haas-Ferrari	1:42.708	N/A	N/A	19
20	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin Aramco-Mercedes	1:43.430	N/A	N/A	20
107% time: 1:46.068
Source:[16][17]

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Race report

The race started at 15:00 local time on 3 July.^[18] Max Verstappen took the lead at the start from Carlos Sainz Jr., while Lewis Hamilton moved up to third. George Russell had a bad start and was passed by Nicholas Latifi, and Zhou Guanyu pulled alongside him leaving a large gap between them. Pierre Gasly attempted to pass between Zhou and Russell, but Russell moved to the left too late to close the gap causing his left rear tyre to make contact with Gasly's right front. Gasly backed out but the impact pointed Russell's car to the left shooting him across the track and directly into the side of Zhou's car. The impact launched Zhou's car into the air. He landed upside down, skidding down the track, then skipping and bouncing across the gravel trap at the end of the straight, all while barely slowing and turning sideways. The inverted car suddenly dug into the gravel carrying sufficient speed and momentum to launch it over the tire barrier, rotating 540 degrees on its axis before hitting the catch fencing sideways facing up just a few feet from the front row of the grandstand. It then dropped 8 feet and landed wedged into the small gap between the fence and tire barrier, stopping on its side with the cockpit up against the backside of the tire barrier.^[19] As a result of the incident, Valtteri Bottas slowed slightly, which caused Alexander Albon to also slow. Sebastian Vettel attempted to brake, but was too close to Albon and hit him. Albon spun into the concrete pit wall, rebounded back on the track and was hit by Yuki Tsunoda and Esteban Ocon, damaging both of their cars. Tsunoda and Ocon both returned to the pit lane for repairs, but Albon was unable to continue.^[20] Russell, who had spun and lost a rear tyre, stopped to help the marshals with Zhou's flipped car. When he returned to his car, the engine was not running, leaving him unable to continue.^[21]

Race control red-flagged the race due to both crashes. Zhou was extracted from his Alfa Romeo and stretchered to an ambulance where he was taken to the race medical centre. Albon was also taken to the race medical centre but was later transferred by helicopter to Coventry Hospital for observations. Both were later released.^[22]

The order for the race restart was set to the grid order, as not all the cars had passed the second safety car line before the race was red-flagged, meaning it was not possible to accurately determine the running order at the time of the red flag.^[23] The race restarted at 15:56 local time and Sainz retained the lead at the restart, before being passed by Verstappen once DRS was enabled. Verstappen later ran over debris, that resulted in a loss of pace. Verstappen misjudged that the loss of pace was a puncture and came into the pit for new tyres. Red Bull later realised it was floor damage that caused the pace loss.^[24]

The two AlphaTauri cars collided on lap 14, both continued initially but Gasly later retired due to the collision damage.^[25]

Bottas pitted and retired on lap 21 due to a gearbox issue and on lap 39, Ocon suffered a fuel pump problem and stopped on track,^[26][27] causing a safety car. The safety car allowed everyone to pit. Charles Leclerc was one of a few drivers not to pit, being told to stay out by his Ferrari team.^[28] Leclerc led the restart but was quickly passed by teammate Sainz. Leclerc subsequently defended from Sergio Pérez, which allowed Hamilton to pass them both on the exit of the last corner.^[29] Once Pérez passed Leclerc, he re-overtook Hamilton for second.^[23]

Sainz won his first Formula One race, becoming the 112th winner in the history of the championship, the second Spaniard to win a Formula One race after Fernando Alonso, and being the first Spaniard to win a race since the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix,^[30] and the first driver who had his maiden win at the British Grand Prix since Johnny Herbert in 1995. Pérez was in second and Hamilton third, also setting the fastest lap.^[31] Leclerc managed to stay ahead of Alonso for fourth, as the latter finished fifth, ahead of Lando Norris. Despite a last lap battle, Verstappen held off Mick Schumacher for seventh. Schumacher finished inside the points for the first time in his Formula One career.^[32] Sebastian Vettel was ninth and Kevin Magnussen was tenth.^[33]

Attempted race disruption

Shortly after the race suspension on lap 1, a group of Just Stop Oil supporters walked onto the track at the Wellington Straight and sat down on the tarmac.^[34] They were later arrested by police. The protestors' cause was supported by drivers Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton, and Carlos Sainz, though all three drivers said that these people should not have put themselves at risk of physical harm. F1 president Stefano Domenicali also criticized the protesting method.^[35] Before the race, Northamptonshire Police warned they had "creditable intelligence" that a group of protesters were planning to disrupt the race and potentially attempt a track invasion, and that the protest would be related to environmental issues, but the warning did not mention Just Stop Oil by name.^[36]

Post race

After the race, Russell stated that lessons needed to be learned from Zhou's crash, after rescue teams struggled to extract him from his car, which was in a narrow gap between the tyre barrier and the catch fencing, stating "[there was] nothing [Zhou] could have done". Russell went on to say that "We need think to avoid a car being stuck in such a fine gap."^[37] Concern was also raised surrounding the failure of the roll-hoop, designed to stop the driver's head hitting the ground in the event of a car being upside-down. Although Zhou's head was still protected by the halo (which he credited with saving his life), the roll-hoop failure would have trapped Zhou in his car had the car stopped upside-down.^[38] The FIA launched an investigation into the crash.^[38]

Race classification

More information Pos., No. ...

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	55	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Ferrari	52	2:17:50.311	1	25
2	11	Sergio Pérez	Red Bull Racing-RBPT	52	+3.779	4	18
3	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	52	+6.225	5	161
4	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	52	+8.546	3	12
5	14	Fernando Alonso	Alpine-Renault	52	+9.571	7	10
6	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes	52	+11.943	6	8
7	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing-RBPT	52	+18.777	2	6
8	47	Mick Schumacher	Haas-Ferrari	52	+18.995	19	4
9	5	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin Aramco-Mercedes	52	+22.356	18	2
10	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas-Ferrari	52	+24.590	17	1
11	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin Aramco-Mercedes	52	+26.147	20
12	6	Nicholas Latifi	Williams-Mercedes	52	+32.511	10
13	3	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren-Mercedes	52	+32.817	14
14	22	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri-RBPT	52	+40.910	13
Ret	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault	37	Fuel pump	15
Ret	10	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri-RBPT	26	Collision damage	11
Ret	77	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	21	Gearbox	12
Ret	63	George Russell	Mercedes	0	Collision	8
Ret	24	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	0	Collision	9
Ret	23	Alexander Albon	Williams-Mercedes	0	Collision	16
Fastest lap: Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) – 1:30.510 (lap 52)
Source:[17][33][31][failed verification]

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Notes

• ^1 – Includes one point for fastest lap.^[31]