“It was probably mentally one of the toughest races … there was a lot of fighting going on. I wasn’t completely comfortable with the car … but I kept it cool, kept believing, kept within reach all of the time and when the opportunity came I grabbed it.”
Perez was understandably delighted with second given how his race had started, especially as he eventually came out on top of numerous tough battles.
“I was unfortunate with Charles on the first lap,” Perez said. “There was not much room for three cars and unfortunately I took the worst part of it. I got front wing damage, which on these cars … for me, I had no front end. So I was forced to pit and basically I went all the way to last, and just recovered from there, lap after lap.
“Those medium tyres were holding on pretty nicely and we got lucky with the safety car there at the end, which gave us a good opportunity to fight for the podium.”
The same couldn’t be said for Leclerc, who was “incredibly disappointed” to not convert impressive pace into victory, but he still held off Fernando Alonso to the flag. The double world champion had run a relatively quiet race behind Norris – similarly under the radar after his Hamilton fight – before the late safety car. Alpine got it right by pitting immediately while McLaren left Norris out for an extra lap, losing fifth place to its former driver.
Verstappen held on for seventh with a gutsy drive, repelling Mick Schumacher’s attacks in a thrilling late scrap that went all the way to the final corner. For Schumacher, the decision to back out when contact was likely was a sensible one, as he still picked up his first ever points in F1 with eighth ahead of Vettel and Magnussen.
“It’s great to be able to score points in a double points finish, which is something great and something we’ve been aiming for for a while now,” Schumacher said. “Now we’re just trying to, bit by bit, get some more points out of the others and try to overtake them too.
“It feels great, I would say I’m just looking forward to getting back to the team now and having fun.”
Fortunately, every driver could say similar after a dramatic day.
2022 British Grand Prix results
Position | Driver | Team | Time | Points |
1 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | 2hr 17min 50.311sec | 25 |
2 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | +3.779sec | 18 |
3 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | +6.225sec | 16* |
4 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | +8.546sec | 12 |
5 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine | +9.571sec | 10 |
6 | Lando Norris | McLaren | +11.943sec | 8 |
7 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | +18.777sec | 6 |
8 | Mick Schumacher | Haas | +18.995sec | 4 |
9 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin | +22.356sec | 2 |
10 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | +24.590sec | 1 |
11 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | +26.147sec | |
12 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | +32.511sec | |
13 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren | +32.817sec | |
14 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | +40.910sec | |
15 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | DNF | |
16 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | DNF | |
17 | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo | DNF | |
18 | George Russell | Mercedes | DNF | |
19 | Zhou Guanyu | Alfa Romeo | DNF | |
20 | Alexander Albon | Williams | DNF |
*Includes additional point for fastest lap